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PostPosted: Fri Jun 07, 2002 4:14 pm 
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Location: Sand Bernardino, CA
Someday we hope to have a couple articles about stuff like this to save you guys a little time with your conversions. The questions like "which radiator should I run?" and "how did you modify XXX to fit your XXX?" are quite common, and rightfully so.

What I've learned from looking at a few converted LUV's is that there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. For example, I don't think I've seen any two people use the exact same radiator with the exact same mounting. So, keep in mind that this is just one way to do it.

On my truck, I've had great results running a Griffin Aluminum 2-core radiator with 1.25" cores. It measures 24" wide and 19" tall and will fit snugly between the two u-beams that you have running vertically, after you do some trimming of course. Jeg's has the part listed as number 475-155202-X. It's rather pricey at about $290, but it's worth every penny in my opinion. This unit keeps my 500hp-350 under control with an electric fan in front.

I've run a few different combinations and this current setup works the best and fits rather well. You'll also have to come up with a top and bottom bracket to complete the install. I'll try and snap some pictures of my mounting brackets to give you one possible solution.

Also keep in mind that if your building a fire-breathing, blown 406 then you would want to go with an even bigger radiator than I have suggested.

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 08, 2002 4:15 am 
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I had my stock radiator recored to a 3 core, I just wondering if anybody else has done this. My hooker kit said to go with a 4core for 72 - 74, but mine is a 75 and the radiator shop said the biggest they could go was 3core. It cost about $150 and they also said it should do the trick. Haven't had any problems yet, but I also haven't gotten to drive it very much.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 09, 2002 2:42 am 
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bob wrote:
I had my stock radiator recored to a 3 core, I just wondering if anybody else has done this. My hooker kit said to go with a 4core for 72 - 74, but mine is a 75 and the radiator shop said the biggest they could go was 3core. It cost about $150 and they also said it should do the trick. Haven't had any problems yet, but I also haven't gotten to drive it very much.

That's what I did also, had it recored to a 3 core and had the tranny cooler added to it. I also don't drive mine very much, esp now it is missing a door!! :evil: It stayed about 180 when driving and would heat up a little in stop n go traffic.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2002 12:23 am 
i also use the griffen radiator 19x24 two core i have a 383 but do not use a electic fan only for the trans cooler i use a fan and fan clutch from a 280z car it has 7 blades and works good abought 205temp in stop and go on a 90 deg day


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2002 8:28 pm 
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Guys, I would avoid the recores. It's up to you of course, but overheating problems are a major drag. Saving $200 on a radiator and electric fan could cost you your motor in the long run. It's not worth it. I almost smoked my motor in Palm Springs, CA once and it was one of my worst memories in the truck. We went to Palm Springs to cruise around. The police had the street all blocked off because they wanted the cruisers to leave. They were ticketing cars that parked on the side of the road.

It didn't take long for my truck to overheat sitting still, and the cops wouldn't let me pull over. By the time I got to the end of the street where I could pull into a parking lot my truck had emptied all of it's coolant and the water temp gauge said 240. I thought for sure that I smoked my motor. We let it sit there for a couple hours and walked around. Amazingly, I poured water back in it later and it was fine.

With my current setup, I can sit still as long as I need to. I just have to turn the fan on every once in a while for a couple minutes.

Last week it was pretty hot around here, it got up to the 100's. I cruised through downtown stop and go traffic a couple times and it was fine. I left the fan on and my temp stayed at 160 the whole time.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2002 11:22 am 
Here is a suggestion for ya'll........when I installed my hopped up v-6 in my 1976 I took my factory LUV radiator to the radiator shop and this guy worked magic on it.........he took my tanks off the stock radiator and ordered a 4 row core and modified the tanks to fit on the stock dimensioned core........he then remounted the "wings" for mounting the radiator in the stock location.....the filler hole stayed in the stock location and he increased the size of the outlet pipes on the tanks to fit the larger v-6 hoses I needed to use.......

