Fitting a 26 inch radiator?

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Woodsman341

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Hi all,

I just posted a "wanted as" here for a '75-76 Dart Sport front clip, and it just occurred to me - I have a 360 and will eventually be putting the AC back in, so I'll probably need the 26 inch radiator. If I get the front clip from a slant 6 donor, will I be able to easily modify the radiator support to fit a 26 instead of a 22 inch radiator?

Thanks.
 
Woodsman341 said:
Okay, just so I know we are on the same page, a 26 inch radiator should drop right in and bolt up to the supports in a car that was originally a slant 6?
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MopaR&D said:
Yes, the factory made the opening wide enough to fit a 26-inch radiator, if a car came with a smaller one it just used wider brackets on the sides of the radiator to take up the space.
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That’s not true.

The 26” radiator will fit any 67-76 A body radiator support, but it’s not just a drop in. The opening in the radiator support is not as wide for the smaller radiators as it is for the 26”, so if you install a 26” radiator some of the radiator will be behind the support. It’s not very much, so when I did that swap I didn’t open the radiator support any. But the 26” radiator support opening is wider by about 2" per side.

The 26” radiators also have wider brackets, so the radiator will not line up with the mounting holes in the radiator support if your car had a smaller radiator from the factory. The mounting holes for the 26” radiator are a few inches wider. I welded new mounts onto my radiator support when I swapped my /6 Duster over to a 26” radiator.

So a 26” radiator will fit, you don’t need to open up the radiator shroud but the factory 26” radiator supports did have a wider opening, and you will need to drill new holes to mount the 26” radiator to the support if the car was originally equipped with a smaller radiator.

***edited for clarity on the dimensions***
 
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72bluNblu said:
That’s not true.

The 26” radiator will fit any 67-76 A body radiator support, but it’s not just a drop in. The opening in the radiator support is not as wide for the smaller radiators as it is for the 26”, so if you install a 26” radiator some of the radiator will be behind the shroud. It’s not very much, so when I did that swap I didn’t open the radiator shroud any. But the 26” radiator shroud opening is wider by a little more than an inch.

The 26” radiators also have wider brackets, so the radiator will not line up with the mounting holes in the radiator support if your car had a smaller radiator from the factory. The mounting holes for the 26” radiator are a few inches wider. I welded new mounts onto my radiator support when I swapped my /6 Duster over to a 26” radiator.

So a 26” radiator will fit, you don’t need to open up the radiator shroud but the factory 26” radiator supports did have a wider opening, and you will need to drill new holes to mount the 26” radiator to the support if the car was originally equipped with a smaller radiator.
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That's what I was concerned about. I don't mind a little sheet metal surgery, but is that radiator support easily swapped?

Thanks, Blu
 
Woodsman341 said:
That's what I was concerned about. I don't mind a little sheet metal surgery, but is that radiator support easily swapped?

Thanks, Blu
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The radiator support is a lot harder to swap than the needed modifications to it. I’ll pull up some of my pictures. You can just leave the opening alone, and you could just drill 4 new holes to mount the radiator. I welded the nuts to the radiator support like that factory did since I’m always doing all of this by myself and I just wanted to be able to install the mounting bolts one handed like you can with the factory set up.
 
72bluNblu said:
The radiator support is a lot harder to swap than the needed modifications to it. I’ll pull up some of my pictures. You can just leave the opening alone, and you could just drill 4 new holes to mount the radiator. I welded the nuts to the radiator support like that factory did since I’m always doing all of this by myself and I just wanted to be able to install the mounting bolts one handed like you can with the factory set up.
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Thanks! Pics would be greatly appreciated!
 
Woodsman341 said:
Thanks! Pics would be greatly appreciated!
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Still looking! I know I already did this sometime.

