Started to "tune" up my '80 F350 and discovered the radiator was trash. Evidently the truck was used near the coast before I bought it and it has a severe case of fin deterioration & major leaks. It's a 2-core. Any thoughts to recoring versus buying a new one (or a used one from a wrecking yard or Pick-Your-Parts) and will 2 cores do or should I go 3 or 4? I do plan on using this truck for heavy loads and pulling a 18' flatbed (to get project trucks), basicly a worker. I need to make sure I can climb a 4k' hill loaded. Thanks!

 

Did the factory boys pick a 2 core for your truck or did it get replaced? Check with a radiator shop to see what they list as std then step up a layer of cores if possible. Each additional row of cores adds some cooling capacity but it follows the law of diminishing returns. A 4 core does not have twice the cooling capacity of a 2 core.

 

I would go with a new one from radiators.com, they are great. Or you can get it rebuilt with extra cores, just go to your local hole-in-the-wall radiator joint. I had the 3 core radiator in my '79 bronco rebuilt (it was completely corroded) into a 4 core for $180. I am not sure if it was just that the new fins disapated heat more effiecintly than the clumps of rust i had before, but running hard in high heat did not pose any cooling problems for the new 4 core. It seems to me that even though a 4 core won't give you twice the cooling capacity of a 2 core, you still get significantly more, and in this case, more is better. If you run AC at all, you will appreciate the 4 core. Same if you plan on uping the HP over stock. More HP means more heat, so upgrading the cooliing system is a must. Hope this helped!

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 23-Jul-02 AT 02:10 AM (EST)]a lot of the local mustang guys here swear by a chain called "pep boys" - i think their brand-new 3-core mustang radiators are like $120, which is a great price - better than most refurb'd 2-cores... a guy at work needed one for his f-150, and their price on that was also much better than anything else he'd seen.

i've also heard good things about radiators.com