Where and Who to buy a radiator from

Check out Detroit Radiator. I screwed up and bought one from someone else assuming I would get the 5 row staggered but ended up a straight 5 row. It doesn't cool as good.

 

Duralite?

 

I didn't know there was a staggered type. I thought just 2-3-4 row e.t.c.

 

Go look at their site you will see what I'm talking about. Believe it or not it makes a big difference too!

 

Just recently, I read somewhere that the staggered rows actually decreased flow. After looking at the drawings comparing staggered vs straight, I would tend to agree. IIRC, this was in an advertisement comparing different brand radiators; another thing that caught my eye, was that the tubes on the four tube radiators appeared larger, looking like they would do a better job of cooling, BUT, I am not an expert in hydraulics.
Matter of fact, I am not really any kind of expert.....just don't tell anyone, OK?

 

From personal experience, the staggered is by far the better radiator. I don't care what any study says.

Go look at them and you will see there isn't much difference but just enough to cool better.

 

Anyone know how hard it is to r&r your tanks off the old radiator so you can just buy the core? It looks like it's just time consuming with all the bolts. TIA

 

Its easy. Just take the ATA off and lay the old radiator on some saw horses and go at them nuts and bolts with a 1/4 inch drive gun.

 

With a diesel you don't want to add too much cooling because then it will be running cold most of the time which will kill engine life.

Bigger radiators are not better with a diesel.

If you are overheating on grades you probably need to learn how to operate the engine by keeping the rpm's up high and the fan blowing the heat away when pulling hills.