Guys-

My radiator is pretty week and I want to do a swap. I've tried Advance and they said they have a intercooled one for 289.99. O'reilly can't get me one, and NAPA's website says they have them in the Spectra line.

Anybody have a reccomendation and how big of a job will this be to take out the old and put in the new?

 

Radiator is fairly straight forward, I put a copper brass one from napa in mine and it works great so far. Its alot easier with the fan clutch off it*remember reverse thread and anti seize* one piece of advice.... BIG drain bucket lol

 

I put one in from advanced about 6 months ago. Fairly easy took about an hour. And I agree, take off the fan clutch much more room and you won't dent up your new one.

 

And while you're at it put in an electric rad fan, .... with the new rad you'll not need to turn the fan on that often, ....

 

They say give a lazy man a tough job and he will show you an easy way to do it:

Take a piece of cardboard cut to the size of the radiator face and duct tape it to the fan side. This will protect it from brushing against the fan. Why mess around with the fan when you don't have to? That is unless you are replacing it with an electric version. Oh, and whenever I remove the fan I remove it as an assembly from the block by removing the four small engine block attaching bolts even though I have the proper tools to remove it from the hub/bearing mount assembly.

 

I put a spectra rad in mine about a year ago seemed very high quality

 

It better be high quality for what they charge. Spectras are $$$$$$

 

I only paid 165 for mine that was cheaper than anyone I found anywhere else.

 

where did you get it from?

 

found them at jcwhitney for $150.

 

A local parts supplier called south jersey auto supply it even has a lifetime warranty. It came with the top and bottom rubber mounts, the clips that hold on the fan shrould and even a new hose to go to the overflow jug.

 

I ordered one from autopartswarehouse.com and it was the wrong part based on what their website siad AND was a supper cheap crappy rad that the fins felt like heavy guage tin foil and bend with no effort.. The cheapest correct rad I can find is a ready rad PN# 432703 from O'Reilly. 5-7 business day wait. I'm not sure where your finding the cheap correct part numbers but I sure don't see anything correct for that price range online. Also a 1 year warranty for a $500 radiator is a joke!!!

 

i rebuilt a friend's audi for him and he bought a batch of parts from autoparts warehouse and almost all of them were wrong and crappy quality!! i would never recomend them to anyone! so we ended up going to the dealer and paying an arm and a leg but at least we had the right parts :/

 

I've already files a paypal claim against them. I won't buy from them again.

 

Last question hopefully. Is a first gen cummin radiator a crossflow or a downflow? I thing downflow but I'm not sure and the parts guy is asking.