well the Black Beauty decided she was going to blow out what's left of her radiator on my way to a job interview which in itself was a bust. so it took me two and a half hours to make a 45 mile drive home. now she sits in my driveway and won't hold coolant sitting still with the engine off. no sign of oil corruption but I don't have a pressure tester. new local shop I found sounds reasonable at 400 installed for a densen (sp?) heavy duty plastic capped. is all aluminum or Allsteel that much more reliable from an upgrade standard, or maybe a better question is how much sturdier can you make a "heavy duty" plastic capped vs. OEM from Delco or GM? thanks for the insights.

 

Imo, unless you’re driving through the Sahara on a daily basis, a regular replacement radiator will work. You can find one just about everywhere for a little over a hundred bucks

 

Like Billy said, a fresh radiator with a well maintained cooling system should do you just fine unless you are doing towing over mountain passes in the desert. I do tow a boat in almost those conditions so that is why I upgraded mine. There is a link to my write-up on it in my build thread.

As for materials for radiators, aluminum has greater heat conductivity than steel or brass so it can work great. However, it is softer so that you have to be careful about mechanical damage to it. That is seldom much of a problem from the outside. What is more important is what happens on the inside, both chemically and mechanically. With any liquid in contact with different metals (iron and aluminum) you can get a galvanic reaction if the liquid is conductive. This is why changing the coolant is important. This is also why I don't think steel is used in most radiators; steel will corrode and if on thin metal like in a radiator, pin-holes could develop. Alumnum on the other hand is actually less susceptible to corrosion IF the coolant is not conductive. On the mechanical side, if there is grit in the system, it could wear some of the aluminum if it doesn't plug the radiator first.

We had a recent post here of a person losing coolant and overheating. I think it turned out that one of the hose-clamps on the water pump bypass hose was loose which kept the system from pressurizing and causing a loss of coolant. If you do have a shop replace the radiator for you, you might consider having them at least do a thorough inspection of the hoses and clamps and perhaps just have them replace the hoses since any difference in cost will be almost all in parts since the labor to replace a radiator will mandate disconnecting many of the hoses anyway.

So, be sure to get a good quality name-brand radiator and maintain the cooling system maintenance. At $100/hr labor +plus $100 for a radiator, $400 total is reasonable. I think Denso could be a good brand.

You should also ask for a full system flush if there is any hint of crud in the cooling system. Best to do that before the new radiator goes in.

 

thanks ya'all. the mechanic said he would put a Denso in his own vehicle but I'm the guy that believes they all say that so that's why I wondered. I am not high altitude and I I'm only Michigan cold, though we did see negative teens last winter. minimal trailer towing for me and I will probably only ever play in snow, mud doesn't melt and rocks do body damage lol. I do want one with a decent trans cooler or ability to add one on, towing Road Trips are more likely with that vehicle, at least for the sake of longer distance Craigslisting lol.

 

what am I looking at here? driver side under side corner. rubber grommet and rusted crumbled steel leaking without engine on without pressure. directly next to plastic skid plate for remote oil

Ya like my dry t-shirt creeper slider?

 

That be the drain plug.

 

The stock radiators will normally have at least a transcooler and likely also an engine oil cooler built in. If you have two metal hoses going into each side of your current radiator, then you have both a transmission and oil cooler built in.

However, if you want to tow a bit, installing an additional trans cooler radiator in line with the one already in the radiator is a very good investment. And be sure to never tow in overdrive. I ruined my transmission doing that.

 

Don, lol, niice. draining yes, plugging maybe not so much 😒. Christine, Rodger that. my shifter is on the floor I don't think I have an overdrive off button so I guess I just have to put the selector in D.

 

The thing in the red circle is a large grommet that accepts locator pins on the underside of the radiator. If the grommet has become damaged, then the plastic of the radiator could come into contact with metal and stress it enough to crack it.

The thing in yellow looks to be one of the oil cooler line connectors.

 

I usually go into 3 when towing.

my parents leaked there, tried replacing and found the casing around it was cracked and leaking.

swapped out with a new rad, and good to go...