Hi,
I have a 2002 F-250 5.4L 2V CCLB 4WD and was thinking or replacing the original Radiator. Yes Original. 232,000 miles and so I want to get out in front.....just in case. For those who have replaced one, can you recommend a brand. This has A/C among other things. An original OEM from Ford is $440 and so I am guessing anywhere from $250-$500 might be good. Looking for anyone to chime in. The expensive ones are nice but out of $$$ range..

 

Since you are looking for "anyone to chime in", I'll chime in.

If you get out in front of your truck too much, you might get run over.

Where you might feel the pain after running yourself over is replacing a component that hasn't given you any trouble in over 20 years... with a new component that might fail or leak in two years.

Especially since you say that the OEM from Ford is at $440, which is on the more expensive side of the $250 to $500 range you are estimating, and might be of equivalent quality to what has thus far worked well for you, but being expensive, is out of your price range.

So why fix what isn't broken?

Products are made cheaper, thinner, lighter, faster, and with less care or concern other than price and profit margin every year. So the less expensive aftermarket import radiators sold today have 20 years of clever, incremental cost cutting behind them.

My OEM Ford radiator is 20 something years old too. I'm not changing it. I already changed it soon after I bought the truck, in order to get the kind that had the oil to water transmission cooler incorporated inside (the 2000 production models didn't have this, but the 2001 and newer models did).

Accidents and fender benders provide plenty of opportunity to change radiators. We had 425,000 miles on the original radiator in a Ford Escape... until it got hit in the front... which only bent the radiator into banana shaped curve... but the thing still didn't leak. But since the body shop was fixing the car anyway, a new radiator was put in. It was not OEM. And after their repair, we experienced the first coolant leak in that car ever in 426,000 miles. Kinda wish I had kept the original radiator, even with the banana shaped bend in it.

"Striving to do better, we oft' mar what is well. " (Duke of Albany, King Lear, Bill Shakespeare)

 

Yep I'd let sleeping dogs lie. Failure is rarely catastrophic but rather typically manifests as small leaks at the side tanks. Many limp on for YEARS like this.

 

I am in the same boat. 222k on my original radiator...I use my truck to drive to Los Cabos 2x a year and need it to be dependable through hundreds of miles of desert. I keep wanting to change my radiator as preventative maintenance. Last year I spent $450 on an all aluminum radiator from RockAuto. I wanted to do all the hoses and coolant anyway. I get to install the new radiator and one of the mounting pins was bent just ever so slightly and I couldn't align it myself (not to mention I was scared it would crack the material @ the weld). The new aluminum radiator felt like paper compared to the OEM one. Ended up just washing out the OEM one for a while until everything was cleared out inside and out and put the old one back.

If they are indeed robust enough to last without catastrophic failure, that would be great. I'm curious on how many of those with 200-300k+ are running the originals though.

 

In my fleet of 20 to 30 yr old vehicles with high miles that all get driven multiple times per week, there is simply 0 time to deal with prempting failed parts with replacements. There is enough stuff actually going bad costing time and money to fix. So I think the advice given above is basically the gospel! Many of our old OEM parts have more life in them yet than the cobbled together garbage you find at Autozoo, O'Reallys or others.

 

My F350 OEM radiator cracked at the upper rad hose plastic at 356k mi. My Excursion's OEM rad sprung a leak at the plastic welds at 306k mi. I understand the concern for preventative maintenance but had I another at 300k+ I would not be quick to replace just to feel better, myself, as both instances were slow leaks and gave me plenty of warning without being stranded. But, maybe I got lucky. I'm at 18k mi (2 years) and 61k mi (3years) respectively on Advance Auto replacement rads without hiccups. Not that any of this will sway you one way or the other - just sharing my experience. Make of it what you will.

 

I just did a '14 GMC 2500 (6.0 gasser) where a plastic tank had split a little and it created a decent leak under pressure but still wasn't exactly catastrophic. Probably could have been improved by loosening the rad cap to prevent pressure build-up. The truck had around 180k but again the GM OEM in '14 was likely different than Ford in the mid 2000's.

If a guy had 5 gallons of water this one could have been limped along most likely to the next town for most road trips.

I played he ll getting a good rad from O'Reilly....and by good I just mean one that would actually FIT. Some of this new Chinese junk is so bad it's literally built incorrectly to where it doesn't line up with the mounts. My client couldn't afford OEM

 

If you can't afford the OEM now, but there's nothing wrong with what you have, then tuck $20 or $30 a week away until the radiator gives out. Hell I've got a 1990 E150 with the original radiator, the most I'd be worried about is sediment build up. Just save your money, at 232K I'd give betting odds your trans will drop before that radiator does.

 

These seem to be pretty well built and priced. The company is named twords the end of thread. Search them on eBay and scroll to find your vehicle.
https://www.powerstrokenation.com/th.../#post-6260318