And on top of all that he made sure that it had the tranny cooler provisions in it as well......so I didn't even have to use a add-on tranny cooler that only leads to higher rediator temps anyways with it blocking part of the airflow to the front of the radiator.......

It was trick.
Easy to install.
And on top of that it was only 146 bucks for a custom one-off radiator..........

Not bad in my books.....

Rich


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2002 9:05 pm 
HEY FELLAS,

I WENT TO THE JUNK YARD TODAY - LOOKING FOR A RADIATOR FOR MY 76 LUV. I FOUND AN '82 FORD RANGER -V6 4X4- AND IT HAD A 3 CORE 24" WIDE X 19" RADIATOR IN IT.

MY QUESTION IS - WILL THIS RADIATOR COOL A VERY MILD SBC 350?
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

THANKS,
GILES5


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 12:33 pm 
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8) IT SHOULD WORK BETTER THAN A STOCK RECORED RADIATOR. THE EXTRA SIZE WILL INCREASE YOUR COOLANT CAPACITY ALONG WITH LARGER SURFACE AREA FOR A FAN.BUILD A GOOD SHROUD TO PULL AIR ACROSS AS MUCH OF THE SURFACE THAT YOU CAN.


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 2:19 pm 
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These days you can get a custom aluminum job made to your dimensions for fairly cheap (300-350) but i use a cross flow out of a 1971 Corvette. had to do some minor mods to the inlet, outlet and the core support but it works fine in front of a 450HP motor on nitrous.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2002 7:18 am 
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Hey, Ben... what kind of fan do you have? 160 degrees sounds really cool. (pun intended) :roll:


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2002 11:35 am 
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I got it from a friend of mine so I don't remember what make/model it is, but I'll pop the hood today and pull the info off of it for you.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2002 1:30 pm 
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Ben, did ya forget about me? Really I'm wondering what are the dimentions and approx. RPMs that fan turns.

Thanks for the help.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2002 2:45 pm 
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Ya, I kinda forgot. Sorry.

I measured it. It's 16" dia, about 2" thick at the shroud, about 4" thick at the motor. I couldn't find a name or model on it so I don't know the RPM. It's got a pretty good whir to it and it moves a good about of air.

I looked in the Summit catalog and mine looks like the Flex-a-lite #FLX-396 16" or the Derale DER-16516 16". The fan is mounted in front of the radiator and I had to trim the back side of the grill and the rear of the valence a little bit to clear the motor on the fan.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2002 7:06 pm 
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awesome! I appreciate the help. :D


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 8:45 pm 
If you get your radiator recored just drill one 3/8 hole in it my stays at about 170 degrees in idle,it works for me :D

1975 luv V-8 muncie 4-speed


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 8:47 pm 
oops! I forgot to say thermostat. :microwave:

1975 luv V-8 muncie 4-speed


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 9:34 pm 
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me and a buddie was dicussing this the other day.
i think im gonna end up gettin mine recored to 3 core.
but here is the thing, looks to me like the inlet and outlet are gonna be on the wrong side if i use the stock tanks.
i think the 3.8 is the same as a sbc, top on the driver side. bottom on the pass. side

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 6:41 am 
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yeah....what you said.

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 9:24 pm 
yeah this may be a little late reply. Here is my 2 cents...

Those dang U supports. If only they were a little wider apart, HUH! I've had a v-6 radiator in my truck the first v-8. Got hot. i flushed it. Still hot. I ripped apart for more power( new motor, cam, lower end) and got real hot. fast. Pulled the electric water pump for a mechanical so i could go back to a pump mount fan, in addition to the electric fan already in. still too hot!
Ripped it apart and totally re-did the top end with a bigger cam. Went to the junk yard and got a :snipersmile: ford grenadea v-8 radiator. 30 bucks. Hacked the u joint crap to the scrap pile and welded in more support, only out of my way. Still on a hot day it will ride 212, and then start to rise after about ten minutes. Ive not let it go more than that.

READ THIS!--- If I could go back and do it again, I would spend the ccccaaaasssshhhh for an aluminum one. Who wants to go [u]anywhere[/u] and over heat. This would eleminate this totally.

"G"


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