Looking at a Northern brand radiator for my Big Block 69 Dart GTS. Anyone here ever use this brand before in a A or B body big block Mopar? Wondering about the fit (will it bolt right in)?, how well it cools,(does it cool any better then the stock factory rad)? What about using stock factory hoses, and what about my factory fan shroud? Lastly is it worth the $509 dollar asking price. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Two of my cars had after market radiators in them when I got them & OE radiators were the things I started search for first for both.

I prefer the look of OE, they also fit perfect & cool just fine for my cars.

Thanks Alaskan_TA. I couldn't agree with you more. I have the factory rad in my car now, (it's been record too), but car runs warmer then I would like it to. Was curious if maybe a after market alum rad would cool better. I liked the looks of the Northern brand rad for A-bodies, but don't want to waste $500 hundred if it won't cool any better then my factory rad.

Another option may to have another row added to yours if possible then?

how hot? confirmed with a good mech gauge? around town or interstate? what is the rest of the system; fan/shroud/pulley ratio/timing/AF ratio/no vac leak/stat opening all the way/lower hose not collapsing (somewhat rare on the last two). any recent part/tuning changes preceding it now running hotter?

I did, its a 3 row now.

I've 3 times now solved a cooling issue (all good parts, but 200-220 temps) simply by adding a fan shroud and speeding up the water pump a little. 2 have stock radiators, 1 is aluminum (Champion). All are healthy big-blocks. All now run 180 in traffic using stock fans.

Aluminum radiators DO NOT cool better than stock style, the ONLY difference is the weight. Plenty of studies done on that very thing. A good water pump, fan shroud, and fan are all you need. BTW, most radiators use 3/8" tubes, factory big block A-Body radiators use 1/2" tubes. Many mistakes are made when having someone recore your original radiator. I will only let Glen-Ray Radiators touch mine...

Call Glen Ray radiators, and talk to Bob, maybe they can help.

Rapid has some good questions. It is not always the radiator itself. Aluminum only cools a tiny bit better than brass... a tiny bit. I has more to do with the entire package; how many rows, how large are the tubes, how many tubes per row, how much air is pulled through, etc. and bigger is not always better.

For example, if you had a 1000-row radiator, it would be too hard for air to flow through. If you had 50 electric fans, they would block highway air flow where you don't need a fan...etc, etc.

You're trying to get heat from the cylinders into the coolant, then into the radiator, then out into the outside air.

So, what is your exact "runs hot" situation?

Robert. With a 160 high flow stat and according to my Auto-Meter temp gauge it will run 195 degrees on the move in the summertime if I'm going over 45mph. The problem is when I have to slow down or hit a red light the temp quickly rises to around 210 to 220 degrees depending on how warm a day it is. I know some say that temp is okay, but its not. The car will begin to spit & spuder and want to stall out upon take off, I think its called vapor lock, a sign everything under the hood is to hot. The car is a factory 440 Dart GTS, mostly stock except for a small cam (under 500 lift) and edelbrock alum intake. Factor radiator is a recored 3 row with the factory fan shroud in place. Rad cap is new Stant 16# and in good shape. Running a 50/50 mix of Peak anti-freeze, along with a bottle of water-wetter (no help). Replaced the factory 18 inch #213 fan with a 18 inch factory #224 fan (more pitch) to pull a little more air into the radiator (no help). Timing is set to factory stock 5* BTDC. Don't think I have any vacuum leaks that I know of. Bottom rad hose not collapsing. Car runs great in the cool weather of spring or fall. 170 to maybe 185 with the 160* stat in place. Put a 1/4 inch phenolic carb spacer under the carb trying to keep heat off the carb and stop the vapor locking on hot days, (again no help). So was thinking maybe a after-market 22inch alum rad may make a difference. Liked the looks of the Northern brand 22 inch for BB A-bodies, but not the price. Was wondering if anyone here has any experience with one? Oh forgot to mention engine has a flow-kooler water pump also.

