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Radiator replacement

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Old 07-16-2018, 06:35 PM
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Radiator replacement

I came outside today while my truck was idling with the A/C on to find a steady dripping of coolant on the drivers side. Found a crack in the plastic end cap about midway done. Figured it happens when we’re starting a long string of 100+ days.

Any recommendations on a replacement, or models to avoid? O’Reilly has a Murray Heat Transfer brand. Autozone uses Spectra and Napa has their own brand. They’re all listed as 2 row radiators.
Old 07-17-2018, 07:37 AM
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Do a search on Ebay. They have some 3&4 row radiators that are all welded aluminum. They are made in China. There is a long running thread on www.mopar1973man.com. The thread is called G (something or other radiators). It is a currant thread so it is easy to find.
Old 07-17-2018, 07:49 AM
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Don't want to make people angry but I have and O'reilly's radiator. I was testing the system with a pressure tester a few days before leaving on vacation and found water streaming out of mine. too late to do an intense search and went that route was in stock. The radiator did seem a lot lighter. I had no cooling issues and it worked fine. BUT did go out about 5 years later and was replaced for free with lifetime warranty, still in there and ready for this years vacation.
Old 07-17-2018, 09:41 AM
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Originally Posted by Ed ke6bnl
Don't want to make people angry but I have and O'reilly's radiator. I was testing the system with a pressure tester a few days before leaving on vacation and found water streaming out of mine. too late to do an intense search and went that route was in stock. The radiator did seem a lot lighter. I had no cooling issues and it worked fine. BUT did go out about 5 years later and was replaced for free with lifetime warranty, still in there and ready for this years vacation.
That's always my concern with the the parts store pieces. I have an alternator and blower motor from O'Reilly. I've replaced both in the few years since the initial replacement. I like that the replacement is free, but hate having to spend the time to redo the job. The radiator isn't something I wanted to have to do again in a few years if I didn't have to.

That O'Reilly option was also about $60 less than everything else I've found, which made me leery as well. Which is unfortunate since O'Reilly is a mile from my house, everything else is a longer drive.
Old 07-17-2018, 10:17 AM
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Originally Posted by Greg Reed
Do a search on Ebay. They have some 3&4 row radiators that are all welded aluminum. They are made in China. There is a long running thread on www.mopar1973man.com. The thread is called G (something or other radiators). It is a currant thread so it is easy to find.
Thanks for the pointer over there. I see more people having trouble with the Spectra radiators not fitting, which I found a couple of places yesterday.
Old 07-18-2018, 10:29 AM
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I made a mistake, that thread on the radiator is in Turbo Diesel Register.
Old 07-19-2018, 04:42 PM
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I replaced my original with one from O'Reillys last year. So far it's holding up fine. They initially sold me a cheaper one that turned out to be for a gas engine Ram, even had a built in trans cooler. Returned that one and got the correct one which was similar to my original. Couldn't tell you how many rows it has, but it's just as thick as the original and gave me no problems while towing.
Old 07-19-2018, 08:20 PM
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I just had mine replace a couple weeks ago, radiator was 180 bucks. cheaper than I expected. I'm sure it's probably china made for that price. it was a diesel shop that done it. also has a injector pump put on, that one hurt.lol
Old 07-30-2018, 06:30 PM
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Ended up going with the Spectra from AutoZone as the online options were either going to take too long to get here, or the shipping price was equal to the radiator cost to get it here when needed.

The fitment of the radiator was great, but the washer tank did need a little modification on the top tabs to clear the longer upper hose outlet.

The old one did have a lot of blockage on the right side outside of the main fan path. With the new one, I’ve actually picked up 12-15* of additional A/C cooling (which is great on those 100* days), so there is a lot to be said for keeping good airflow past the condenser coil.



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