Aluminum radiators again

Doing a cam swap on my Savoy and while I have the radiator out I was going to replace the 22" unit with a 26" core. I have read good reviews about the Speed Cooling radiator and there are many people on here that like the Champion radiator. The Champion uses 3 small rows while Speed Cooling claims there 2 large tubes are superior to the small 3 tubes which makes sense to me. I plan on adding a shroud too so that will also be a factor in my final choice. I don't mind some cutting and drilling minor fab work to make it fit as I will have to do some mods to my car to take the 26" rad where the 22" rad was.

Gus

Gus I run the Champion 22 I got off Ebay.Like 150 a few years ago.The 440 is built radical and never gets over 180 no matter how hot.I ran a stock 22 from a Cbody with stock shroud for like 15 years and ran under 190.It got busted when the jack slipped.was leary about the champion but in the 3 years or so Ive had it no problems.I did have to open up the mount holes a bit.But I thibk my front is bent a bit.Rocky

I had the 4 row Champion 1st, did not work very well, now have the ECP 2 row , works well, car has ac & Southeast Texas heat, 180ish all day long

I had a generic Summit Racing unit, crossflow with a 26" width and 2 rows of tubes. It worked great but when I started an A/C swap, I went with a different WP housing and a different outlet design and needed a different radiator. I bought a "Speed Cooling" unit, 26". It fit great, a factory shroud fit and it cools the 440/493 just as well as the other unit. No improvement, no setback...I never had an overheating problem before though.

Me too, I put one in my 70 Charger (408 small block), keeps it nice and cool. I live in Florida....and it's flipppen HOT out!

I need 22" replacement to cool my 440 A-body. I don't want to cut out the radiator support to fit a 26" so want to replace it with another 22" like it came with originally. Can anyone recommend a good one that will indeed cool this 440 but in 22"? I would like one with 2 rows with the bigger tubes..

I've run a 22" generic aluminum two tube cross flow that came from a local roundy round shop for around fifteen years and never had any cooling issues. I run a MP viscous fan with a factory shroud cut down to fit. It's cooled my 340, 408 and now a 434. The car is 3350# and runs 6.40 at almost 109 mph in the 1/8. I've seen 185° after a pass at the strip, most of the time on the street it runs 170-175° with a 160° thermostat.

http://www.speedcooling.com/22-Mopa...h74O84gIVWAWtBh0tqAG6EAEYASADEgIc7PD_BwE



no experience with these guys but the price with the fans and shroud seems fair

That is ECP

Had a Champion 26" in the 512" Duster, in its stock 22" opening, and with a mech fan and a shroud, cooled fine (175 tops) with no problems.
Have a Griffin 22" in my SB Duster drag car (half-filled block, 18" elec puller, no shroud), plenty adequate; it likes a coolant temp of 120-130 staging. Might see 160 or so on the return road.
Zero leaks or problems with either radiator, and the Griffin's been in there since around 1996.
Looking at that ECP site, the radiators look like pretty screamin' deals if you don't need the electric fan setup.
My only reservation with alum radiators is the non-OEM look in an otherwise restored car, but for hot rods, no worries there.

If you want a radiator that fits like it should, use the Cold Case radiator.

As always, a big 2 core radiator will out cool a 3 or 4 core radiator all day long.

How did you bolt the bigger 26" radiator in place of the 22"? Did you just drill new holes in the radiator support and use nuts and bolts through it or?

That's gonna be my plan but I may use nut-serts just for ease of assembly. Looks like I will be going with the ECP Speed Cool 22" it looks like the best looking radiator of the bunch around $200 that has a mounting flange for a factory type shroud.

Thanks again guys for all the input Seems like every tech article I read about cooling they all say 2 large tubes are the best option for my application.

Gus

I didn't install the 26 in that car, it came that way; but yeah, had holes and nuts/bolts.
Found it interesting that the stock opening was present; it had top & bottom tanks, unlike the Griffin in my drag car which has side tanks.
The Griffin is a "universal Chevy" model.
Only thing - come to think of it - that I thought odd about the Griffin is the bottom hose connection is higher than the bottom of the tank.
Hasn't been a problem, though.

Thats the one im lookin at also! The ECP 22" with the 1" tubes. Im just wondering if it will be enough to cool my 440? The original brass 22" currently in it just wont do it when its above 90 degrees here. Its fine when its cooler but cant keep it down in the summer heat..

I have champion radiators in 3 of my cars. 2 are race cars, 1 is a cruiser. The race cars have a 4 row and work great for me. The cruiser is a 3 row and also works great. They are good radiators for the money. I have no experience with ECP, but I do like the fact they have that "stock" look to them esp if you'd paint them black. I might of went that route with my cruiser if I had known about them at the time.

I have a $200 Afco radiator with a single Spal 16 inch fan.Nice nights it runs 175*,,hot nights it run up to 185 to 190*

Got this for the wagon. 526 stroker.
Installed, but working on other things, so haven’t tried it yet.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323004082999

I've had 3 champions. In the bb duster I have a 26" 3 core with the stock opening. I have a home made shroud and a clutch fan. It works great. Stays under 180. Been In there 8 years.
In my magnum powered wrangler i also have a 3 core champion. You have to see how small that rad is. I want to say 18" wide. I have a pt cruiser electric fan and that also works good.
I did have one that a dozen or so tubes started leaking, I tried to warranty it since it was only 1-1/2 to 2 years old, but since I had a tube that I damaged and closed off with epoxy, I voided the warranty. I'm still curious what caused that. I replaced it with a blem unit i got on eBay that had the wrong size outlets. Cut them off the old one and welded them on the new one.
I have to replace the cheap cross flow in my dart and I think I'll try the ecp.

I had Wizard Cooling build me a radiator for my Daytona clone. Have a mild 440 in the car, flexi fan and radiator shroud, 170º t-stat. Have not had a problem yet, was stuck in Friday morning traffic last year at Carlisle for 30 minutes with no issues. My friend who owns a radiator repair shop checked out the radiator and said it was a nice unit.