I run an aluminum "muscle car" radiator from Mancini in an E with warm 496 and AC. The thermal clutch fan is slightly overdriven and and high volume water pump. Cools great. Right on 180 degree stat temp when rolling and a little warmer at a stop in hot weather.

In your situation, 195 rolling with a 160 stat means the radiator is maxed out. Not enough capacity.

A really good 22" radiator may help if everything else is perfect: good shroud, strong fan and matched clutch, pulley ratios that give some OD and good water pump. The Muscle car radiator is available in 22" and I do not know how it compares to the Northern or what you have now.

A 26" wide radiator, especially with BB, would help a lot.

Rhino, good info. Maybe I'll call Glen-ray and see what he says.

Radiator construction info:

https://www.cgj.com/2013/07/16/aluminum-vs-copper-brass-radiator-final-thoughts/

A 26" radiator would not work in an early A-Body unless you like using sawzalls...

I ran a stock never touched 65 C body rad and shround in my B body for years.Never went over 190 no matter what.My 440 in my 65 is radical.Had a jack slip and busted the rad.Bought a cheap Champion off Ebay for 150.It runs as cool or cooler than the factory rad.Never gets over 185.Had my doubts about it but it works.My kids 62 300 we had the OE recored to 4 core back in like 99.Shops cost was almost 400 thyen.It worked great.No shroud on it We both ran big Stainless flex fans.No problems ever.Rocky

I have a cheap aftermarket afco aluminum and it works well for me. Stock appearing or stock fitting does not concern me so I made it work. That being said, I thought brass cools better than aluminum? All the higher performance small cooling products I see are copper or brass/bronze. If you have a recored 3-row oem rad I would be looking elsewhere for the problem before replacing it.

Firstly, if you're running a 160 stat and if everything is cooling well your max temp should be holding at only 5 or so degrees above thermostat temp. Personally I think 180 is a better temp for a driver but that's a separate discussion and nothing to do with your overheating issue. Secondly, your initial timing is too low, I would bump that up to 15° because too little timing can cause overheating problems as well. Too lean can also cause overheating but typically you would see that problem at cruise, not idle. I would be looking at whether the water pump is not pushing enough, pump speed too low or bad clutch fan not locking enough to pull full air at low engine speeds. How is your fan sitting in the shroud? I think the fan blades are supposed to be sitting about 1/2 way into the shroud.

Daytona. Like I said previous I'm using a Flow-kooler water pump. When I look into the radiator I can see a nice flow of water moving. I agree the 180* stat would normally be a better choice, but in my case I think it would make the car run even hotter in the summertime. I also agree with you on the timing. With the cam I have 274/286 dur. .488/.491 lift I think it should have more timing. I had it advanced to 10* initial but backed it back down to the stock 5* degrees initial, didn't make any difference. When the weather warms up I'll try your recommend 15* degrees and see what happens. Right now in 50 degree temps the car runs great, about 170* on my Auto-meter temp gauge, even in stop & go traffic it mite jump up to 180* but no more. Fan is sitting about 3/4 of the way into the shroud with the fan blades 1 inch away from the rad. Seems whatever I try makes no difference. Thanks for the advice.

If memory serves, the theory is if the fan blades are too far into the shroud, they create turbulence inside the shroud and don't really pull air like they should. Too far out and of course the fan blades can start to suck air from outside the shroud. Yours sounds like it's pretty close so I doubt that's the problem. Have you tried a different fan clutch?

