Cheap Aluminum Radiatores

[azblackhemi]

Anyone have experience with cheap aluminum radiators? My 69 Monaco runs too hot so I found a 3 row aluminum radiator for around $150. Can it be any good at that price?

 

[detmatt]

Anyone have experience with cheap aluminum radiators? My 69 Monaco runs too hot so I found a 3 row aluminum radiator for around $150. Can it be any good at that price?

Probably not. I’m a firm believer in “you get what you pay for”…

 

[57fury440]

I've used several different ones over the years. I never had a problem with them.

 

[Trace 300 Hurst]

I had one full (difficult!) semester of Heat Transfer in engineering school and I can tell you this: Paint it matte black.

From the web: The rate of heat transfer by emitted radiation is determined by the Stefan-Boltzmann law of radiation: Qt=σeAT4Qt=σeAT4, where σ = 5.67 × 10−8 J/s · m2 · K4 is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, A is the surface area of the object, and T is its absolute temperature in kelvin. The symbol e stands for the emissivity of the object, which is a measure of how well it radiates. An ideal jet-black (or black body) radiator has e = 1, whereas a perfect reflector has e = 0. Real objects fall between these two values. Take, for example, tungsten light bulb filaments which have an e of about 0.5, and carbon black (a material used in printer toner), which has the greatest known emissivity of about 0.99.

Mick Jagger and I advise you to "paint it black".

 

[Trace 300 Hurst]

Probably not. I’m a firm believer in “you get what you pay for”…

I certainly agree with that but I had great results with my fairly inexpensive repro Spectra CU332, which is not aluminum and was thoroughly coated in good black paint. Just checked....$326 at Rocky.

 

[MONC440]

I paid $184 for the 4 row with an internal trans cooler in my V10 Fury and it is working great. I did have to "adjust" a couple of the mounting bolt holes but other than that no problems at all. FYI I bought mine from DH Racing Parts on feebay.

If you buy one of the cheaper ones and need to for a auto trans make sure it has a internal trans cooler. When I was shopping I noticed some of them didn't have one.

 

[bnz84]

I got a 26" from ECP and have been happy with it. But double the $150 price. I had to modify the mounting holes slightly as my car has a 22" support, so the radiator was not a direct bolt in. And yes, I painted it black. Just because I didn't like the shiny aluminum. I Used Rust oleum BBQ ultra high heat. Its got a little gloss, not true flat like the regular high heat paint is.


ECP 26" Aluminum Big Block Mopar Radiator - Big Cooling Tubes

 

[71Polara383]

I got a cheapo 26" aluminum radiator off ebay in my 70 wagon. Works great. Way better than junky spectras.