Have a 2000 Ram Wagon with the 5.2L, I am in Southern California

It started to overheat on the way to the lake pulling the boat on the freeway.
Exited the freeway, it was uphill, and took the streets for abit to go over the hill and it was OK.

So I take a look today, and the radiator is fugly. It has crud inside, and corrosion everywhere, and chunks of the front are missing.

Needless to say I need a new radiator.

I read some older threads here, but they are bit dated.

Any good recommendations on what to get?

I had hard time finding actual part numbers, makes things easier to find, Ill post what I find so others can find it in the future.

Seems like I should go with a 2-row at least.
Looking online, I cant really find 2-rows listed.

I foudn this one, listed on an older thread:
http://www.radiatorexpress.com/produ...aia_id=1372036
Is this good? any long term reliability report by anyone?

I am also planning on replacing the water pump and t-stat while I am there,
For the tstat:Stant 45359 SuperStat Thermostat - 195 Deg
Found the GMB 120-3041P on amazon for $71, seen it for as high as twice as that
are these ok?

Also looking at a tranny cooler, was looking at this Hayden 404:

finally I am planning on doing an efan upgrade,
this sounds tempting and I have some leftover aluminum sheet to build a custom shroud
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...onversion.html

thanks
-bb

 

Heres a link to a thread I posted on, good recent info.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...pump-dies.html

 

My Silla Radiator developed a leak about 6 months ago, and is still leaking, but not very much. It is leaking where the the tubes meet the bottom tank. It will be 2 years old in October.

There have been complaints about Stant's quality over the last 10 years, but I think the standard 2 1/8" t stat our vans use is still reliable. I tried a Motorad T stat. It seems a little slow to fully open on the first warm up of the day. The Motorad does have a little jiggle valve which makes filling and purging the system of Air simple. Some recommend drilling a tiny hole in the skirt of the t stat to accomplish the same thing.

Replace the upper and lower radiator hoses whilst you are doing this, also the bypass hose and all the hose clamps. Also there is no better time to flush and back flush the heater core. I couldn't believe all the crap which came out of mine, and my system looked pretty clean when I tore it apart.

 

yeah, I ordered the three hoses as well.
still trying todecide on the actual radiator
the Spectra Premium/Radiator Part Number: CU1707 that is listed doesnt show if it is a 2 row or not.
-bb

 

Had a real scummy cooling system and a bad rad. Just bought one out of a rad shop, 2 row, works fine. Replaced the thermostat too, put in i think it was, a 170 degree. Cooling water was still very scummy. Then had a freeze plug go out, front one on the L side. When I replaced it I found the bottom front L side of the block was full of scum. Pulled a couple more freeze plugs on both sides, and gave the block a serious washing with a strong water hose until the water ran clear. Even had to dig my fingers in there and pull out wads of scum. The truck is running cooler and the coolant staying much cleaner. I think the L front collects the scum because of the way the engine twists when under torque. It makes it the low side, and wouldn't be surprised to find some water flow direction stuff going on there too.

 

This is a metal (brass/copper) two core radiator and at a fair price. They are made in Mexico. Mine has worked perfectly so far in my 2000 1500 5.2L swb van.. and it is 105 degrees here in Texas.

http://amzn.com/B000C8EPME

I do drill a 1/8" hole off to the side of my thermostat if one isn't already present.

There are several very good efan conversion threads here and I recommend reading all of them. This is mine.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...onversion.html

 

thanks blackvan, I ordered the stuff in your thread, and was planning on using yours as my guide.

How is it working our for you?

On the radiator itself, I ended going with radiator express, ordering the 2 row model.

I opted to pick it up, turns out it is actually a Silla. And the Corp HQ is like 15 minutes from my place. Their Warehouse is huge! I counted like 10 delivery trucks for local deliveries parked there.

I guess if I do have a problem with it, I can return it through their front window if they give my a run around JK...or not

On the notes on the invoice, they accidently gave me their invoice showing how much they paid, it says that a 2 row is ordered but this model actually has one large row, the full explanation is cut off.

the rest of my stuff get here tomorrow, should be a fun weekend

-bb

 

Glad that my info was helpful. So, it is now up to 105F here in Texas and I am very pleased with my Syclone fan. One additional benefit I had not anticipated is the that when its this hot the efan runs for another 10min after shutting the engine off. This significantly reduces hot-soak issues including ridiculous cabin heat from the doghouse. The downside is that In bumper to bumper traffic with the AC running the van runs hotter than I would like (220F). If I had to spend more than 15 minutes doing this every day, I would add a 2nd pusher fan.

The aluminum radiators are one core. I hope that you let me know how that one works out for you. Seems that the aluminum vs brass radiator is kindof an onging debate

 

Just finished right now cleaning up.
Started Friday Afternoon.

This is what I ended up doing over the weekend:
Transmission fluid and filter replace
Oil change and filter: Went with castrol syntec and a K&N 3001 filter
Radiator
Electric fan and fan controller
Upper and lower Rad Hoses
GMB Water pump
195° thermostat
sparkplugs
Gatorback serpentine belt
air filter
all in all about $700 worth of stuff including fluids and all, money well spent for some needed service and piece of mind.

The efan just stays on like 2-3 minutes after the van is turned off right now.
Both the signal and power of the controller are tied together to 12v.

Didnt install the tranny cooler I bought since I found out the van already had one when I took the radiator out.

The most time consuming part was taking the thermostat out and removing the waterpump and thermostat's old gaskets.

Didnt replace the bypass hose as it seemed It would need more stuff to remove, like the AC compressor and more, was a good thing since I ended up misplacing the new one. The old looks in great condition anyways.

Many thanks to BlackVan for your help on the efan info and tip.

thanks
-bb

 

this is the radiator that was in there



On the Silla radiator from radiator express, it says that mods may be required, I was able to just unscrew the adapters it came with for the radiator and screw my existing lines in, no other mods where required
-bb