Time For A New Radiator!

[TCs CJ7]

Ok, the original brass and copper rad. on my '86 finally retired, and whatever coolant was left in the system drained out onto the garage floor. It had a number of weepers that I lived with for years. Back in the day you could take your leaking rad. to a rad. shop and get it soldered up, cleaned, leak checked and repainted. I think rad. shops have disappeared for the most part. Did some shopping around and looks like brass and copper rads. are no longer available for the last generation CJ's. Crown, Spectra and Omix supply replacements, but they are now made with aluminum cores and plastic tanks (even while the pics appear to be copper / brass rads.). Do you guys have any opinions on these new, modern rads.? I am old school and want an old school replacement made of brass and copper that looks exactly like the original, but I found the only new rads. made of brass / copper are by Spectra for the 70's CJ's. Also, anyone have to replace an old heater core due to leaks? If so, what has been your experience dealing with that? I think the heater cores are built heavier and tend to rarely leak, but wanted to get feedback anyway.
Thanks for reading my thread!

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Sray away from anything/everything from Crown and Omix.
They're China JUNK!
Do some digging. There's good radiators out there.
Gary

 

[Patrick]

An all aluminum radiator should do you just fine. Novak can help.

 

[007]

An all aluminum radiator should do you just fine. Novak can help.

This is certainly true...hard to argue a good all aluminum radiator but I’ll say that the Spectre aluminum/plastic radiator is not the junk it was 20 years ago. I’ve had mine from Amazon in since 2012 and not a drop...$179.

 

[Ultrunner]

Novak is good, but very expensive. Northern is a good choice, they’re aluminum and made in MN. Priced a little more reasonable than Novak.


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[j6824]

Ok, the original brass and copper rad. on my '86 finally retired, and whatever coolant was left in the system drained out onto the garage floor. It had a number of weepers that I lived with for years. Back in the day you could take your leaking rad. to a rad. shop and get it soldered up, cleaned, leak checked and repainted. I think rad. shops have disappeared for the most part. Did some shopping around and looks like brass and copper rads. are no longer available for the last generation CJ's. Crown, Spectra and Omix supply replacements, but they are now made with aluminum cores and plastic tanks (even while the pics appear to be copper / brass rads.). Do you guys have any opinions on these new, modern rads.? I am old school and want an old school replacement made of brass and copper that looks exactly like the original, but I found the only new rads. made of brass / copper are by Spectra for the 70's CJ's. Also, anyone have to replace an old heater core due to leaks? If so, what has been your experience dealing with that? I think the heater cores are built heavier and tend to rarely leak, but wanted to get feedback anyway.
Thanks for reading my thread!

Dealt with the same last year. Was having difficulties with keeping it cool anyway, so I wanted to go as large as possible (and still be able to fit the aux fans I had already installed). Aluminum was hands-down the obvious choice compared to anything else available.

Anyway...went with one of the Ebay cheapies and ending up regretting it. Crappy welds and poor fitment. Replaced it with a Griffin and never looked back.

More $ for sure, but the peace of mind that came with it was worth it to me.

I'm sure there are other good choices for less. Just make sure you do the research... like Lumpy said...they're not all created equal

 

[RiverandSand]

Replaced it with a Griffin and never looked back.

More $ for sure, but the peace of mind that came with it was worth it to me l

X2 on the Griffin rad, although mine is a SB version, got it from Speedway for around $180, well made all AL, even came with a petcock.

 

[Belizean]

Dealt with the same last year. Was having difficulties with keeping it cool anyway, so I wanted to go as large as possible (and still be able to fit the aux fans I had already installed). Aluminum was hands-down the obvious choice compared to anything else available.

Anyway...went with one of the Ebay cheapies and ending up regretting it. Crappy welds and poor fitment. Replaced it with a Griffin and never looked back.

More $ for sure, but the peace of mind that came with it was worth it to me.

I'm sure there are other good choices for less. Just make sure you do the research... like Lumpy said...they're not all created equal

You went with a Griffin for a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l . ? Do you remember the model number off hand ? Was thinking of using CG & J all aluminum out of Bama country. Needing to make a decision soon

 

[j6824]

You went with a Griffin for a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l . ? Do you remember the model number off hand ? Was thinking of using CG & J all aluminum out of Bama country. Needing to make a decision soon

Let me look...see if I can find which one it was

if I recall correctly I went with the Exact Fit, which goes by year model

This is what I got when I punched in your specs...there is another option that comes up with a change in core size...you can do it on the screen with the pull-downs up top:

https://www.griffinrad.com/inc_exac...ine=16 X 24&select_Sub_Group_Transmission=N/A

 

[JeeperChris]

Last summer I put an aluminum rad in my CJ5 and it lasted less than a year before springing a leak. I replaced that with this copper / brass one and have been good since:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-382008