radiator upggade sug.???...conflicting reports.

[prozachappy]

HELP!!! rad. upgrade sug.???...conflicting reports.

Here's the deal, I need to upgrade my radiator to keep my 1st gen 94sport cooler. I travel alot (Dallas to San Diego) at least 3 times a year. I also pull a 22 ft. camper quite often. I have the Mz5spd tranny and an OEM (1 row) radiator. Sure you can guess, that the stock rad. just doesn't do the trick. It never overheats, but on my long trips...the gauge slowly creeps towards the red. Plus on my most recent trip I cracked a seam in the rad. that I just put in about a year ago. Been researching HD radiators, and exploring my options. They don't make a 2 or 3 row rad. for the manual tranny's... unless you wanna spend the big bucks $$$ for something like a BeCool. Then it hit me...why not just use a 2 row rad. made for the automatics and plug the tran cooler. So I've called around asking if this is possible or not, i.e. uses the same mounts, enough room for the fan, and so on. Visteon rad. tells me "no" won't work at all. Modine rad. tells me "yes", but the outlet holes are angled different so I'd have to extend my hose. Radiator Barn says "yep" it will work no problem...mounts the same, inlets and outlets the same, and enough room to clear the fan. So what I need to know is if any of you guys have done this mod...or no if it will work. I search the threads, not much info...I know Rick did a similar mod to his '93' but he pulled an automatic rad. from another '93' donor. Any help would be great!!!

 

[prozachappy]

bump!

 

[prozachappy]

Update for anyone else who wants to do this mod. Went with a 2row automatic radiator from RadiatorBarn. Mounts in exactly as the manual 1row. Just leave the tranny lines capped they don't apply to a manual. Only changes are..you'll need a thiner fan shroud from an automatic X..cause the 2row radiator is twice the size of the 1row. Just picked up a fan shroud at the junkyard. You'll also need to switch your lower hose for a lower auto hose ($15 at auto store). I just went ahead and order a whole new hose kit from Summit Racing. Its BLUE SILICONE and came with upper, lower, and all heater hoses. The Blue looks bad a#$ sitting in there with my huge new radiator. It's the Goodyear Hi-Miler hose kit part# 5009 for anyone who's interested. Engine runs much cooler now and temp gauge dropped down a couple letters since the install.

 

[LukeDog3D]

thats awesome. Are all stock automatic radiators on 1st gens 2 row?

 

[prozachappy]

I believe so. On the first gen X...all manual trannys came with the wimpy little 1 rows. On long trips, or a hard ride, mine always creeped up the gauge. As for the automatic first gen X...2 rows with tranny lines were standard. I actually wanted to put a 3 row in my manual cause I do alot of towing and as my engine gets up there in miles ( 148K) it tends to run warmer now. Short of having a custom 3 row built or paying like $ 550 for a BeCool I could not find a 3 row radiator. Ford offers a SuperCool upgrade...but it was still close to $ 350! So I just called around to all the aftermarket radiator places till I found the best deal for the automatics 2 row. Its plenty big!!! It's about 2 1/2" thick...compared to my 1" single row manual radiator. Like I said my X runs cooler and the temp. gauge droped down a couple letters. She used to run between the 'M' and the 'A' in 'NORMAL' now she runs between the 'N' and 'O'.