I talked to and visited several radiator shops today.
At shop #1 it was difficult to communicate. It became obvious I would not
know what I was getting until after they did the work and I paid the bill.
At #2 shop they were nice, but said they only did exact replacements. A
policy designed to reduce problems.
Then I found Ray, who runs the radiator shop at our local Kenworth truck
dealer. He said he had upgraded many older trucks, as well as lots of farm
and construction equipment.
Ray has book knowledge, training in the radiator arts and has been around
heavy equipment radiators for 20 years. We could communicate and he was
willing to educate me. I had found my man.
After looking at the GMC's radiator he said it would be possible to increase
the cooling capacity but cautioned me, with radiator's, you get what you
pay for.
Looking in his book, he then gave me a very reasonable price for an exact
duplicate core.
"If you have time", he said, " I'll explain the several upgrades available
to improve your GMC's cooling capacity." I was all ears.
First is increase internal water passage size from four 1/2" to four 5/8"
wide tubes. This provides more surface area. That decision was easy.
Second is increase the number of air fins per inch. As you add more fins,
capacity increases, but the closer spaced fins are more prone to stop up
from bugs and dirt. I let Ray make this call after I told him we would play
mostly on the interstate, instead of in the dirt.
Third is add corrugated air fins to increase both fin surface area and air
turbulence. Sounded good to me.
Forth is add corrugated water tubes to increase both surface area and water
turbulence. This option costs about $100 to add and you cannot rod out
these tubes and you can never use stop leak in them.
If you are near someone like Ray, instead of rodding they will ultra sonic
clean your radiator instead.
Ray thought all of the above would provide roughly a 40% increase in cooling
capacity.
Tonight, my new core is being custom built near Cincinnati. It has all the
above options and total outlay will be around $580.
More cooling is more expensive but included in that price is my diploma for
completing Radiator 101.
Cheers,
Don
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
At shop #1 it was difficult to communicate. It became obvious I would not
know what I was getting until after they did the work and I paid the bill.
At #2 shop they were nice, but said they only did exact replacements. A
policy designed to reduce problems.
Then I found Ray, who runs the radiator shop at our local Kenworth truck
dealer. He said he had upgraded many older trucks, as well as lots of farm
and construction equipment.
Ray has book knowledge, training in the radiator arts and has been around
heavy equipment radiators for 20 years. We could communicate and he was
willing to educate me. I had found my man.
After looking at the GMC's radiator he said it would be possible to increase
the cooling capacity but cautioned me, with radiator's, you get what you
pay for.
Looking in his book, he then gave me a very reasonable price for an exact
duplicate core.
"If you have time", he said, " I'll explain the several upgrades available
to improve your GMC's cooling capacity." I was all ears.
First is increase internal water passage size from four 1/2" to four 5/8"
wide tubes. This provides more surface area. That decision was easy.
Second is increase the number of air fins per inch. As you add more fins,
capacity increases, but the closer spaced fins are more prone to stop up
from bugs and dirt. I let Ray make this call after I told him we would play
mostly on the interstate, instead of in the dirt.
Third is add corrugated air fins to increase both fin surface area and air
turbulence. Sounded good to me.
Forth is add corrugated water tubes to increase both surface area and water
turbulence. This option costs about $100 to add and you cannot rod out
these tubes and you can never use stop leak in them.
If you are near someone like Ray, instead of rodding they will ultra sonic
clean your radiator instead.
Ray thought all of the above would provide roughly a 40% increase in cooling
capacity.
Tonight, my new core is being custom built near Cincinnati. It has all the
above options and total outlay will be around $580.
More cooling is more expensive but included in that price is my diploma for
completing Radiator 101.
Cheers,
Don
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
