Radiator choices 26" or 22"

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Penstarpurist

Penstarpurist

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Okay, we are making progress on the duster. Should have it up and driving very soon. Putting in the roll cage now, using the pics J pair posted of his to go by, as well of course as the NHRA guidelines. Thanks for the pics Jpar. Next I am getting ready to buy a radiator for it. I know the guys like Ron Davis, be cool and others make the best. But the budget is in the $200-$300 range. I know a 22" is a drop in fit basically. What does it take to fit the 26" in. 73 duster 400 bb, top hose left, bottom hose right. Also, opinions on dual electric or mechanical fan? I've read the past posts and arguments. But times and opinions change and I want to know what's working best now in my price range. Cause Ron Davis wanted $1400. Which as much as I would love to have it, got to feed the kids too.
 
For a race car, a 22" is less weight up front in metal & coolant.
 
I would like to use a 22" if for nothing else the bolt in ease. The bonus of lighter weight in fluids and core are excellent as well. Any recommendations on which brand and part number to use?
 
I put a Champion 22" aluminum in my '70 duster along with an electric fan car runs nice and cool..
 
I was talking with the champion distributor today and he said $205.00 out the door to my door and said was a perfect fit. 3 cores and dual electric fans I think is the set up I may be looking for. But I have been doing some measuring to see what the options entail. But after 2 years of building this thing I just want to get it done and enjoy it. Cost and ease of install are looking pretty good from where I sit.
 
Penstarpurist said:
I was talking with the champion distributor today and he said $205.00 out the door to my door and said was a perfect fit. 3 cores and dual electric fans I think is the set up I may be looking for. But I have been doing some measuring to see what the options entail. But after 2 years of building this thing I just want to get it done and enjoy it. Cost and ease of install are looking pretty good from where I sit.
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Yup thats what I paid damn nice radiator too:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
stroked340 said:
Yup thats what I paid damn nice radiator too:thumbsup::thumbsup:
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The first and only one we have used here in the champion brand was the 3 core unit we bought and put in my son's 68 fury 3. You're absolutely right they are damn nice radiators. Of course my son's car took on a tree at 40 and it's no longer around. (The radiator. The car is in our gravel lot, next to our shop.) Lol. Guess who wont be driving the duster.
 
Mine is a 1973, slant 6 originally. I just measured it and its 22 inches.
 
Streetsboro Rick said:
Just measured my 73 the core support opening is 26 inches what year is your car?
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Later cars with AC could have 26" radiators. But without AC they also frequently had 22" radiators, so, it's not just a year thing.

But even with a car that had a 22" radiator standard mounting a 26" radiator is pretty easy. It can be as simple as just drilling 4 holes, although you can go the extra mile and weld the nuts to the core support like the factory did to make installing the radiator a little easier.

My Duster came with a 22" radiator from the factory. I installed a 26" Champion radiator and use a '95-2000 Ford Contour dual speed, dual electric fan set up on it. I left the core support opening alone, it only partially shrouds the outer rows of the core. And the fans have a shroud that covers the entire core, so, air is pulled across all of it when the fans are running anyway. At speed there's no cooling issue. The smaller radiator won't save you a ton of weight (and the aluminum radiator is lighter to start than a factory radiator anyway). And a larger coolant volume is a good thing, not a bad thing. I suppose every little bit of weight counts if you're really serious about racing, but a few degrees of engine temperature can make a really big difference too. If the larger radiator lets you control your engine temps better, it would make a bigger difference than the small change in weight IMO.

img_1558_zps3b79216a-jpg.jpg
 
I run the Champion 3 core , mechanical fan no clutch {wouldn't fit} in front of my 410 stroker with headers in my barracuda , never boiled it yet with lots of heavy summer traffic .
 
I cant argue against increasing the antifreeze capacity being anything but a good thing.
 
Penstarpurist said:
I cant argue against increasing the antifreeze capacity being anything but a good thing.
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Well, the cooling system is just that, a system. The radiator is only one part. If you can cool the system properly with your combination of water pump, fan, and 22" radiator, then the extra capacity (which isn't much anyway) isn't necessarily going to improve anything for you. But it's definitely easier to have a system with a little extra radiator than a not enough.

I like the 26" because I like the contour fan set up. It's an OE system designed to work for 100,000+ miles, and it moves a TON of air. ~3000 cfm on the low speed and ~5000 cfm on the high speed. Being a race car, electric fans have some advantages, so if you're going that route that's a good fan set up. Not that there aren't good electric fans for 22" radiators, there are. I just have a system I like.

Streetsboro Rick said:
Interesting my car is 340 no air car
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They could also be ordered as an option. With a 340 car getting a 26" radiator wouldn't be unheard of. They were just included as part of the package with the later V8 AC cars.
 
