Thanks!

 

Christine and Tom A does the radiator still work for you and have you noticed the increased cooling? Just about ready to buy on for my truck and I have a bit of a cooling issue climbing up passes on the highway.

 

Mine is still working great. To be honest, I never had an overheating problem before, and I definitely don't have one now. The combination of the aluminum radiator and the Intrepid cooling fans is pretty hard to beat.

 

Because of COVID, I never did get to do a proper comparison test of the radiator with doing a trip from North Idaho to Seattle and back again while towing my boat (2,200 lbs total) over I-90. This route has me going up and over Snoqualmie Pass and up a very large grades near Vantage WA on the Columbia R. However, I did drive it with the boat to Olympia using a different route. The passes there were less extreme but I remember that the cooling appeared noticeably improved.

I even have notes of the temperatures from before I installed the radiator going up and down the grade on US-95 into Lewiston ID with my boat but again, because of COVID I didn't get the boat out that much and haven't had a chance to replicate the "experiment" for proper comparison. Next summer I just might have to hook up the boat to do that even if I don't launch it. LOL

If nothing else the upgrade has given me much peace of mind.

If I were to do it again, I think I'd seriously consider installing the electric fans as I'm still using the stock belt-driven fan and fan-clutch.

If you are worried about overheating, I'd suggest you consider installing a supplemental transmission cooler and then get an OBD-II gauge reader so you can monitor the transmission fluid temperature. I use the Ultra-Gauge one. If you get an Ultra-Gauge be sure to get the correct one that has the trans-temp capability. This is most important if you tow.

One final thing worth reminding you is that in order to use oil-cooling lines, I had to modify my radiator by having an oil-cooler welded into it. There is another all aluminum radiator that has those connections but it was slightly smaller and had a bit less total surface area for the cooling surfaces so I did not go for it. Someone posted how they used that one. I might have also posted my summary at the time of the all aluminum radiators I could find with all their specs. It is on that list. If you can't find it, reply back and I'll see if I can find my spreadsheet to post.

 

mate if you empty the sump on the gear box theres a couple of solenoids that you can just see the copper wires on ones the 1-2 the other is the 3-4 google the bo and it will show you which is witch and just replace the 1 -2 one don't lose the fluid and just reuse it if you are worried run it through a fuel filter. clean out your sump cover put back on, takes around half an hour to do from the moment you put it up on ramps. the export ones have a cross member that holds up the gear box
we have to loosen the right hand side to get at the bolts along the back to drop the cover

 

I got the radiator and the oil cooler I selected. I chose the 6 plate unit for 2 reasons first it's a little bit bigger so better cooling as I am not ready to put an external oil cooler in series with the oil cooler. This a cooler for an 8.1 Suburban/Pickup of the 2001-2004 variety.

The second reason is I am going to have to reinstall the oil cooling lines so I am 93.7% sure I will use braided hose and AN fittings instead of the notorious leaker style either GM or Dorman. I will need M22x1.5 fittings

Question for you Christine if you said what the tank wall thickness was I missed it. Can you tell what your shop used?

 

Hi,

I was able to find the piece of metal they cut out to install the oil cooler for me. It's thickness is 0.080". I'm assuming they would have used the same thickness (or greater?) for the installation of the oil-cooler. I found the receipt from the shop and it only has a charge for the labor of 1.5 hours at $95/hour.

Regarding he in-tank oli cooler, that is probably a good idea to go with the 6-plate one. Looking at the page for them (https://www.thermprocesses.com/index...Path=22_28_171), I'm now wondering why I did not do that too. I can only guess I was trying to stay as close to stock so that I could have confidence that the stock oil line fittings would fit.

Hope this helps,

Christine

 

Thank you for the answer. I got the work done and now to brave the cold temps to change out the the radiator supposed to have highs of single digits for the next three days.

The truck is in the garage but it's still cold!

 

Keep us posted with your progress.

Will you be using the original fan or installing electric fans?

 

I have had electric fans for since a August 2019. I found a 3.5 Intrepid R/T in the pick and pull. Was under my lucky star that day as is was half price day.

I had two fans break on trips to the mountains which I have traced back to a failed motor mount on the passenger side. Previous owner changed the driver side but not the passenger. Have new Energy Suspension mounts now on both sides.