I'm thinking it's a Dorman 620-004...model years 93-96

 

It pisses me off that nobody markets a copper/brass radiator for anything these days.... everything available is POS Toyota-looking, aluminum with plastic tanks.
my son just did a side job on an 88 monte Carlo and that was all he could find for it, even my 78 Plymouth Sport Fury that was largely the case....... back in the 70s the Toyotas that were running around had copper/brass at the time... so I don't get it.

so I found a Champion Radiators brand 100% aluminum with TIG welded tank to core seams, 3 row for not much more than a POS plastic/aluminum one for the Fury, that are notorious for leaking at plastic to aluminum seam.
$219 shipped to my door from Calif. lifetime warranty.

 

That change happened for the Max Cooling in the last year; the one I bought about a year ago was all metal.

They're probably still out there.

The MAIN reason why is two fold: 1) Cheaper to make 2) Better withstanding vibration, believe it or not.

You can still buy custom radiators that are all metal; maybe even find a Max Cooling radiator.

RwP

 

Hey Robert Here are the pictures.

This is the box, Got it off of ebay.




This picture shows width




Here is the height



Here is the center, and I believe the wiring could be re-routed and this cut down to 2in.






Here is the motor height





Here is a picture looking straight down






When I purchased this, my hopes were to sandwich this in between the condenser and radiator. I have not pulled the radiator to confirm measurements, but I believe the distance between the radiator and condenser, at the top is 3.5 in.? but less at the bottom.
Do you remember if that is the case on the early radiator supports?

 

That's about right...it's definitely tighter at the bottom. As an example, on the 91+ core, my permacool bracket that I fab'd actually sits in the lip of the radiator at the bottom but is a good 3" away near the top. The 87-90 core is similar as if you look at the inside vertical support for the grill, it has a dog leg at the bottom that kicks it out to match the top.

As for installation and measurement, it's much easier to remove the front grill and headlights to access that area than removing the radiator....I did it about 4 times in the past week.

Thanks for the info on the intrepid fan. Yeah, that's an early model intrepid fan....Most of the hot rodders use the 98-2003 which is much larger, so that had me confused.

Today, I installed an Imperial flex fan. I decided against the flex-a-fan as it is aluminum and only 4 rivets hold the blades to the hub...and the hub isn't solid. The imperial is solid steel and one piece so much stronger. 6 rivets hold each blade which are also steel, not aluminum. The horror stories about the flex-a-fan's breaking apart and sending shrapnel through the hood was enough to steer me towards the imperial. So far, so good. I let it idle for about 20 minutes and the temp never got above 1/2 way. The electric fan did kick on at 150 deg but it took awhile. The temperature differential between the top and bottom of the radiator is now closer to 35 degrees, vs 20 degrees before. Going to drive it around town and cross my fingers.

Long term, I'll probably still opt for the intrepid fan setup. I assume it can be rewired to be a pusher? Right now I just need to get it running for the wife to enjoy the rest of the summer. Then come winter I'll probably swap out the perma-cool and flex fan for the intrepid setup.

 

Well, the mystery continues. I've got plenty of fan now. Drove it around town for 10 to 15 minutes at 35 mph, and the temp stayed at about 30% on the gauge. Brought it home and parked it and got the IR gun to check things, and the temp began to rise. I noticed that the overflow was full of coolant and boiling. No way it should do that, so popped the radiator cap and the seal was busted. Go to store and buy new cap and put new cap on. Repeat above. This time, doesn't rise as quickly but still rising. But no coolant boiling in overflow. IR gun shows upper hose at about 195 to 200 depending on where I point it. The bottom hose showing about 165 to 170. BUT, when I point my gun directly on the brass coolant sensor it's reading about 225. The front of the intake water channels about the same. The back of the intake is a cool 180. So either, the rubber hoses are insulating the temp reading too much and it's not accurate or the coolant sensor is picking up heat from the intake and reading erroneously.

