boonie

Iam in the market to purchase a radiator and found on Ebay a number of vendors selling Radiators at very reasonable prices "i even bought one for my Toyota and it's mirror of a OEM radiator" so i was thinking about purchasing a all aluminum radiator for my 94 "the present radiator is the original radiator that's 14 years old" but being that these radiators are made in China is that a indication that their quality is mediocre at best ? or that their service life when compared to a OEM radiator will always be inferior? dose anybody have any experiences in this area?
thanks boonie

JackDidley

Good question. My 87 still has the original but since I upped the horsepower cooling is marginal. I should have my Champion 3 core radiator next week though.

Kool88vette

I live in Citrus Heights and have a near new OEM copper radiator for sale. It fits an 88. I'm not sure if it will fit your 91 Vette. I upgraded to a Dewitts.

BluRay

I ran one of those (4 core) in my 79' Camaro and it kept 648hp cool enough to cruise with. Never had a single issue with it. The risk there is really that most of the China stuff is not consistent. I guess it depends on the quality of the preteens in the sweat shop that day.....

armybyrd

I bought one of them $200 aluminum radiators off of ebay and havent had a problem with it.

Chatman

I bought one of the inexpensive all aluminum radiators and sent it back. I was not pleased with the loss of fin folds per inch and fewer tubes. They probably work fine, but I had my original repaired instead (tank gaskets needed to be replaced).

black85

I bought one of the intercoolers for $100 for my Volvo. I was impressed. It made a huge performance difference. To me it looked almost like the $1200 Spearco one I had sitting in the garage for a different car except it had a few scratches. As soon as I put it in I had spark blow out for the first time (that means lots more air through it than the stocker for those that don't know turbos).

Knowing this, I would not hesitate to purchase the radiator. I think even though there are less folds and tubes per inch, the aluminum radiator is probably more efficient. Might want to do some homework there though.

Weav's Vet

Same here

Z01#316

Get a Dewitt's. U get what u pay for. JMHO

CFI-EFI

If that Champion is copper/brass the cooling capacity may equal the single row core you are replacing.


No C4 ever came with a copper radiator, therefore yours can't be OEM. Your '88 radiator will fit 1984 - 1989. 1990 and up use a different radiator.


boonie,
I am not sure that is a fatal combination, but keep a watchful eye on what you are buying. Unless you have special cooling needs your best bet is an OEM style replacement from a reputable manufacturer. Modine and Delco are two examples of quality replacements. The OE radiator for all C4s was a single row aluminum core with plastic tanks. Beware of multiple row, all metal replacements. For one thing, an aluminum core radiator cools better than a copper brass replacement.

Why are you getting ready to replace yours? Is it totally shot, leaking or plugged up? My radiator is 24 years old, 10 years older than yours, and it cools very well. I have had tanks replaced twice but it still has the factory installed core. You may want to take the radiator to a radiator shop for an analysis and a quote before you condemn it.

RACE ON!!!

0Tom@Dewitt

Thanks! See below for more

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...radiators.html

dwilliamson1

My 85 always did run hot in traffic and after a bad experience on a miserable hot day I decided I had to do something different. Being basically cheap, I ordered what was advertised to be an all aluminum, 2 rows of tubes, radiator off of eBay for less than $200. What a mistake!

It arrived with a chunk of a broken wood pallet stuck through a tank plus it was a single row of tubes. UPS says that they use no wood pallets so it had to have happened prior to shipment to me. I complained that not only did they send me a damaged one but it was the wrong one. They did refund my money after some time and we had to have the discussion of “No I don’t want another single row, if you can’t supply what you advertise give me my money back”. All I ended up being out was about 4 weeks of of my time screwing with it.

So I added a bit more cash to it and ordered a DeWitts. It is a beautiful piece of work, it fits, it cools better than I expected, and now I’m ready for that turbo install if I ever get around to it. It looks so good it was a shame to cover it up with the ugly black plastic shroud.

856SPEED

I have a new(er) OEM style radiator that I put in the car when the engine was rebuilt along with the tranny swap....look at my mods....far from stock with no cooling issues.......I think this is a place where a lot of folks get caught up on expensive radiators that provide little or no cooling improvements......now if you have an old(er) hot rod with the old copper radiators, then you have a lot of room for improvement if you run any serious h/p...otherwise....do your homework..

JackDidley

Here ya go.



New 3 Row All Aluminum Pro Series Radiator
1984-89 Corvette CC829


Will Cool Up To 850hp

Specifications:
Core Dimensions: 15" high x 23 5/8" wide (3 row core)

Overall Dimensions: 16 1/2 high x 28" wide (including tanks)

Upper inlet: 1 5/16" located on drivers side.
Lower outlet: 1 5/8" located on passenger side.
Trans cooler: included
OEM mount system
OEM style brass petcock drain. Not plastic like others sold on eBay
Radiator cap is included

Kool88vette

Luv my Dewitt's. I've never come close to overheating since I installed it.

0Tom@Dewitt

JD, I'm not picking on you here so please don't take it that way but this is exactly what I was talking about on the C3 section earlier today.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...radiators.html

The first thing that jumps out at me about these radiators is the 3-row design. That's unusual because nobody in the usa makes a three row radiator. The other thing is they never mention what size those tubes are. That's very important to the btu rating of the heat exchanger and I would think they would want everyone to know. While the industry standard is two rows of 1" tubes (2.0 total) a three row of say 5/8" tubes would only be (1.8" total)

They say that everything is made right there in Irvine California but when I google earth the address I found them to in a small office suite the size of a dentist office, right across the street from IHOP.

cv67

Support an American vendor.

JackDidley

Tom, I am sure the product you provide is far better. I would very much like to use it as I strongly believe in US made products as well as Forum supporting vendors. Fact is, a year ago the place I worked for 30+ years closed its doors. I am now working on a farm with only fair pay and no benefits. I am in survival mode so I just cant do a lot of things I'd like to.
More specs. I was going to PM this but you do not have PM available.

Higher density core: cooling rows are spaced 3/8" apart: giving you 25% more rows within the core than other aluminum radiators sold on eBay and 35% more rows than OEM copper.
Aluminum dissipates heat more efficiently than copper or brass.
Approximately 1500 more cooling fins than other aluminum radiators and approximately 3000 more than OEM copper radiators.
Lighter weight.

anesthes

Stock radiator here, 500hp, runs around 190 degrees in the summer.

-- Joe

85 500 horse

You can't get much better than a Dewitt's and a Chinese pos radiator certainly isn't nearly as good.