Radiator for '86-'87

[national]

Cool84>>Do you have any idea what kind of v6 diesel car it might have been? sometimes they do put some bigger nicer radiators in the diesel stuff..might be a factory piece we all could use..think hard..might be a good radiator..
your probably right..i just thought i read somewhere that tony dequick said less fins per inch for FM's..I cant even remember where that was i might have read it..maybe nick can chime in with the answer of what works better with the fin counts
Where do you guys put the oil cooler at if you run the AZ radiator?
Brian

 

[cool 84]

This was about 2 years ago but what I remember was it was an 80s FWD car with a 4.3 diesel motor. It does have an oil cooler but it's on the opposite side of the radiator. Tranny cooler is on the passenger side but the fittings are on the back, toward the motor. It was a drop in (I was surprised because I didn't think the FWD cars used the same size radiators). I noticed a big difference when I put my hand in front of the fan, the air is much hotter like it's picking up more heat vs the lower fin count at the same engine temp. The difference was VERY noticable. It's dense enough that without the intercooler to block some of the debris I would worry about it getting plugged over time. I'll keep my eye out this weekend when I go to the junkyard and see what I can find. I just figured I got lucky but we'll see.

Where are the part#s usually found at? I'll look and see if I can find one.

 

[WIKEDV6]

I took my stock 3 core radiator to a local radiator shop and had them convert it to a 4 core radiator. They used my old tanks. The cost was around $120.00. This was about 3 years ago, call around the local radiator shops and find out what they can do for you. You are still coming out on top by doing this because you get a new four core radiator that is cheeper than the price of a stock replacement one with better cooling also .Since they use the old tanks, you will have both of your coolers. My car runs @165-170 degrees in the summer time with a huge front mount IC.

Good luck
Prasad

 

[FreeJack]

I purchased the replacement raditor from Postons. The only problem was the oil and tranny cooler lines. They are 5/16 and the original are 1/8. So I just swapped the tanks over. I think it is a 2 core. The raditor shop told me that when this one goes he will build a custom 4 core one. Wasn't too expensive.

 

[suburban]

I also had my stock 3 core made to a 4 retaining all stock coolers and it works awsome.

 

[suburban]

I also had my stock 3 core made to a 4 retaining all stock coolers and it works awsome.

 

[MeanBuicks]

Getting your original radiator repaired/recored is certainly a good idea if you want to retain your factory coolers. There is an additional consideration here though.

In my case, the main reason I quit using both stock coolers is due to prior failures that contaminated the coolers with trash. Flushing them isn't 100% effective and reusing them after a failure is a cr@p shoot. I simply stopped using my engine oil cooler and have been using only a TCI transmission cooler for years now.