70 Duster Champion Rad Not Fitting

[Psychobob22]

Hey all!

Been slowly chugging away on my stroker build for my 70 Duster and in prep for it was upgrading the cooling system to a new shiny radiator from Champion, I live in AZ so it gets stupid hot and wanted to make sure the block was going to stay cool. Ordered a CC526, got all excited when the box showed up, pulled it out and first thing is some small areas where the fins are bent/squished, whatever, stuff happens in shipping, drop it into the engine bay, get the first bolt started and the holes in the core support are ~1/4" wider than the rad brackets and it seems like the lower holes only line up with the open slots and not the enclosed holes and even then it seems crooked. On top of that it seems that the cap/boss on the top tank hit the inside of the hood! Has anyone else run into this issue? Am I am idiot and ordered the wrong radiator?? Is there dimensional differences between the 70 and following years for the support? The radiator I yanked was a brass copper style which fit just fine..

Thanks!

 

[RustyRatRod]

Send it back for one that fits and isn't damaged.

 

[Dartsun]

My champion didn’t fit in my 65 dart as advertised. I just enlarged the install holes and used the slotted holes.

 

[Psychobob22]

Send it back for one that fits and isn't damaged.

Rusty,

I plan on it! The thing I'm unsure about is the rad seemed to be resting on the lower portion of the support so I dont see how it would fit with the hood down? Seems like Id have to modify that in orderto get it low enough to clear the hood. I know Champion is on the lower side of the price range but Ive also seen plenty of people say ECP is awful, are there any other decent "drop in" radiators that dont break the bank?

 

[RustyRatRod]

Rusty,

I plan on it! The thing I'm unsure about is the rad seemed to be resting on the lower portion of the support so I dont see how it would fit with the hood down? Seems like Id have to modify that in orderto get it low enough to clear the hood. I know Champion is on the lower side of the price range but Ive also seen plenty of people say ECP is awful, are there any other decent "drop in" radiators that dont break the bank?

Well lower price range or not, it "SHOULD" at least fit. Do you have a contact number for the vendor you can call and speak to someone?

 

[Psychobob22]

Yeah I plan on calling Champion on Monday to talk to them as to why the heck its so off and at minimum replace it for one that isnt damaged and maybe I got a wonky one or they put the wrong one in the box.. Who knows!

 

[Psychobob22]

The other odd thing Im noticing is all the sites say 71-72 duster and valiant and not 70 so that is confusing me.. Unless 70 is some odd ball that no one wants to make??