Just purchased the new aluminum radiator at Summit Part No. SUM-380457. It's a drop in replacement for stock Modine and only costs $254.00.
The ad doesn't say what size the lower rad hose fitting is. Isn't Buick 1 1/2" and Chevy 1 3/4? Most universal rads are 1 3/4 making it hard to get a lower hose to fit.
lets hear some more on this rad,sounds like a great deal.I dont know what a stock modine is but is it a perfect fit stock replacement? Ive been in the market for an al rad for a long time now but i cant swallow the prices ive seen them go for.most affordable ones are not wide enough to fit properly,I dont want to modify to fit,dont want the race car look
I ordered a SUM-380457 today. It was $240 shipped, but it's on back-order for 2 weeks. From the pictures and description on Summitracing.com, it has a trans cooler which is a plus. Downsides would be the 1-3/4" lower neck (you can get a stock hose on, but it's hard to do), petcock on the driver's side, extra heater hose connection which has to be capped and what appears to be a low coolant sensor bung?? Price vs what you get, including the negatives, added up for me so I ordered one. I'll give Dino a shout. He should be able to provide more details.
Fits fine with one small exception. There is a brass fitting at the bottom on the passenger side tank. I may have to drill a hole in the bottom of the core support to clear it. This is so the radiator rests in the rubber support and does not ride on the fitting. There are other holes in the bottom of the core support and you wont see it anyway so I have no problem with that. Some one wrote that the bottom fitting is 1-3/4 but it is the stock 1-1/2 size. Also the drain petcock clears the core support fine.
Thanks Dino! It was I who said that the lower hose outlet was 1-3/4". The inlet and outlet sizes weren't listed in the rad description, so after my questioning, the salesman went and "looked up" the specs. Glad that he was wrong.
That heater hose connection you mentioned came capped off. I dont know why its there. It's just above the upper transmission cooling line. Also I painted my tanks with barbecue black paint so it looks stock.
This size radiator also fits some late 80's - early 90's C/K trucks, which use a heater hose connection on the tank.
Just to clarify, this is a 4 core, aluminum radiator with the hook ups for the trans lines, AND it uses stock radiator hoses? o No: That sounds sweet if its true. :bglasses:
leaker Sprung a leak today. I stopped at my friends house to borrow a set of 9" RaceMasters on my way to island dragway this morning. Noticed that my radiator was weeping some antifreeze onto his driveway. The tank is leaking on the radiator at a seam. I'm not gonna even bother to have it fixed. It will probably leak someplace else and cost a good chunk from a shop anyway. I found this thread and was quite pleased. Can anyone tell me how it worked out for not onlt fit but cooling power. I have a 1971 Stage 1 that has a very lopey cam ,roller rockers, headers, B4B, 850 holley ,2800 stall, 373's street driven with very little vacuum. Car always ran cool except on those jungle hot New Jersey mid summer nights in traffic . I always blamed this on the 80's flex fan, thats getting 5h!t canned for a clutch fan when the new rad is put in . Thanks for your imput.
Here are some pictures after I just set it in place. The top core support cover is not on and lines are not hooked up but you can see it fits like stock unit.
A 4 Core aluminum radiator?? i HIGHLY doubt it, there is no need for 4 cores in an aluminum radiator, they are that much more efficient.
I don't know because I just set it in place as you see in the photos. Haven't had a chance to button it up yet. I'm sure expecting it to run cooler. I had a 4 pass Modine in there and on hot summer days in traffic it would run hot. This year I want to get the air conditioning finished off, so I had to have better cooling.
You are correct. All the big aluminum radiators are 2 pass. But they are just as thick as a 4 pass brass core. Aluminum radiators use two large pass tubes.
