Since I have a 352, is it essential to have a 4-row radiator? I need to replace the item, thus the question.
Thanks

 

F250 is a 3/4 ton truck. I’m assuming it came with a bigger radiator because it’s a harder working truck.
352s in a F100s generally cool fine with the smaller radiator.

 

My 64 F250 will get the 4row when I have it redone, the same time I get a.c. and a fan shroud. I am in Central Florida and the truck came from the upper Midwest.

 

I would say go as large as you can. The design of these older radiators does not cool as well as the cross flow designs of modern vehicles.
Of course this all depends on where you plan to drive it, if you want to tow with it, and other factors.
My 69 has a 3 row radiator, with air conditioning, and it cooled ok, but there was not a lot of margin for safety.
This truck hauled a 10 foot cab over camper, and was our travel rig for several years. We went every summer, usually to Colorado, and even though it never over heated, it always ran high normal on heat.
I ran an external trans cooler, a flex fan, and a shroud, and got along ok. The biggest improvement, in cooling came when I installed an air type engine oil cooler.

 

All great info. Thank you!

 

I have a 352 on my 66 F100 4x4 and installed a Champion 3-row aluminum radiator (model CC444B) last year. I’ve hauled with it over mountain passes, driven on freeways, and off-roaded and it never goes above 200F.

I don’t even have a shroud or the correct fan, it just has a small 66 Mustang fan I had laying around, but it works great.

Before I installed the new radiator, I also flushed the block, rebuilt the water pump, and installed a new 180F thermostat.

 

Thank you Sir!

 

I had a 4-row industrial-type built for a previous '66. I had to trim 3/8" off the hood safety hook.
Eric

 

LOL.. I say that because my truck came with the safety hook bent off to the side. That could be the reason.

 

I went with a new 3rd row aluminum radiator after rebuilding my 352 (300hp+). Not impressed thus far. Right now I am having cooling issues. I removed the pulley driven fan. Installed a dual electric fan shroud. I have a stock water pump and a 180 thermostat. When driving around limited stops it runs around 180ish. But if I hit a few lights in a row it creeps up to 200ish and only slight cools when I get it moving again. Seems like I can not recover any cooling. I am running 50/50 Prestone mix. Thinking of picking up a 4th row radiator or changing to a 70/30 mix.

 

I went thru 3, 4 row Champions in 3 yrs. They all started leaking in the upper corners. Champion said no more warranty on them and switched me to a 2 row with 1" tubes. I couldn't be more happy. Cooling is more stable in all conditions.

 

F100/250's did not come with a fan shroud, but you can use the 1967/76 FE fan shroud, it bolts on like is was made for it and its reproduced by Carpenter.

But, there are two different 1967/72 radiators, two different fan shrouds. The fan shroud used with the Super Cooling radiator has a larger opening radius, so you don't this shroud.

I installed a 4 row radiator in my 1965 F100 after I bored and stroked the 352 to 390 standard, installed 390 crank, rods and pistons. Truck also had A/C so I wanted a larger radiator, .

Local radiator shop took my 2 row radiator, added 2 rows to it. Replaced the top and bottom tanks with larger tanks to accommodate 4 rows.

 

You might have excessive Exhaust Gas Temp. If you just rebuilt a hopped-up engine, you might have installed a cam, cam timing and compression ratio combo that has raised the EGT significantly.

Also, ignition timing can change EGT. Check your timing at idle. Do you have a vac advance distributor? My research says having distributor advance plugged into manifold vac will advance timing at idle and likely cool down EGT. Ported vac (no advance at idle) and retarded initial timing came into play as part of early emissions efforts to add heat to the combustion chamber and more completely burn exhaust. So ported exhaust will run hotter.

My truck has a 460, fixed 7-blade fan, no shroud, and an old-school copper radiator. It tracks the thermostat just fine. I’ve had 160, 185 and 195 in there at different times. I was looking at electric fans and found that pulling more air than the seven blade was hard to attain. BTW, as a part of testing, I completely removed the fan from the engine and ran 50 miles, 65mph, on the highway and it cooled just fine. It really shot up fast when I pulled off…