My D-series Radiator Solution

[Bryan G]

The original radiator in my '74 had become paper thin; it was to the point that too big of a bug would knock a hole in it! After a lot of looking I saw 2 solutions: have it recored locally ($450) or sending it to the shop in this thread:
http://www.binderplanet.com/forums/s...adiator+recore
This was very tempting but would still be $325-350 by the time shipping was factored in. With money being tight I really wanted to find some other way. Was there something common that could be retrofitted without it looking totally redneck?

First, my truck is a 6 cylinder and I realize this likely won't work for SV applications, but I had to share. I was looking at the radiators in various trucks, either in person or on Rock Auto. We have an '89 F150 with a 300 and I could see rigging that one up but it would never look right-too wide, too modern looking, the hoses would be a pain to figure out, totally different mounting. Chevy, Dodge, no go, inlets/outlets all wrong. Then it hit me: another pickup used the 258 in '74 and all it took was a few clicks on the Rock to show me a picture of the radiator for a '74-75 Jeep J-series. Not exact, to be sure, but somewhat similiar side-mounts, and it was in-stock for less than $200. But what if I couldn't make it work?

I tried to catch a guy I know who owns a 70s Cherokee but he was evasive. I do a lot of business with 1-800-RADIATOR but they didn't stock it so I couldn't just order it and return it if it didn't work out. After a lot of head scratching I stumbled upon this simple fact: the full-size used the same part as the CJ! (some catalogs refused to believe that the J-series ever came with a 6, complicating my search) Cut to the chase, I ended up ordering it from NAPA. A little more expensive (around $215) but I had it within hours of ordering and a return would be no hassle; no shipping charges, either.

With the new radiator in hand I did some comparisons. While the IH part is crossflow the Jeep is downflow (tanks on top/bottom instead of sides). The overall width was almost exactly the width of the IH core. For a moment (well, overnight!) my plan was to actually cut the core out of the IH rad and mount the new part between the tanks, using them, essentially, as brackets. But then I came up with my ultimate plan. Go ahead and laugh, I can take it!

A 2x4.

It made the perfect bracket/filler. A rough-cut probably would have done better; I had to use some washers to get it just right.

The height was no problem. I needed new hoses anyway (the old ones dated from the 90s) and I found that the bottom one from a CJ worked fine. I ended up using a second CJ lower hose for the top; I might have been able to rig up the CJ top hose but didn't want to waste the money if it didn't quite fit.


I don't think it looks too bad; I've put about 150 miles on it so far and the temperature runs where it should. I'm happy!