Not sure what to do at this point. I did notice that the corrugated flex hose I used is somewhat smaller and of course ribbed vs the lower hose on my V8 95 Dak. Thinking about changing it to see if it's causing any water flow restriction. At this point it has to either be water flow (hose or thermostat), or it's not really overheating and the pickup point for the temp gauge is in a bad spot.

 

To rule out a Head Gasket, can anyone confirm my logic (I don't have a leakdown tester or chemical test). I did check compression on all cylinders before dropping engine in and they all were within a few lbs.

I know you can pull all the plugs except one and crank over engine with cap off and if the water bubbles or explodes then that's a sign of a blown HG on that cylinder. I'm trying to rule out any cylinder, so if I just pull the distributor wire with all plugs in and turn over the engine with the cap off, I should see water movement if a blown HG right? I did so and the water in the radiator remained absolutely still. I also have no milky white on the dipstick or oil cap, and no white smoke on the exhaust. So safe to say no HG issue? This motor had only 200 miles on it so I'd be surprised, but still...trying to rule out everything.

Also, if a blown HG, wouldn't it present itself as overheating at higher RPM while driving down the road more so than idling? I have better cooling driving down the road, which again points to air flow, but man...With two high CFM fans pushing and pulling I'm surprised I don't have enough.

Lastly, I know there's no bleeder for burping the system like on my newer cars, so I attempted to park on my inclined driveway, nose up, and let it idle with cap off. I got lots of bigger bubbles, but since it's overheating, the level kept expanding up/over the cap, so it was hard to burp this way. How long on a new cooling system (hoses, radiator, engine all dry) would it take to 'burp'?

 

Looking online I found that the orig. radiator has a 1.25 inlet and a 1.5 outlet.. Magnum trucks had a 1.5 and 1.75
So if you are squeezing it down 1/4 an inch and then using a corrugated hose on top, throw in a big motor, it may be that the bigger smoother hose would help.
Also, have you considered anything like water wetter? I know some guys who autocross and they swear by it. But they say it works better with pure water or no more then 10% antifreeze. Supposed to be the more antifreeze the more it degrades the effect of water wetter.

 

I was hoping to avoid any chemical additives.

So today, I checked out the Combustion Tester from Auto Zone. It uses a chemical to detect blown head gasket by analyzing combustion gases in the radiator. Thankfully the test passed, so no blown headgasket.

However, as part of that test, I had to drain a few inches down from the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. The new antifreeze I just put in yesterday was tea colored from rust. So, the water passages in the engine from sitting 2 years must be pretty rusted. I bought some flush chemical and am running that through tonight. Also bought a 160 deg T-stat to try and a 1.75" smooth hose.

I hate throwing parts at it, but I'm running out of ideas. If I find out all this time my new water pump is bad, going to be pissed. One thing I noticed is that at idle, at 190 deg once the T-stat has opened up, I'm not seeing hardly any movement of coolant at the radiator cap (cap off). Only when I goose the throttle do I see some movement. I can't honestly say from memory what the movement should look like in a normal operating system. I suppose very little, as the water flows down all the columns unlike a cross radiator, so probably normal, but checking every scenario.

 

I will try to look at mine latter today and see how much water is moving......
I would have thought that it would be quite a bit.

But that said, I really have a gut feeling, its still an air flow problem.
A pump not keeping up, blockage in the block passages etc. IMO would show up more under a load ie: driving, vs idle.
Another long shot, but have you tried it with the electric fan disconnected? Just wondering if the 2 are working against each other.

Also, when you drain it to flush with the cleaner, I wonder, could you take loose the lower or bypass hose and be able to look in and see the vanes on the pump? I have a Ridgid camera with a 3 ft. lead. It may take something like that to look in there, or you may be able to see. Just wondering.

I know what you mean about throwing parts at it.

Here is a link to the water wetter. https://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=74&pcid=10