2,3 or 4 core radiator for BBC?

[sirweesarunch]

Found this one fir 20 bucks. Measurement looks right.

https://www.classicindustries.com/product/1982/chevrolet/truck/parts/t70432.html

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T70432 is the fan shroud for the big block chevy I used although my engine is the 6.2 diesel. I believe the 71145 auto zone is the lower hose i used , it doesnt have the big swoop in it like yours.


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[sirweesarunch]

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This is the company I got the shroud from and it was surprisingly a nice sturdy piece , I’m totally pleased with it unlike other items i’ve bought here and elsewhere that are sub par in my opinion.. but when thats all there is you have to accept it.


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[sirweesarunch]

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Ok ,got the fuel leaks fixed ,started her and cant get her in gear. So I adjusted the clutch out and got it in gear , backed it out and gingerly banged through the gears 2-3-4-R. Around the neighborhood. Flawless.Its not blowing out of 3rd gear anymore either. No more leaks , shifts well 1st L is way low , I think it goes 10 feet an hour at 2500 rpm !!!! I swapped out the 454 and used the 6.2 and I’m liking the feel of this diesel. It has plenty of torque for how I plan to use it .. In reality it doesnt feel any weaker to me than the 454 it had.


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[sirweesarunch]

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Ok ,got the fuel leaks fixed ,started her and cant get her in gear. So I adjusted the clutch out and got it in gear , backed it out and gingerly banged through the gears 2-3-4-R. Around the neighborhood. Flawless.Its not blowing out of 3rd gear anymore either. No more leaks , shifts well 1st L is way low , I think it goes 10 feet an hour at 2500 rpm !!!! I swapped out the 454 and used the 6.2 and I’m liking the feel of this diesel. It has plenty of torque for how I plan to use it .. In reality it doesnt feel any weaker to me than the 454 it had.


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Sorry guys , I put this here by mistake. My bad.


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[TPISly-C10]

my old OEM diesel Rad run great whit oem shroud and 6L LS!

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[Raider L]

@82sbshortbed,

How to tell how many cores it has? You look down in the opening you fill from and you can count the rows of horizontal tubes, that is if they're not to corroded. You'll see three or four. My brass/copper factory one was a three core.

But I'll tell you what I thought was weird. Back in '2019 my old radiator finally gave up the ghost and I was on the hunt for a new one. Even though I had spent groups on rebuilding my truck there were some parts of it I didn't want custom or race, I wanted to keep them stock if I could. And my old brass/copper radiator was one of them. It had a fresh rebuild/repair on it so I freshened up the paint on it and it looked fine.

So as I hunted for an original, which I did find pretty much right off, but it was about $250 bucks. I really didn't want to spend that much so I thought I'd look for a new kind with the plastic ends and Alum. core. I hunted for a month solid, day and night for one like my brass/copper one in structure, hose tubes where they are but a heater hose tube below the left top return hose. And I couldn't find one to save my life! Finally I did find one, the correct size for a '87 Cadillac Coupe De Ville 454. I didn't get it, I got one of those welded Alum. custom radiators for $152 bucks. The weird part was all the plastic res. Alum. cored rads. even for 454's were all 1" core, single core's. I called several companies and they didn't know where I could get a three core plastic res. Alum. cored radiator. Until I found one myself after a months searching. I couldn't believe all these places thought a 1" core would cool a 454!

 

[nvrenuf]

my old OEM diesel Rad run great whit oem shroud and 6L LS!

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:golfclap: Bravo sir, this may be the cleanest LS install I've ever seen.

 

[Vbb199]

4 core
Was just running my 502 ci pretty hard on a hotass day and the temps stayed at 190 or so with a flex fan.

I imagine if i went to an all aluminim setup with electric fans it'd be even better

Alot of guys like the 6.2diesel rads also.

 

[Blue Ox]

@82sbshortbed,
I couldn't believe all these places thought a 1" core would cool a 454!

I can't imagine how all those companies that manufacture radiators and sell them for that application haven't figured that out by now.

 

[82sbshortbed]

That's what I was told by American radiator. That 2 1" core radiator is just as effective as the 4 1/2" core radiator. I don't know if I can believe that. But, I can't say for sure.

I am waiting on the fan shroud to come in and see if that fixes my problem. Sure hope so. Otherwise I'll be getting the aluminum one with electric fans.

 

[Bextreme04]

That's what I was told by American radiator. That 2 1" core radiator is just as effective as the 4 1/2" core radiator. I don't know if I can believe that. But, I can't say for sure.

I am waiting on the fan shroud to come in and see if that fixes my problem. Sure hope so. Otherwise I'll be getting the aluminum one with electric fans.

Finally got around to getting my stuff put back together. Welded in the radiator mounting pads from the donor 97 Suburban and then had to add a little extension to the original top radiator mount and shave about 3/8” off the upper and lower shroud inset. Fits great and is the absolute largest radiator I think you could possibly mount in a square without removing the AC or the air intake inlet.

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much bigger than the original 4-core and also a better engine and trans cooler in the tanks.

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Here’s what the inside of a clean-ish 4 core radiator looks like

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And the new aluminum thick core. It is actually only 2-cores, but they are thinner and longer to be the same overall area. The newer aluminum cores also have fins and stuff inside the tubes to make the flow through the cores turbulent and help promote heat transfer. This makes them just as efficient as the brass radiators that naturally have a better heat transfer coefficient, but has the downside of making the radiators impossible to “rod out” to clean. That’s why they have basically become throw-away units.

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I got the radiator and fans for $50 at the local parts yard. New AC delco connector pigtails for the fans from Amazon for $10 and a 6 unit relay and fuse setup for $20 from Amazon. I’ll have it wired to a trinary switch(on-auto-off) in the cab and a temp sensor installed in the passenger head that should trigger at ~205degrees. That way I can turn them on if the sensor isn’t, off if I’m wheeling through an area that I don’t want them on, it just let the sensor trigger them if everything works right. Eventually the dual fans will be run by the 0411 ECU in the 454 swap.

 

[Bextreme04]

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Also, I have a 2011 Suburban 5.3 radiator that I swapped out of my wife’s burb for a heavy duty tow package one and it is the exact same core dimension(height and width), but is only a single core unit. It is that 1” core depth that you were talking about. The 454 one from the GMT400 trucks is the same thickness as the old brass 4 core radiators. I have had issues with our burb pulling mountain passes towing at full throttle at 45mph and overheating(stupid 3.05 gears doesn’t help), so I wanted to make sure I had the bigger, thicker big block radiator for when I do the swap.

 

[AuroraGirl]

You're very correct here... and if you drive like Ken Block (high speed drifting on gravel roads) you may find gravel has 'splashed' up inside your engine compartment, hit the fan and made holes in the aluminum rad. I actually did this... it was fun until green came out. Also, hard core 4 wheeling or even just normal bush wheeling will stick a branch into the rad and the aluminum doesn't take the hit like the orange metal will.

reminds me when I dead ass impaled a grand marquis radiator with a screw driver when i slipped and went full speed straight into the fins. Yeah. I was annoyed LOL so easy to do...