Anyone have experience with mounting a YearOne 26" Radiator into an E-Body? It sure looks like it will interfere with the washer fluid and the lower radiator hose will pinch into the K-Member.

Since I am trying to retrofit a 26" radiator into a 22" slot I can't seem to find a good place to bolt this thing in where I can keep my washer fluid and not pinch the lower hose against the K Member.

Is the radiator crap? Do lower hoses always come close to pinching? Is there a different Washer Fluid container or do I eliminate it?

Most of the things I have read suggest that with a 440, a 26" is what I need and I realize that I will have to drill new holes or weld in new supports but I just can't visualize how this thing is supposed to look.

I took a couple crappy photos, I have both sb and bb cars sitting here. Both had after market radiators in em at one point. So I know just about any 26" core will fit. including the hose and wiper fluid tank.

They both are sporting factory recored radiators now.
72-74 model sb




You can see the fuel pump mounted factory vapor separator/filter that I run with a return line and factory mechanical pump. 340 motor.

71 model bb

Sweet!

So I fitted it before we dropped in the 440 and I was planning to drill two holes like you mentioned. That was the plan. Then when we installed the engine we noticed that the center of the radiator would not be center with the fan and so the shroud won't fit. We then took a close look at the K and noticed that the lower radiator hose looked like it would bind. From this we figured one of two things:

1) The YearOne repro is not as close to stock as we would like
2) We would need to drill 4 holes instead of two to get the radiator centered with the fan.

I grew comfortable with drilling two new holes but I'm starting to balk at the idea of four new holes. Everything I have read makes this process seem very easy so I am confused as to why it is not lining up like everyone else's!

I very much appreciate the photos. Do you have a photo that shows the two new passenger holes you drilled or did your BB come with 26" framing?

340, as mentioned, stock left side mount/holes.
Drilled new holes for right side. 26in radiator in 22in opening, perfectly centered.

Awesome photos. Thank you very much.

We are going to take another shot at it today to see if we can do this with a minimum amount of holes and fabrication!

-Steve

So the problem I think was the fan was too big. We were working with a 20" fan which left zero room for error. We have the radiator sitting a little higher than yours.

The 18" fan gets in on Tuesday and we can lower this a tad and I bet it will line up with the factory driver-side holes.