Replacement Radiator Recommendations?

[Tim McCune]

Probably have a bad radiator, does anyone have any recommendations? It's a 1987 Grand National, staged engine.

 

[turbojoe1]

Early F-body bolts in


Joe

 

[Squid4life]

Alradco. Peter is a vendor here and his rads are American made. I have had them in two of my cars and his rad is top notch. Getting ready to run his rad and fans in my twin turbo stage II car too.

I will try to find my install thread. I did an install and testing thread on his rad a while back.


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[Tim McCune]

Many thanks.

 

[fitz3820]

F-Body radiator does not have an engine oil cooler, just a trans cooler - not sure if you are still running an oil cooler...

 

[turbo nasty]

Skip the fbody as the the lower radiator hose on the pass tank is different. Go with a 87 regal 307 radiator cools just as well as the fbody on.
You will either have to remove oil cooler adalter or run a aux engine oil cooler.
The all alum radiator options with oil cooler are Alradco and GN1 performance.

If you want to pay for a OEM replacement then they are out there to.

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

Alradco and be done.

 

[turbojoe1]

Got my fbody rad for $75 shipped. Pluck it out a local car your self for $20 or less

And it weighs nothing compared to the stocker
Joe

 

[earlbrown]

I would like to think a car with a staged motor would all ready have external coolers.

 

[turbojoe1]

Ive always ran an separate actual oil cooler on everything with performance at mind. The built in tank is not a cooler imo, it does help with warm up, but it stays at whatever temperature the rad is, plus under hood temps


Joe

 

[Nick Micale]

I would also like to think than an owner with an expensive engine, or actually any engine, would NOT want to cheap out on a piece of crap with plastic tanks, no oil cooler, and less cooling capacity than a stock radiator?

Do it right and go with the best, Alradco stock replacement.

 

[Undercover87T]

Either Alradco or GN1 and be done. I'm using a GN1 rad in my car with alradco fans and aux trans cooler. Couldn't be happier.

 

[PLAINWHITE T]

I'll echo the others....get an ALRADCO. It's the best value in radiators out there for our cars.

 

[Fast4Ward]

to each their own but i dropped in one of those aluminum f body. the bottom hose requires abit of trimming and i used the cooler on it as the oil cooler.
on 86 F day it got no hotter than 190. so far its ok.

 

[Squid4life]

Don't get me wrong, F body works okay, you just have to keep an eye out for splits and seapage. They like to split where the tanks meet the aluminum core. If you have money into your build (and i read "stage" above) i would get a solid, trusted unit. One less thing to worry about.

My alradco never went above 165, even with a front mount that was crazy restrictive. Love that thing, and another one will go in my race car here soon. They are just as beautiful as bad ass too. Welds are great, powdercoat was perfect, etc. Almost a shame to put it in a car.


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[baaadgn]

Ya know my GN sat for over 10 years, no good reason other than I had a lot of stuff going on, so I ended up changing all gas lines, pump, gas tank etc. went to drive it and had to fix heater core&*^&%#^&zi. g that done and figured out I'm now home free. wrong!! drove it and radiator is leaking! Dam. I've done a lot of reading trying to figure out what to buy, I'm one of these people that try and keep my car as stock as possible. I read guy have done all kinds of things which to me is ringing the cash register on the value of my car. Sooooooo I decided to go with the replacement with the Alradco unit with both coolers. I'm lucky as my son just bought for me. not here yet but believe this is the best option for me.

 

[trom302]

Just got one from TR Custom yesterday. Nice piece. All aluminum just like the Alradco except for the stock looking tank. Was a little cheaper. Installing over the weekend.

 

[GNICETRY]

My opinion is if you want the best and a stock type system get the Alradco. If you want to have no internal coolers and just a radiator, the BeCool universal is a good bet. It is light and heavy duty. It actually is too cool for my car sometimes. There are a lot of people that have the F body radiator that have had cracks and leaks. I don't care if it costs $1, weighs an ounce and gives me a happy ending, I wouldn't put it in my car.
You have a Buick with a Stage engine, get the best.

 

[Reggie West]

I installed an ALRADCO radiator on a stock block GN with bigger turbo and injectors. He took the car to Albuquerque, NM in the middle of summer and had no problems with the car. It's a nice unit, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Red C5]

Thank you very much for all of the good words and positive feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

Peter