Standard Radiator or Aluminum???

Prices being equal? I'd go with the aluminum.

I looked at your links.. Aluminum hands down. It's going to be a bit lighter and AND it's designed for a manual transmission! Those all in one pieces of crap for autos loose a bit of cooling capacity if you're not using the auto trans cooler (space is taken up with it). For the extra $40, I'd take that aluminum any day.

Wow.. If I saw that radiator before I bought my Griffen, I would have got it... My Griffen was sort of a pain to installed, cause the lower hose outlet is angled in, there is hardly any lip to mount the fan shroud/electric fan... No drain petcock... and both the inlet and outlet of hte radiator were larger then stock, which made using the stock hoses a major pain in the ass. Go with that aluminum! Looks sweet!!!

Gene Evans Ford has one for $219.95

http://www.gefracing.com/Merchant2/...=G&Product_Code=M8005C&Category_Code=50ENGINE

Stroked91 said:

Gene Evans Ford has one for $219.95

http://www.gefracing.com/Merchant2/...=G&Product_Code=M8005C&Category_Code=50ENGINE

Click to expand...

Great for an auto. A waste of space and capacity for a manual.

Go aluminum! I got mine from Summit for just over 300, it's easily got twice the thermal capacity of the stock radiator. Looks cool, too.

these guys say for daily driving, bumper to bumper a/c on, the the 3 core is a better option check it out:

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2001/10/radiator/

My question is where does your "option" come from? Times have changed in the radiator biz due to premade aluminum with plastic end tanks becoming the predominant type of radiator available. And there are very few options there; either take a "factory" one- or two-row plastic-tank unit identical to every other one out there, or pay $500-plus for a handmade BeCool or Griffin unit. However, if you can find a good old-timey radiator shop, you can probably do it as good or better for cheaper than aluminum with a copper/brass recore. I paid $135 to have my stock '90 radiator recored with a 3-row core that runs cool as a cucumber, even in 105 degree L.A. temps. That was a custom radiator shop rebuild with my stock end tanks having a bigger core sandwiched in there. High efficiency (more fins per inch at the expense of reduced air flow) or four row cores can also be had. One of those will probably handle anything a 5.0 or 351 of any size or power could ever throw at them. Also, it should be cheaper. But that stuff is disappearing. Aluminum will be $200 plus. A 2 row aluminum will probably be as good as a 3 row copper brass, just cost more. If you really want to know, the real difference is that aluminum reacts quicker, but is very sensitive to airflow. With aluminum, you tend to see more and quicker fluctuations in the coolant temp, depending on the airflow through the radiator. That stuff about weight is mostly BS, since you can probably achieve the same weight saving that aluminum will give just by not eating dessert with dinner. If you can get an old-style 3-row recore for $150, it would be as good as anything else. But, if you can't find a shop to do it, you'll just have to go with aluminum and pay the money.

Sam's right - if the overall core size is the same (L" X W" dimensions and number of rows) and the number of fins/inch is the same, then a standard copper core provides more heat transfer capacity than an aluminum one does. The benefit of aluminum is that it weighs less than the copper core. Only you can decide if the weight difference is worth the extra money.

Count fins/inch as you're comparing. The 14 fin/inch unit being sold by Mustang's Unlimited needs to be compared to the number of fins/inch on the aluminum unit. I'm guessing the aluminum unit is up around 18 fins/inch giving it an advantage.

Also - all the auto transmission radiators I've seen DO NOT take capacity away from the rest of the radiator. The 'cooler' is nothing more than a small (in the case of the Stang's Unlimited rad it's 1 3/4" X 8") heat exchanger that sits in the end tank of the radiator. As coolant passes through the tank, it removes heat from the tranny fluid -- assuming the tranny fluid temp is hotter than the coolant. During many operating condtions, it's not - and then the coolant actually heats the tranny fluid. All it does is displace a small amount of water from the system. If it's not hooked up it will have virtually no effect at all on the cooling of the unit. So if the price is more attractive you can usually use an auto tranny rad. for a manual car without losing any capacity. Brass plugs for the threaded fittings will make for a more finished look.

Be careful about adding rows of fin tubes (3-row, 4-row, etc.) and the claims made by marketers/sellers. The extra rows of fin tubes don't add much additional heat transfer capacity. The reason is that by the time the air has passed over the first two rows, it's at a much higher temperature - so it can't remove much heat from the 3rd or 4th rows. Adding a 3rd row of fin-tubes to a 2-row unit (50% more fin tubes) only increases heat transfer capacity by about 10-12%. Adding a 4th row only adds another 4-5%. If you need significant increases in capacity the way to do it is by adding a physically larger core. Increases are directly proportional to the increase in area of the core. So, for the same number of rows/fins per inch, an increase in area of 50% (going from 20"X20" to 20" X 30" - 400 to 600 sq.in.) will increase heat transfer capacity by 50%.