Radiator 87 - 93. Best Replacement!

I have a stock 2 core radiator w/ a taurus fan and its about 1/2" from hitting the water pump pulley. How could I put a 3 core on and the taurus fan on without it hitting the pulley?

The car has A/C

I have a Griffin Mustang specific rad for about 10 years now. It's a 2 row w/ 1" tubes. FWIW, those 3-4 row radiators don't have enough of the tubes touching the fins to cool the coolant properly. I spoke w/ a NASCAR mechanic (cooling tech) at a Ford convention some years back. He said to me the best radiator has the largest tubes you can fit. "The smaller the tubes the less area that they touch the fins". Plus with more coolant running thru those bigger tubes the heat is being extracted better. BTW 95% of the NASCAR teams use Griffin radiators. Just my $.02.

fluidyne ...hands down the best quality i have ever seen

+1 for griffin

So, since opinions are pretty much all over the board, buy and install whatever you want.

FWIW, the 3-row versus 2-row (sorry, I remembered it as being a 1-row) thing is just a difference in the parts' house listings, not necessarily what came factory on 'Stangs. I just know that when you specify that you have an automatic (on Autozone's parts lookup system), it lists a 3-row as being a direct replacement. I had to bend the top brackets just a tad and trim some of the rubber out of the top and bottom from them to squeeze the sucker in, but the hose connections are the same. Just leave the tranny cooler line fittings plugged and it's all good.

Everyone dogs on aftermarket parts' quality. Yes, they're cheaper ... hence the price. The way I see it, as long as it's not one of those things that are a major pain to install (like a clutch), I'll sooner take a part with a cheaper price and a lifetime warranty than a part with a higher price and NO warranty, just because it has "Motorcraft" or "Ford" stamped on it somewhere. However, when it's something that is an all-day replacement project, or a very expensive part (rear gears, clutch, engine internals, etc.), then I'll spring for OEM quality or better.

FWIW, I've had my cheap-junk 3-core Autozone radiator for over a year without a problem at all. While I was working for Autozone, we really didn't get many radiators coming back at all for warranty exchanges, especially on the copper/brass units. (The plastic/aluminum junk, however, is garbage no matter where you go.)

I don't buy the "3 cores aren't better because of fins and stuff" concept. Compared to the radiator that was in my notch originally, this thing is friggin' BEEFY. It's got a larger surface area for air to flow over, it's got more area with which to dissapate heat, and measurably, I'm running FAR lower temps in the summer than I was with the original piece of crap. Again, go ahead and throw in a fancy aluminum radiator if you're so inclined, but unless you really NEED that much extra cooling because of the extent of your present mods (18" Cobra rims and Saleen ground effects don't necessitate heavy-duty cooling) or seriously planned future mods, then you're pretty much just throwing money away and buying something just for bragging rights and engine bay eye candy. "Doing it right" is one thing; overkill is another. But that's just my crazy philosophy, I guess.

I could care less what a NAZZZZCAR tech has to say about his theories on what's best for a daily-driven car; his experience involves cars that run 150+ MPH in a circle for 200 to 500 laps, whereas we're just dealing with stop-and-go traffic and/or highway speeds at a max of maybe 65 to 75 MPH. Different performance applications = apples to oranges.

If you're planning on keeping the stock mechanical fan and shroud while installing a big aftermarket aluminum radiator, your options are going to be severely limited. I'd be looking to buy a decent electric fan and DCC controller to go with it, and also take fan-to-pump-pulley clearance into consideration ... plus a 3G alternator upgrade, too, since an electric fan is going to seriously tax an already strained stock 65-amp alternator.

Either one of these 2 fit with very little, almost no modification. I have the griffin. The biggest difference is the bottom hose. I just got a universal flex hose. The top hose was factory, just had to lube it up really well to get it on. I even bolted the orginal fan shroud to the radiator and used the factory mounting locations and brackets. Just trimmed the rubber a bit. The 31 inch units basically block the entire core support opening, so you have to worry less about the factory shrouds. If you the get radiator that is the same width as factory, then you will have to fabricate or buy new brackets, because you will be attaching to the tanks, and not the actual core. Hope this makes sense. By the way, the griffen leaves about 3/16 space between the factory fan shroud and a vortech 8" rengade pulley.

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...839040+4294810996+4294891681+115&autoview=sku



http://store.summitracing.com/partd...839040+4294810996+4294891681+115&autoview=sku

Go with the Ford Racing Cobra aluminum radiator and keep your stock shroud, fan and coolant bottle.
I installed one on my '87 last year. The only mods are to the brackets on top - the new rad is much thicker.
You can waste your hard-earned money on a Griffin, an electric fan, and rig up some kind of aftermarket overflow bottle, but they won't work any better. You'll have to hack up your car to get it all to fit. Some will tell you it's worth it, but my experience says otherwise. Spend your money on something that really helps. Ford's engineers know a little bit more than some hacker with tin snips and a big hammer...........

Just how deep are your pockets???

http://www.rondavisradiators.com/Welcome.htm

Griffin gets my vote too. I was able to run the stock fan and shroud just fine with my generic 31x19 before I upgraded to an efan.
Kevin

I run the general autostore brand 2 core...have always used the autostore brand rads in every car I've ever owned. I run a h/c/i car and with my taurus fan and DCC unit I have yet to see anything over 190 degrees, even running in 110 plus degree temps stuck in traffic. Nothing wrong with the big names but the product you get from either the dealer or autostore will be of good quality...you'll be surprised. Alum will offer you no real advantage over your brass unit but if you're willing to spend 250 on that rad then definately go for it.

FWIW, I've been happy with my parts-store 3-row replacement. Granted it doesn't get really hot up here in the pacific NW, but it's worked great for me. I've had it about a year, and for $150, I couldn't be happier.

I got my 3-row brass radiator replacement from Latemodel Restoration for cheap and it works very well, maybe too well Honestly I drove 500 Miles straight last summer on a trip to kansas in 98* heat and I could put my hand on the manifold when i stopped for gas after 350 miles. Aluminum is a waste of money IMO.