Aluminum Radiator AMERICAN MADE by ALRADCO!

Discussion in 'General Turbo Buick Tech' started by Squid4life, Mar 3, 2011.

  1. novaderrik Well-Known Member

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    looks like an Alumitech radiator. must get their parts from the same supplier.
  2. Red C5 www.alradco.com

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    That's actually good, it doesn't really cost extra to ship two of them. See, you're already saving money. :D
  3. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    Been putting lots of daily miles on this thing and I hardly ever have to use the fans. Even sitting parked in traffic for. 10-20 min this thing rarely gets above 178, FANS OFF, in gear, outside temps in the high 80's, with inlet temps n the 140-180 range.

    Got the oil cooler adapter and lines installed to use the rads internal oil cooler. Need to pick up an o ring and getback to driving! Will report back how she does while using the internal cooler too!
  4. TheGovernment Member

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    I have one coming from G-body parts!
  5. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    Smart man! You won't be dissappointed! :cool:



    Well, I finally got the oil cooler adapter o ring from the Help kit at O'Reilly's and got her back together. No leaks (at least not from there anyhow) so things are looking good!

    Took her out for some mixed driving (highway and side streets, etc) and temps stayed the exact same from before adding the cooler, if not a little lower. I drove the GN to work again today so when it warms up after work I will put some more miles on it to monitor the temps some more. I assume the oil temps are lower using the internal cooler in the radiator as my oil pressure actually went up 4-5 psi hot. Before the radiator install I usually hovered around 18-20 psi in gear at a stop light, maybe 16 if it is really hot outside and I was "playing" before that. This morning it was sitting at 23-24 psi. This is a standard front cover, not a HV too, using a mix of 10w30 and 10w40. I think it was 2 quarts of the 40, the rest was 30. I would like to say this was mixed after reading about Bison and Nick Micale mixing their weights to find a happy oil pressure, but I only did it because that is what I had on the shelf and didn't feel like buying any more oil. ;)

    I will report more when I put some more miles on it with the oil cooler in use, but again I am very pleased. This rad is working better than I had hoped! Still not using the fans for normal stop and go traffic, still maintains temps. I would imagine if I lived in Phoenix where the temps are like 300 degrees in the shade I might have got the non-powdercoated model in case the coating hurt the heat transfer even a little, but obviously it doesn't hurt at all in my application.

    :biggrin:
  6. wildcard Gbody Finatic

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    So when you said Intrepid I'm assuming you are referring to the Dodge Intrepid? What was involved with the installation of those fans...how are they wired up?
  7. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    You assume correctly, Dodge Intrepid. Killer fans! Caspers and Racetronix both (I believe) sell a plug and play harness, and Caspers sells a HIGH/LOW fan switch if you want to control the fans yourself. I have mine wired to a switch in my ashtray and control the OFF/ON, but will be installing a Caspers HIGH/LOW since I rarely even use the fans now, would like to be able to just run them in LOW.

    I forget just exactly how I wired them, something about providing a switched ground to actuate them… I will have to take another look at them or search a little better… Been so long!
  8. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    Another update to the radiator and internal oil cooler, still seeing about 4-6 PSI more oil pressure at hot idle so the oil is staying much more regulated and cooler. I thought I might have to use the fans more once I installed the lines to the oil cooler in the rad, as I assumed it would add to the heat, but there is no change to the rad temps. I was pleasantly surprised!
  9. Hot Air E85 Moderator

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    I'm glad we can actually purchase a Made in the USA radiator! Fantastic!!
    Conrad
  10. toomanymodz Active Member

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    I installed my new Alradco radiator a few months ago and I wanted to see what kind of tempurature drop it would make. Today was a hot 90 degrees, and with the old radiator I would typically see temps in the high 180's to low 200's. With the new radiator, today the temps were in the 160's to 170's. I did a few pulls on the street and the highest I saw was 186, and it went back down quickly.

    I'd say that the engine temps dropped by roughly 20 degrees on average. The radiator works (and looks) awesome. I run a front mount intercooler and the stock fan, so those of you with dual fans and/or SLIC would see even lower temperatures.
  11. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    Front mount with stock fan???!!! That is pretty impressive. I was always curious about this, as I ditched the stock fan when I went F body and Intrepid fans. Was always curious how much of a change just the radiator upgrade, or just the fan upgrade would make, then do both. That is good news that you are running a stock fan and still saw that much of a coolant temp drop!

    BTW, how did you like the welds and thick necks? I almost hated putting it in the car, I just wanted to sit it in the garage and look at it! :biggrin:
  12. toomanymodz Active Member

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    Whenever I open my hood, my eyes gravitate towards the radiator. It looks so nice!
  13. Red C5 www.alradco.com

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    Glad to hear it's working well for you. Thanks for the good words guys.

    Peter
  14. lazaris Active Member

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    Did you compare what the weight difference was between the F Body Radiator?
  15. Squid4life Well-Known Member

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    You know, being the bonehead I am I totally skipped that comparison... I still have my junky F Body on a shelf somewhere so I can get that side of it. Maybe Peter can post the other weight. Sorry, I am not taking it out to compare. ;)
  16. TRICKSIXPA Member

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    The F body rad is probably the lightest one. Its like lifting a feather compared to the Alradco Radiator. The stock one is still the heaviest but the Alradco is much thicker than the stock so It does have a little weight to it. I haven't seen a degree over 169 since I put this in at idle. With a stock fan on it.
  17. turbot3.8 87 Turbo T Limited

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    subscriped
  18. TRICKSIXPA Member

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    Here's some of my pictures.

    Rad2.jpg Rad3.jpg
  19. projectmoneypit tx firefighter

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    I went to the rad shop to get my stock rad recored. I told him to recore it with 2 or 3 1 inch rows, he shook his head and said it does not work that way. He took me into his shop where he had 2 engines with 2 different radiators set up. He ran the engines meanwhile he was looking at my radiator and stated that i had the most efficient radiator you can get. The only improvement he could suggest was to recore it the same tube size and row but with aluminum. We went in the office and he looked up what he could recore it for and gave me a price of 350. We then went out to the shop (probably 10 min later) and went over to the engines he had setup and showed me the temp gauges of each engine, one read 165 the other read 200, so naturally i said i want the rad that has a coolant temp of 165. He then stated that i would be wrong, he then showed me a thermocouple that was taking the cylinder head temp and the temp was about 100 degree diff between the 2 engines with the 200 coolant temp having the lowest cyclinder head temp. He said it was because the larger tubes had too much fluid to cool it effectively and since there was more than 1 row that the coolant flowed so fast that it did not spend enough time in the engine to draw the heat out of the engine. He also suggested not to run anything lower than a 180 t stat and to even run a 195 if possible. Anybody else think he is right in his thinking? I wanted to go with this kind of rad but just cant afford it right now, I went with the f body rad anyways and while changing it i found out that i had a underdrive pulley on the crank so i changed that out as well. When all was done the car runs at 195 in tx heat with a 180 tstat.
  20. Tom Walker Tommy2Tone

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    Is anyone gonna have a display of this radiator at the Nats?

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