Hey guys, all the radiator shops in town want between 85.00 - 95.00 to rod my old radiator out. I was wondering if you guys know of where to get a new, good quality radiator replacement that will bolt right up to replace my old one. I am putting a new clearwater head on this weekend and want to do this right. Any advice?

From what I understand, most aftermarket radiators are built using alot of plastic parts in comparison to the OE radiator.

The suggestion that sticks to mind for an optimum radiator is to have your current radiator rodded & rebuilt and have them add an extra row to increase it from a 2 row to a 3 row radiator.

www.rockauto.com has a proliance and a spectra premium, all metal radiators with three rows for 175.00-177.00 bucks. don't know what shipping would run.

That's right where I paid to re-rod(I think term actually means hot soak/flush) and pressure test for my all metal OEM original. I don't trust new plastic rads.

I haven't hear re-rod term before unless you mean to rod it again. Rodding the radiator entails removing the upper and lower tanks, running a properly sized metal rod through the radiator core to remove any calcified minerals and then re-attaching the top and bottom tanks.

Also fwiw, the recommendation on here has always been to avoid clean radiator shops. They should be extremely dirty and dingy. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

I have been working with a one man shop for twenty years. Filthy shop, but I can walk in there with a smashed Formula Atlantic radiator and in a week or so he has a beautiful replacement, formed brass tanks and proper core. He loves restoration work since he can fill time and the customer appreciates the ability and quality. He also understands when a radiator is not to be painted. Nice stuff, just that he is four hours away now since I moved. So now I build my own aluminum radiators, they are a bit of work but do there job.

I've used one of the cheapy radiators, an auto zone clone. It worked fine until I smacked a tree with the rear of the truck, warped the upper tank and eventually split a seam. I'll have it fixed, of course, to have a spare. But, I'm going to have the shop work on my Mitsu radiator...thicker tank, visually stronger cores, larger fill cap.

The term has been used on this forum a lot. I thought it might have meant one thing years ago but now just means to hot soak and flush at a rad shop. I didn't think it actually might have meant to clean out the rad by running a "rod" down the core. If the rad was that bad I think replacing would be a better choice. I've never seen a clean rad shop. The one I go to is run by the son of the founder and I suspect is a future EPA super fund site. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

I have always thought the general consensus is that the stock radiator, once rodded, is superior to the aftermarket ones available. I'm having the rad on my '92 rodded in the next week or so because of that...is my thinking incorrect?

To "rod" a radiator is a descriptive name. They unsolder the tanks from the core and run a rod thru the core flues to clean out the crud, then solder the whole thing back together. Most of the good ones put it in the crud eater tank first to soften up the crud, but hot crud eater won't get the fully blocked flues even when flushed under pressure.

My experience with aftermarket rads is bad. Flimsy when compared to the stock units.

If I had a two row core, or an unfixable three row core, the best choice is to buy a new core only, and have that installed in the quality oem original tanks. I have that on Joni now, and the aftermarket core quality was as good as the oem (I specified the best core they could get). The header plates were actually thicker than the stock, but the stock headers might have been eaten some.

The stock 87 2.6 carb radiator with a rodded core took all the turbo 2.6 could throw at it, and the needle never budged on the temp gauge from dead middle warmed up, even when towing a 3600lb boat thru the n ga mtns in o.d. in the a/t (and, yes, the turbo 4 will tow uphill in 4th gear, and you can still pass people...).

I think it's more cost efficient to even buy a junkyard rad and rod or recore than to buy a junk aftermarket rad. My best radiator shop wouldn't even fix on an aftermarket because they were too flimsy.