3-Row All Aluminum Radiator

[kythri]

Howdy!

I recently purchased a 3-row all aluminum radiator off of eBay.

While I can't be absolutely positive, it looks to be identical to a Champion CC2173.

It's got the transmission cooler on it, but he fittings that are welded into this radiator are too short to accept the stock line fittings - they will not engage the threads on the line fittings.

Has anyone ran into a similar issue? Is there any kind of adapters I can get to make use of this, or am I going to need to return this to the seller?

 

[96ex5.0]

When I put my racing radiator in I made my own brackets and mounts.

 

[2000StreetRod]

what type fitting?

Are the radiator threads NPT instead of flair? When I purchased my two row radiator I think it came with NPT to flair adapters. How thick is your three row?

 

[kythri]

It's about 2" - 2.5" thick.

As far as being NPT on the radiator, I don't know - I'll try to snag a couple pictures tonight.

I suppose there might be brass flare-to-NPT adapters, but I'm not sure I could trust those not to leak.

 

[Gadget X]

The factory rad should have the npt to flare adapters on it. You can swap them to the new rad no problem!

 

[kythri]

They don't fit - already tried.

The brass fitting on the factory radiator is too big for the new aluminum radiator.

 

[kythri]

Just spent a bunch of time down at NAPA, going over all of the various Weatherhead fittings and catalog.

What I need is a flare-to-flare adapter, and it doesn't appear that what I'm looking for exists.

The stock radiator is expecting a flare fitting coming in. That fitting is #1 above.

The new radiator is expecting a flare fitting coming in, but #1 doesn't work, it needs a #2.

Short of cutting and re-flaring my existing lines with the new fitting, what I need is an adapter that I've drawn as #3, and that's what I can't seem to find.

I suppose I could get a small hose assembly custom made, but at this point, I'm just going to return the radiator and buy a standard one.

 

[toypaseo]

Maybe dig on here? http://fitzall.com/index.php

 

[kythri]

Well, after a bunch of digging, I gave up trying to find "adapter" fittings.

I bought a tubing cutter, a flaring kit, and some Weatherhead 105X6 fittings, and cut/reflared the lines.

New aluminum radiator is in, everything is working fantastically.

It's ridiculous that a radiator sold for the Explorer doesn't fit the stock cooler lines, but it's equally ridiculous that Ford is using some idiotic fitting that doesn't seem that common at all.

I've been all over the Weatherhead catalogs, and I can't find a trace of this damned thing.

Oh well.

If you're looking at doing this swap, the cut/flare is incredibly easy, just make sure you cut off as little as possible - there's not a ton of room to work with, and if you screw up the first cut/flare, you may not have enough room left to work with on the line.

 

[blakshukvw]

Thread is worthless without pics.

 

[kythri]

Thread is worthless without pics.

What are you looking for pics of? A radiator?

 

[2000StreetRod]

adapters

My two row replacement radiator came with the correct female thread to reuse the stock adapter.