Anyway, there are like 3 different radiators. There was an 18" radiator that only came with the slant 6's, a 22" radiator that came with V8's and AC slant six's, and the 26" radiator that came out for the 73+ V8 AC cars. I'm pretty sure there's only two different radiator support openings, the 18" and 22" had the same size opening and probably used the same mounts with a wider flange like @MopaR&D described. The 26" radiator has a wider opening and wider mounts. The opening for the 22" radiators was like 22 1/2", I don't think the opening for the 26" radiator was a full 26". The stock mounts on my '74 Duster are 24-1/8" center to center, it had a 22" originally. The mounts for the 26" radiator in it now are 28" apart, and they were located from an OE 26" radiator from a '74 Dart.

I'll keep looking for the pictures.
 
The factory 22" radiator mounts are shown with red arrows. The 26" upper radiator mounts are shown with blue arrows. The core support itself has these outer flanges, the 26" radiator opening is basically out where those flanges are. And I should have been more clear, it's closer to two inches per side that the opening is different.



IMG_1916.JPG


Here are some factory 26" supports...

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You can see that it would be a ton more work to swap the whole support vs just modifying the one that you have. As for the size of the opening, I've never had an issue keeping my car cool when it's at speed, which is when having the smaller opening would be the most impactful. If anything my car will run too cool when it's at speed, it almost always cools all the way down to whatever temp thermostat I have in the car. I have an electric fan set up on the back with a shroud that covers the entire core, so, when the fans are running they pull air across the entire core.
 
Ahhhh, the famous “should” just drop right in. It all depends on what you’re starting with……..
 
72bluNblu said:
The factory 22" radiator mounts are shown with red arrows. The 26" upper radiator mounts are shown with blue arrows. The core support itself has these outer flanges, the 26" radiator opening is basically out where those flanges are. And I should have been more clear, it's closer to two inches per side that the opening is different.



View attachment 1716042269

Here are some factory 26" supports...

View attachment 1716042272

View attachment 1716042274


You can see that it would be a ton more work to swap the whole support vs just modifying the one that you have. As for the size of the opening, I've never had an issue keeping my car cool when it's at speed, which is when having the smaller opening would be the most impactful. If anything my car will run too cool when it's at speed, it almost always cools all the way down to whatever temp thermostat I have in the car. I have an electric fan set up on the back with a shroud that covers the entire core, so, when the fans are running they pull air across the entire core.
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Thanks, that helps immensely. I appreciate your help, both now and in the past, Blu. I'm really leaning toward an electric fan, even though I think the sound may detract somewhat from the cool rumble of the engine at idle. ;)
 
Woodsman341 said:
Thanks, that helps immensely. I appreciate your help, both now and in the past, Blu. I'm really leaning toward an electric fan, even though I think the sound may detract somewhat from the cool rumble of the engine at idle. ;)
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I love the Contour fans I have on my Duster, they work great and the fit the 26" radiator really well.

The sound isn't that bad, it's definitely noticeable but it's not like they run all the time, even at idle.
 
72bluNblu said:
I love the Contour fans I have on my Duster, they work great and the fit the 26" radiator really well.

The sound isn't that bad, it's definitely noticeable but it's not like they run all the time, even at idle.
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Sorry, but I have to ask what you mean by Contour fans?
 
Woodsman341 said:
Excellent!
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Mine are just the Dorman replacement units, they're $144 now but for a 3,500 -5,000 cfm fan that's a steal. Dorman 620-104 Dorman Electric Fans | Summit Racing

Mine have been on the car since 2014 without any issues at all. The fan controller I used has been discontinued and replaced with a fancier updated version Dakota Digital PAC-2800BT Dakota Digital Electronic Fan Controllers with Bluetooth | Summit Racing , but with that, an extra relay and some heavy duty wiring it's a great set up that still costs less than a lot of the high dollar aftermarket electric fans that don't flow as much air.
 
A 22” radiator should be enough done correctly to cool your car even with A/C. That would eliminate the hassle of a 26” radiator.
 
72bluNblu said:
That’s not true.

The 26” radiator will fit any 67-76 A body radiator support, but it’s not just a drop in. The opening in the radiator support is not as wide for the smaller radiators as it is for the 26”, so if you install a 26” radiator some of the radiator will be behind the support. It’s not very much, so when I did that swap I didn’t open the radiator support any. But the 26” radiator support opening is wider by about 2" per side.

