I have 99 F250 SD V10, auto, 4x4, and it is time for a new radiator. Looking around at choices there are many brands out there, many at a cheap price. Anyone have experience with Silla, Vista Pro, TYC, or Spectra Premium?

Any recommendations on brands? While I would love to score a radiator for half the price of the dealer I would sure hate to do the job twice and waste money on shipping charges.

Also any parts I should change at the same time I am in there? Thermostat, hoses, etc?

 

Champion, AE IIRR correctly are all Chinese made.......now I’m not going to say just because it's Chinese made its junk...it’s not, but there are a lot of issues with them........example...
Assuming all of the seam are properly welded (they have their moments when pre-mature failure- pinholes- occur), cooling is more than the number of tubes or material, its number of fins versus number & size of tubes....i.e. rate of flow and the amount of heat that can be exchanged in a specific amount of time.......many times these units are cheaper because they do not have an adequate number of fins......
Quality of welds........typically poor and pinholes start showing at the 5-8 year mark
Corrosion (internal).....almost all American radiators (aluminum) have or have as an option (and usually recommend if not already permanently installed) an anode- basically acts as a sacrificial lamb for electrolysis based corrosion (very, very predominant with aluminum radiators, water pumps) and helps keep the ph level neutral. Without this, I have seen a host of promulgated failures including radiator, hoses, water pumps, head gaskets, thermostat covers- where the material is literally eaten away because of electrolysis.

I know many seem to be under the impression (marketing) that aluminum construction by itself will enhance cooling, there is a little more to it than that...and in many instances buyers are actually comparing apples to oranges when comparing a copper core spec to an aluminum spec radiator. US Radiator has a nice vid on their site that yeah, it does talk about the company a bit, but also talks about Copper vs aluminum & gives a good presentation of design limitations. US Radiator has been around for 40+ years. The guy who presently owns it started working there 30 years ago and with the exception of 1 or 2 items, everything is built at their facility. They are also great to talk with on the phone and if you tell them exactly what you have, what are your concerns or wants, they will tell you exactly what to order. I don’t know of anyone (including the racing community) who has not been pleased with them!

Link: U.S. Radiator | The Difference Is In The Tooling

US Radiator Corporation
4423 District Boulevard
Vernon, California
323-826-0965

 

Update for those that care. After doing much research and not liking what I found for aftermarket options I decided I was better off going FoMoCo. It was approx double of an aftermarket but aftermarket reviews were shakey at best. Figured for me it was money well spent.

 

Use an all metal radiator. The plastic side tanks eventually split.