Ebay Aluminum Radiator (1 Viewer)

[jellis]

I just ordered an ASI Performance radiator off Ebay to replace my CSF. 4 core, ~2.5" thick, with transmission cooler, $300 delivered. The manual tranny version is 2.75" thick which would be better.....a thicker radiator with less cores is ideal to maximize surface area, but the 3 core versions were all quite a bit thinner.

My current CSF has tranny cooler/heater barbs brazed on but the new radiator just has the super goofy M14x1.0 male 45 deg flare fittings, so you won't find these anywhere! Here's the P/Ns for the two versions (this is care of NXACTLY from another thread):
right flare nut nipple (straight) 16497-66040
left flare nut nipple (90) 16497-17030
I think my HDJ came with two of the 90s but I've got my current hose routing setup for the CSF which had US routing (1 straight, 1 90) so that's what I ordered.

I will report back on performance and complaints. It's worth noting that there are currently a TON of domestic sources on Ebay for these radiators with transmission cooler integrated which is a change since I last posted in the fall. They all seem to be identical products; I went with the "asi_performance" seller (not to be confused with "asi_performance_pro" and other variants) because it had the largest number of ratings.

 

[Marco Lau]

I had my fair share of aftermarket radiators woes. Started with my OEM unit blew up @ 250k, replaced with CSF unit, 3 months of overheating on highway with temp up to 215F, Fed up and trashed my CSF and took the plunge on a Ron Davis unit, 3 yrs, zero problems on all wheeling trips in Socal, couple trips to Moab and Eastern Sierras, destroyed my RD with some costly human error, replaced with ebay alum. 3 row, the brackets were welded on incorrectly, got my refund and got a Lilland unit instead, its been 4 months and been on 2-3 wheeling trips and seems to do its job well so far and of good quality for $350.

 

[White Stripe]

I have a 4 core ebay radiator. Going up a pretty steep mountain pass with a 4500lb brick shaped trailer giving it the beans in the fast lane with my modified 6.0 swap it gets too hot. I just wanted to see how hard it can be pushed for science. Otherwise it cools fine. I did have to modify the brackets slightly to fit. I just test fit it first to see i needed to use some spacers and it bolted up.

 

[jellis]

Mine has been a total nightmare. Things to look for in the photos if you're going to buy a cheapo radiator are offsets on the back (fan-side) for the shroud indent and offsets on the front (wind side) to allow the rubber spacer to sit flush with the rest of the radiator face. Mine has neither which made it really crooked and the causes the fan to hit the shroud because it's a very thick 4-row. Additionally requires spacing the lower mount brackets out as I think White Stripe is referencing above, and widening out a shroud hole.....phew!

Here's what the radiator SHOULD look like....mine is totally FLUSH on BOTH sides!!!!

 

[jellis]

I had to create a bracket to make it fit properly, it took hours to figure this out and implement it.....impressively ghetto, unfortunately I don't have a TIG welder!

Before I went this far, I did a lot of searching and as far as I could tell EVERY aluminum radiator for sale on Ebay for 1HDT's is made incorrectly like mine!!! Hopefully this saves someone some grief.......

 

[White Stripe]

I had to create a bracket to make it fit properly, it took hours to figure this out and implement it.....impressively ghetto, unfortunately I don't have a TIG welder!
View attachment 2952131

Before I went this far, I did a lot of searching and as far as I could tell EVERY aluminum radiator for sale on Ebay for 1HDT's is made incorrectly like mine!!! Hopefully this saves someone some grief.......

You should be able to find a local weld shop to tig that on where you want it for like 100 bucks or so and still be ahead

 

[jellis]

Nothing is local to me, unfortunately....5 hours round trip drive from nearest tig shop. I only have mig at home.
A good idea for others going down this path, it is definitely set up to be easily weldable without worrying too much about piercing it. If you knew to plan ahead for the mods it wouldn't be such a PITA!!!

 

[jellis]

Well I just thought I'd followup on performance after my install nightmare. This thing is AMAZING. I have a 3000' climb in 5 miles right next to my house and I blasted up that full speed and never got above 180, my tranny never above 105.....low ambients because it's still early spring but still that's definitely AT LEAST 30 degrees cooler, maybe even 40. With my old CSF if I maintained EGTs near 1200 my water temp would pretty much climb indefinitely, 220+ very common--with this new 4-core AL radiator it really does appear to max out and way under 200 which is amazing! I'll report back if performance is poor once I hit 110 degree ambients while towing this summer, but so far it was absolutely worth the investment (even with blowing most of a day to make it fit properly).

 

[MMaxim]

Well I just thought I'd followup on performance after my install nightmare. This thing is AMAZING. I have a 3000' climb in 5 miles right next to my house and I blasted up that full speed and never got above 180, my tranny never above 105.....low ambients because it's still early spring but still that's definitely AT LEAST 30 degrees cooler, maybe even 40. With my old CSF if I maintained EGTs near 1200 my water temp would pretty much climb indefinitely, 220+ very common--with this new 4-core AL radiator it really does appear to max out and way under 200 which is amazing! I'll report back if performance is poor once I hit 110 degree ambients while towing this summer, but so far it was absolutely worth the investment (even with blowing most of a day to make it fit properly).

How did the summer go? Any update?

 

[jellis]

Overall it still got very hot (220+) in the summer while towing up grades but it took WAY longer to get there than the old radiator. Old radiator would go above 240 if I let it. Definitely a significant upgrade, but not a magic bullet. I need an IC.

 

[MMaxim]

Overall it still got very hot (220+) in the summer while towing up grades but it took WAY longer to get there than the old radiator. Old radiator would go above 240 if I let it. Definitely a significant upgrade, but not a magic bullet. I need an IC.

Thank you. I wonder if it will be better with 6.0 LS?

 

[McDowra]

Thank you. I wonder if it will be better with 6.0 LS?

Good question I would like to know also