I'm sure this has been brought up before but I've never heard a definite or a good enough answer to the question, what better for a radiator material, aluminum or copper? Whats better at dissapating heat, more durable, lasts longer? For an everyday driver in 4 season conditions what would be better? And a budget.

 

Copper brass radiators are better at disapating heat i picked up a 4 core radiator for $200 brand new at a radiator shop they will work good
If you have the cash you can pick up an aluminum radiator aswell they work good for engines with lots of mods and need more cooling capacity.
Either way just make sure the radiators are clean and work poperly.

 

well technically copper brass will absorb more heat but cannot dissapate it as quick as aluminum but aluminum cannot absorb heat well. A great rad would be a copper rad with aluminum fins and that would be your best rad ever cause the copper will take the heat out and the alum fins would dissapate it quickly

 

I've heard that a 4-row unit does no better than a 3-row because by the time the air passes over 3 rows it has absorbed all the heat it can. I bought a 3-row copper unit because of that and have run the 289 with power steering for 90 min. at idle with the hood closed and heater off. Temps never exceeded 180. (S-W gauge).

 

These AFCO Aluminum radiators work well with the 5.0s..... and $179 is hard to beat.

 

+1 on the AFCO. What does NASCAR use?

 

With the Afco 's do they make an aluminum shroud for them and what do you do if you need a tranny cooler for the auto?


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Griffith. Made down the road in Liberty. They'll even make one for you with a Nitrous bottle in the fake tank (side tank) that runs a line through the top hose under the manifold to the sprayers for each cylinder and nobody will be able to see anything! (worked on NASCAR for YEARS!!)

 

Yeah, technically the copper/brass, but the aluminum can be hammered out to a lot thinner metal and still have the tensil strength, so therefore the ability to dissipate heat well. There is no doubt that an aluminum radiator is the best choice, but if moolah comes into play then the 3 or 4 core copper/brass will work well, My old 65 never gets above 1/3 of the way on the heat gauge and I have a 4 row copper/brass. Other things come into play too, The number of blades on the fan makes a difference in how much air is pulled through the rad, and a shoroud concentrates the air to the center of the rad and an overflow tank helps to keep the rad full at all times.

 

Thanks for the info, for the fan I was planning to go with probably a '93 taurus setup. I heard they are easy and cheap to install and they push alot more air than most electric fans.