Griffin Radiator Install

[TR65]

Hey Guys,

My Champion radiator developed a core leak. It was hard to find, I thought is was a hose leak for a long time. Anyway, I decided to upgrade to a better radiator. I chose a Griffin. It turns out that they are made here in SC, very close to where I work. They made the radiator to order and when I picked it up they gave me a tour of the factory. They make every piece of the radiator. Aluminum sheet comes in one end, radiators go out the other.

They have a very interesting museum of old radiators that they use for patterns. They even make radiators for Predator Drones.

Since I bought a high horsepower radiator the core was too wide for the stock brackets. I decided to post what I did to fabricate new brackets in case somebody has the same situation.

TR

http://www.griffinrad.com/index.cfm

[TR65]

Some More Pics.

[TR65]

Even more

[TR65]

More pics.

[TR65]

More

[TR65]

Last one

[Sharps40]

Dayum fine write up and if black that rad would fool most folks as a stocker. Very sexy.

[bj383ss]

That is awesome and great pics and write up.

Bret

[Chevy Fleetside]

My Chanpion Radiator also has a core leak. I didn't even get to drive the truck very far. Mine is located on the lower passenger side..
That radiator looks alot better.

[gimmy 64]

nice wright up thank you

[Reyals Bemus]

That radiator is COOL!!

[66LSx]

TR-65..

First things first...great fabwork and implementation... OEM looks!

If you would though.... for reference.

Griffin Part Number?
Outside Tank Dimensions (in regards to brackets vs. rubber thickness for us)?
Cost?

EDIT: I dumb and didnt read the side of the box picture...

Griffin Part Number: 6-563AR-JXX

[tincan1966]

Nice write up! Hard to beat good quality parts. I have had 1 Champion radiator, will never buy another.

[SparkyRnD]

nice write up and cool brackets. But, be cautious about epoxy, as that is a known failure item in a cooling system (which is why we don't use them in our radiators)

[1963c-10]

what was the cost on the radiator?

[rideblue00]

nice install !!!

[TR65]

Thanks for the kind words men!

1963c-10 The cost was $400 FOB their dock. The radiator was fully packaged for shipping. Best bet is to call them, get the part number right and see what they can let you have one for. This was cheaper than I could find one from a dealer.

SparkyRnD The radiator core is furnace brazed. The epoxy is just to prevent tube leaks where they go into the header, I think the main source of leaks. The epoxy prevents the stress concentration at the header joint by forcing any bending to occur higher up where the tubes don't mind it. That is the way I understand it. I could be wrong.

66 LSx The radiator sides are 3-1/2" wide, the tanks are 3-1/8" wide. The radiator is 25-1/2" wide and 22-1/4" tall. As you can see the tanks are formed to look pretty much like our stock tanks. If I had gotten the lower horsepower version (1-1/4" tubes instead of 1-1/2" tubes) I think it would fit the stock brackets. In any case they make an exact fit for our trucks I believe.

By the way, I think Griffin has changed the part numbering system since I bought mine.

TR

[SparkyRnD]

We had researched this back in the day and there is a reason we don't use epoxy, and that is that it fails in a cooling system. May not happen on day one or year one, but it does eventually come apart and allow leaks where there isn't good quality control, and it also then goes through the cooling system and can eventually clog cores. I understand why they use it, which is to allow them to work faster with more loose tolerances, using the epoxy to seal up any areas they didn't do as good of a job on.

Epoxy is great when joining plastics together, but in our opinion should never be used as part of a cooling system.

[luvbowties]

Originally Posted by TR65

Thanks for the kind words men!

1963c-10 The cost was $400 FOB their dock. The radiator was fully packaged for shipping. Best bet is to call them, get the part number right and see what they can let you have one for. This was cheaper than I could find one from a dealer.

SparkyRnD The radiator core is furnace brazed. The epoxy is just to prevent tube leaks where they go into the header, I think the main source of leaks. The epoxy prevents the stress concentration at the header joint by forcing any bending to occur higher up where the tubes don't mind it. That is the way I understand it. I could be wrong.

66 LSx The radiator sides are 3-1/2" wide, the tanks are 3-1/8" wide. The radiator is 25-1/2" wide and 22-1/4" tall. As you can see the tanks are formed to look pretty much like our stock tanks. If I had gotten the lower horsepower version (1-1/4" tubes instead of 1-1/2" tubes) I think it would fit the stock brackets. In any case they make an exact fit for our trucks I believe.

By the way, I think Griffin has changed the part numbering system since I bought mine.

TR

Griffin told a friend, who had them make one for his 57 T-bird, that they used epoxy only for a stress-relief--not for sealing.
S

[TR65]

Griffin told a friend, who had them make one for his 57 T-bird, that they used epoxy only for a stress-relief--not for sealing.
S

That is what I was trying to get across to SparkyRnD but I gave up.

Thanks, TR

[1964GMC]

1st; Great write up on a quality and sanitary install of your new radiator.
2nd; Griffin can say what they want about their epoxy jobs. I for one wish you better luck than I had. I'm on my 3rd "warranty" unit in my Street Rod. It's a custom sized and built unit. all units will not cool at highway speeds. #1 & #2 were replaced under warranty. I'd send #3 back also if I hadn't wrecked the car and dented the tank. My conscience won't allow me to send it back again.
3rd; VERY glad that your's seems to have worked well on your recent trip. Hope you have many happy miles ahead of you.

[61_FL_Apache]

Great write up and very nice job!!

[SparkyRnD]

I got what you were saying, but the fact remains, using epoxy inside of a radiator for any purpose is a bad idea, as eventually there is a chance it can come apart and go through the system, and clog a tube.

[TR65]

Sparky, I agree. In this case there is no epoxy inside the radiator.

Thanks for the kind words 61 and 64.

I believe there are maybe 3 main reasons a radiator won't cool correctly:

Not enough air flow
Not enough water flow
Not enough cooling area

The radiator is usually not at fault for reasons 1 and 2.

TR

[TopFuel1966]

My suspicions about those $250.00 Ebay radiators have just been confirmed. Like they say, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.