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Looking for suggestions on best places to get a radiator and water pump for my 1979 400 modified crewcab, 4 wheel drive with the danna 60. The radiator has repaired once about 5 months ago It was recored once about two years ago, i think it is a lemon. I know that the water pump need to be replaced as well for it was leaking as well. I'm sure I cn get a quality water pump at O'Reiley's. not sure about the radiator. I believe that it is the transmission lines running to the bottom o the radiator for cooling.
I strongly recommend the champion all aluminum welded radiator. Make sure you have the correct fan, working fan clutch and a shroud. The water pumps are all hit and miss from parts stores. I use the 1648 FlowKooler.
The engine is all stock other than the vintage air system that i had installed. It has the fan shroud. what is the advantage to aluminium radiator? I know that the one down side to them is when they leak you are s.o.l. and need to buy a new one.
Advantage is core size and cost. You can get 3 and 4 core Champion radiators for under the cost of cheap parts store units. I would not worry about leakage, I have not had one leak. The tanks are welded so there is no plastic tanks to go bad.
Here is how the options look, don't bother with the APSI brass radiators they are beyond paper thin and way over priced. There is several brands of welded radiators but I only recommend ASI or Champion. You can see that 265.00 from spectra vs 217.00 for the champion. I used Ebay for prices, the spectra is a 2 core and the Champion is the 3 core.
CHEAP SPECTRA REPLACEMENT THAT IS SOLD AT PARTS STORES CHAMPION WELDED RADIATOR
I just had my radiator blow out on my '77. It was a Spectra brass/copper reman radiator that was about 6 years old. Part number was CU480.
That same part number crosses to a new aluminum and plastic radiator. I was very skeptical about it being enough to cool a 460 in an aerodynamically challenged truck like ours, especially in stop and go traffic. However, I found one for a steal on Amazon for $105 to my door and decided to bite the bullet.
When it arrived I was very surprised at the quality of it. The core is about 1.5-2" thick. Perfect replacement for mine.
Keeps the truck cooler than the original one did! Can't wait to see how it cools this summer!
I recently bought one from O'Reilly . I don't drive that frequently so couldn't justify an expensive one. What sold me on O'Reilly was life time warranty.
I went thru Rock Auto for my new radiator & AC condenser for my 81 F100 with 300 six.
The new one is plastic & Alum. replacing a leaky brass one.
Looks well made but time will tell but will be a bit before I get the truck on the road, still rebuilding it.
I think unless you look hard all you will find is plastic / Alum. or all Alum. radiators.
Dave ----
Thank you all for your input, I greatly appreciate it. I got a chance to get up under my truck and take a look and try and clean up the the antifreeze that sprayed every where. I may have dodge a bullet, not sure. I found that one of the belts was rubbing up against the lower radiator hose and wore a hole in it. I am not sure if this would have cause the radiator to burst. any Idea fella's?
Thank you all for your input, I greatly appreciate it. I got a chance to get up under my truck and take a look and try and clean up the the antifreeze that sprayed every where. I may have dodge a bullet, not sure. I found that one of the belts was rubbing up against the lower radiator hose and wore a hole in it. I am not sure if this would have cause the radiator to burst. any Idea fella's?
No. It just wouldn't pressurize properly and would spray coolant under driving conditions. My belt rubbed a hole in my lower too
You can twist/adjust the hose out of the way. I bought a cheap lower that was a little longer than stock and had more room to adjust. DO NOT forget to put the anti- collapse spring back in the lower hose or you will overheat