I run the 160 quick opening high flow Thermostat. Stock Cast iron water pump housing and cast iron water pump drive. 26 inch 3 core stock rad and the stock shroud and a stock seven blade fan without a clutch drive. The motor is a warmed over 430 inch Hemi all iron hemi. Mechanical gauge is taken of the water pump and shows 163 degrees idling, driving or anytime. Maybe you are not holding the water in the tank long enough to cool it, if the capacity is too small. Maybe your water pump and housing are not mated if you have had this same problems with other rads without other changes. Now was you block cleaned before rebuild in the cooling passages.

when you slow down the eng is making even less heat but you have way way less air flow/less water flow & less timing. As said you need more timing (I run 19 on a bone stock 85 318) & what is your pulley ratio (I'm assuming at least 1-1 if not overdriven, even better). what is your in gear idle speed (which is what it is seeing at the stoplight). Idling, how much suction do you feel on your hand in front of the rad? (some C bodies it felt like a tornado in there). for a shroud app, the fan 1" away from the rad seems a bit close to the rad (how wide is the shroud?). FOR SURE get a 180 stat in there, You want it to get out of the cold extreme wear zone FAST & a 160-180 stat has NO bearing on the running hot temp on the other end of the scale (210-220). Short version: you may just need more rad. Champions are pretty good nowadays & cheap, if you dont mind the square non rounded top tank. Holler how it turns out/what fixes it.

I have a Classics Industries OER reproduction replacement radiator in my 70' Charger now due to I was having issues running hot. The longer I drove it the hotter it got. The new radiator solved all of my issues. I can idle in Woodward Dream cruise traffic all day long now. I also had a custom radiator made for my 70' Challenger race/street car. Handles almost 1000 H.P. cruising on the street just fine.

Daytona: Don't have a clutch fan, no room. Have the factory fixed 7 blade 18 inch #2863224 fan. Car is a big block 69 A-body so it only has the factory 22 inch radiator like they came with back then. But the rad was recored to 3 core.

Robert. According to my Sun Tach I have the idle @ 1000 RPM's when its in Park and it drops to about 800 RPM's in gear. As for the pulleys, they are the stock factory 440 engine pulleys, whatever that ratio is. Fan shroud is also the factory shroud made for the 22 inch A-body big block radiator. As for suction, if you hold a piece of paper close to radiator it will suck it up and hold it to the radiator. Now if that's enough air flow or not I'm not sure. As for the fan being 1 inch away from the rad I too was thinking that's a little to close. I have a slightly smaller fan spacer I'm going to try, but its only going to pull the fan back another 1/4 inch. So it will then be 1 & 1/4 " away from the rad. Truthfully I don't think its going to make much of a difference. I will advance the timing back up to around 15* and install a new Milodon high flow 180 stat in place of the 160 stat. Other then that I'm out of ideas, except for buying a different and new 22 inch rad. Thanks.

I still think you have the wrong core in the radiator. Do you have the factory .70 spacer between the water pump and fan? Before taking ANY advice from people here who have never had a factory big block A-Body, please talk with Bob at Glen-Ray, I can't emphasize that enough! I have had factory big block A-Body's for almost 40 years now, not many other models have the same issues they do.

Can you try another guage? Maybe your's isn't reading correctly

What happens when you put the transmission in neutral? Revs should come up, does temp come down?

Rhino. Jim, Appreciate all your help and advice. I will give this Bob @ Glenn-Ray a call. I do have a .70 fan spacer, but its not on the car at the present time. I tried a 1.06 spacer and a #2863224 fan (that fan has more pitch to the fan blades) hoping to pull more air into the rad, but it hasn't helped in cooling much. I'm going to reinstall the factory .70 spacer and pull the fan back a 1/4 inch where it belongs. You make a good point about the BB A-bodies radiator tube size. I never knew they had 1/2" tubes in them. That may help alot. Have you or anyone here reading this post ever shipped out a radiator before? I've never shipped one. What's the best way to pack & send one out? And with what carrier? Would hate to have this #065 rad damaged in transit. Again thanks for all your advice.

I always pick up my radiators from Bob, and have a couple of his packing boxes and foam that he packs them in. All you need to make sure is that the tanks and sides get protected, a rectangular box with whatever foam you can find. I am lucky that where I work has boxes with electronic components packed with lots of foam that they throw out so I take it home. I usually use UPS when I ship them.