The 26” radiators also have wider brackets, so the radiator will not line up with the mounting holes in the radiator support if your car had a smaller radiator from the factory. The mounting holes for the 26” radiator are a few inches wider. I welded new mounts onto my radiator support when I swapped my /6 Duster over to a 26” radiator.

So a 26” radiator will fit, you don’t need to open up the radiator shroud but the factory 26” radiator supports did have a wider opening, and you will need to drill new holes to mount the 26” radiator to the support if the car was originally equipped with a smaller radiator.

***edited for clarity on the dimensions***
Click to expand...

My mistake, limited personal experience strikes again lol. I haven't messed with any slant-6 A-bodies myself, my Duster was originally a 318 car with A/C and came with the 22" 3-row radiator. I got an aluminum 26" radiator from ECP and it was a pretty easy swap, just had to massage the lower support a bit with a big hammer and 2x4 chunk of wood and drill 2 holes in the flanges on the new rad to match up with the factory bolt holes.

Engineered Cooling Products is great, their radiators have 2 rows of 1" wide cores (more surface area than a 3-row) and very competitive pricing. They also have highly detailed drawings on their site with all of the dimensions, bolt hole locations etc clearly shown.
 
Well, I'm back to the post I started to eat some crow, more or less. My car rolled off the line as a slant 6, factory AC car, but was converted to a 360/904 car at some point. I would have SWORN that when I measured that radiator, it was 22"...but I went out to do a little work on something else, and thought I'd measure again, especially the opening, bolt pattern, et cetera, after @72bluNblu provided pictures and measurements. The radiator that was previously installed was, in fact, a 26", although whoever put it in did a sorry job of centering it. No matter. The lack of shroud made me think it was smaller, I guess. At any rate, I can confirm, that yes, it fits, but no, it wasn't a "drop in". Thanks to everyone who helped me, despite the fact that I could have helped myself if I had only double-checked my initial measurement. I wish I could blame it on something or someone else! I guess it's all part of getting older. :D
 
ESP47 said:
Damn was hoping this setup would work with a 22" rad but it doesn't look like there's any room to spare in there.
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No the Ford Contour set up needs a 26" radiator for sure.

There are a few OE electric fans that do work for a 22" radiator though. There's the Ford Taurus electric fan which is a 2 speed single, the Chevy HHR fan, and a Mercedes ML 280 CDI fan that have been used with success on A-bodies with 22" radiators

Mercedes fan
Stealth electric fan
Taurus fan
Electric Fans, can they replace my clutch fan?

Woodsman341 said:
Well, I'm back to the post I started to eat some crow, more or less. My car rolled off the line as a slant 6, factory AC car, but was converted to a 360/904 car at some point. I would have SWORN that when I measured that radiator, it was 22"...but I went out to do a little work on something else, and thought I'd measure again, especially the opening, bolt pattern, et cetera, after @72bluNblu provided pictures and measurements. The radiator that was previously installed was, in fact, a 26", although whoever put it in did a sorry job of centering it. No matter. The lack of shroud made me think it was smaller, I guess. At any rate, I can confirm, that yes, it fits, but no, it wasn't a "drop in". Thanks to everyone who helped me, despite the fact that I could have helped myself if I had only double-checked my initial measurement. I wish I could blame it on something or someone else! I guess it's all part of getting older. :D
Click to expand...

It happens!
 
72bluNblu said:
No the Ford Contour set up needs a 26" radiator for sure.

There are a few OE electric fans that do work for a 22" radiator though. There's the Ford Taurus electric fan which is a 2 speed single, the Chevy HHR fan, and a Mercedes ML 280 CDI fan that have been used with success on A-bodies with 22" radiators

Mercedes fan
Stealth electric fan
Taurus fan
Electric Fans, can they replace my clutch fan?



It happens!
Click to expand...

Appreciate it as always. That HHR fan is interesting. Time to go down the rabbit hole.
 
I did that on the daughter's '72 Duster. I changed the radiator end supports, not the top crossbar that has the VIN stamping from a '73" Dart with AC then used the '26 radiator, AC condenser, fan shroud.
 
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