I was getting ready to post the same link. I bought one of these and was so impressed with it for the price that I ordered another one.
Mopar Radiators
 
I have a complete parts car 73 duster that is a factory /6 a.c car. Would it be likely to have the 26" radiator core support? I would go out and measure it, but it is sitting in a canvas carport at my dads place. We are planning on bringing it over to our lot soon. But I was curious as to if it should be or not. Or at least is likely to be a bigger unit because of it just being an a.c car factory.
 
It's a race car. Modify the core support and put the 26 inch radiator in it. Run the BIGGEST two core you can get. 3 core won't cool as efficiently.

Use a high flow water pump.

Cutting corners on the cooling system of a race car is a bad thing.

You can't over cool an engine.
 
yellow rose said:
It's a race car. Modify the core support and put the 26 inch radiator in it. Run the BIGGEST two core you can get. 3 core won't cool as efficiently.

Use a high flow water pump.

Cutting corners on the cooling system of a race car is a bad thing.

You can't over cool an engine.
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Got the high flow water pump on it. But when your right. Your right. You cant over cool the engine. And it is going to see primarily if not most of its life on the drag strip. With the occasional cruise over to the car show a mile away.
 
A slant six wont usually have a 26" radiator unless it had the max cool option.
I changed out my radiator supports from a donor car so I could run the 26" on my swinger.
 
yellow rose said:
It's a race car. Modify the core support and put the 26 inch radiator in it. Run the BIGGEST two core you can get. 3 core won't cool as efficiently.

Use a high flow water pump.

Cutting corners on the cooling system of a race car is a bad thing.

You can't over cool an engine.
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depends on how much horse power ur making ----------
we ran a 318 STOCK RADIATOR ON A SUPERSTOCK HEMI FOR 14 YRS , always was the last one back to the lanes because of cooling. You can get by w/ a little radiator on the dragstrip, but on a streetcar , put the biggest one u can get in it! (much like buying tires, get the biggest ones u can run!_)
I HAVE A 28X19 ALUM. CROSSFLOW , W/ 2 ROWS OF 1 1/4" TUBES IN my 440/505 barracuda.
 
Haven't had it on any dyno yet to be sure how much power it is making. But going by bench build numbers and reading articles where very similar builds I would guesstimate being in the 400-500 range. Currently the car is shelled out with only a driver seat in it. I would like to see how much of the interior I can fit back into it. To give it a complete look.
 
Well, we finally decided and purchased a champion 3 core aluminum radiator 22" while I lobbied for the bigger 26" my son talked me into keeping with the 22". I'll throw a pair of electric fans in there and hope we made the right choice and it stays cool no problems.
 
72bluNblu said:
Later cars with AC could have 26" radiators. But without AC they also frequently had 22" radiators, so, it's not just a year thing.

But even with a car that had a 22" radiator standard mounting a 26" radiator is pretty easy. It can be as simple as just drilling 4 holes, although you can go the extra mile and weld the nuts to the core support like the factory did to make installing the radiator a little easier.

My Duster came with a 22" radiator from the factory. I installed a 26" Champion radiator and use a '95-2000 Ford Contour dual speed, dual electric fan set up on it. I left the core support opening alone, it only partially shrouds the outer rows of the core. And the fans have a shroud that covers the entire core, so, air is pulled across all of it when the fans are running anyway. At speed there's no cooling issue. The smaller radiator won't save you a ton of weight (and the aluminum radiator is lighter to start than a factory radiator anyway). And a larger coolant volume is a good thing, not a bad thing. I suppose every little bit of weight counts if you're really serious about racing, but a few degrees of engine temperature can make a really big difference too. If the larger radiator lets you control your engine temps better, it would make a bigger difference than the small change in weight IMO.

View attachment 1715173283
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@72bluNblu Curious if there were any radiator cap clearance issues with the hood on the 26" radiator? Most of the 26" Mopar radiators that I've seen (Champion/ECP/Rad Express) have 23"+ height compared to 22" on the smaller radiators.
 
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MomsDuster said:
Curious if there were any radiator cap clearance issues with the hood on the 26" radiator? Most of the 26" Mopar radiators that I've seen (Champion/ECP/Rad Express) have 23"+ height compared to 22" on the smaller radiators.
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I didn't have any, but I have the earlier version of the 26" champion radiator, CC374. They updated it to a CC374B and I believe it got a little taller. My radiator is ~22 5/8" tall from the bottom to the top of the cap. At one point I used some silly putty to check the clearance on my hood and found that I have at least an inch of clearance to the cap. That's with a '71 Dart hood.

People have had clearance issues with the CC374B, although the model of the hood might have some influence on that, they don't all have the same clearance where the radiator sits. On my car anyway I would be able to run a radiator that was over 23" tall to the cap, I probably wouldn't buy anything taller than 23 1/2" though and shorter than that would be better.
 
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