I would investigate having a new core put into your fectory tanks or sourcing a new stock radiator.

It should be more than adequate to flcool.a 2.0

I have a 73 2.0 and stock radiator that i had rebuilt by a local shop here in north texas and with the factory 17 inch 2 blade fan ir ran at 180 in summer.. added a 192 thermostat and it still ran 180.

I removed the factory fan and installed a thermostatic 13 inch electric fan, kept the factory shroud and carry the factory belt driven 2 blade fan for emergencies. and the fan only runs about 30 percent of the time on hot ( 90+) days when in heavy traffic and never runs in winter.

I figure i really didnt need the belt driven fan when driving down the road and in winter had difficulty getting the engine warm enough to run the heater.

With the electric fan, at idle on a hot day after about 10 minutes with the fan running it gets to 200 and when i start driving drops to 180.


Still need a 192 thermostat to get heat in winter otherwise temp runs about 120.
When driving at 35+ the fan shuts off..

I got the fan from amazon for $29 and 15 for the thermostatic switch.

Mounted the fan as a pusher in front of the radiator above the water outlet and also mounted the sensor for the thermo switch on the radiator outlet at the bottom where the water comes out to the engine.  Set the switch so that when cool water to engine gets to 170 the fan starts.

If you mount the sensor at the hot water inlet from engine to radiator it will run constantly.

Since the job of the radiator is to accept the hot water from engine at the top, cool it, and return it at the bottom,if  you monitor the  cool water temp from the outlet at the bottom the fan only needs to run when there isnt sufficient airflow thru the radiator to cool the water so the fan only needs to run about 30 percent of the time.

Just to keep this on track, 65SC has a 2.3 turbo front mount intercooler in a 72 Pinto. So room is very limited on the engine bay side (maybe 3/8" from the water pump hub to the radiator) and the intercooler leaves virtually nothing on the grill side. He pretty much has to run a engine driven fan.

It is probably hyper redundant of me at this point (given how many times I've mentioned it) but I widened the 71-73, 17" cradle opening to fit the 20" Radiator.  It was really quite easy and overlapping the cut point put some double thickness back into the area. After all they made the width 20" on the 74-80 Pinto's so it isn't like it shouldn't be done. I'll - "again" ('Oh, when will this guy EVER stop???')  include a few pix if for nothing else than others to see the issue with the 2.3 turbo and early Pinto's. I have a generic electric fan blowing through the radiator and I have NO cooling issues.  I realize with the front mount intercooler that isn't practical. Maybe there is room on the engine bay side with an electric fan offset???

 Short of that you could use a chassis punch and make some holes in the cradle and then use stand-offs to space out a larger radiator.  I still think the right fan (not a flex fan) and shroud would be the most effective thing to do. Losing a few HP is a small price to pay for not constantly fighting the heat issue.

Thinking outside the box there could be a ducted fan. Something like an enclose squirrel fan hid under the fender and ducted to the area. Would take some fabrication and a decent fan, but at least it is an idea to ponder.

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-escort-mk1-mk2-radiator.html

Looks like they ship here, but it takes a couple of weeks.

I don't know anything more about them other than a Google search turned them up. Hey, I am bored. :-)

Russ

Thanks for the input ya'll.

I was looking at other English Ford models and could swear that the early Pinto radiator was stolen from a Cortina. They look that similar.

I even briefly looked at the "racing" Honda Civic rads all over that auction site for $50 shipped, but they're so small and I don't really want to do this over again for a while. The Locost/Lotus 7/Caterham crowd seem to have very mixed results with them.

Ultimately I ordered one for a 1965 289 Mustang (like I used to have!) because it seemed like the closest to being bolt-in after lot of searching. What's funny is that my research told me most of the same things as the quote below, which I didn't find until just now. I agree with the last line too.

I put a 65 Mustang 289 radiator in my 71.  The mounting points are the same, too.  The radiator itself is about 3 inches taller, and all that extra height is on the bottom, so the hood clearance isn't affected.  I'm running a 2.3 turbo in mine, so I did have to make up some radiator hoses so it would work.  The upper was kinda tricky, but I got a universal type at the parts store that has a molded in 90* bend that helped a lot.  The lower was easy to make.  I used a portion of some lower hose I had laying around, and it really could not have fit any better.  The radiator itself is all brass or copper, so it looks the way it should, but the actual core is about twice as thick and it has a lot more fins on the outside.  It's been working pretty well now, even here in FL during July and August, but it's not perfect.  I keep the fan on all the time (a slim electric pusher between the intercooler and the rad), and try to run it almost too cool all the time (I don't have a T-stat either, but an aluminum plate with a 5/8" hole drilled in it).  Fitting the thing in there WAS a chore because the core is much thicker, and the 2.3 isn't the right engine for that year anyway.  The water pump pully is about 1/4" or less (seriously) from the radiator.  I beat the bejeezus out of the car, so I know that the clearance I have IS sufficient, but it was so close putting it together that I had to remove that spacer on the water pump and get some shorter bolts, too. 

I really, really wish I had started with a car that a 2.3 to begin with.

Yeah, I'm going to see about retrofitting different rotors onto mine.

For me, probably the worst part about having a pre-'74 so far has been the radiator support and its proximity to the engine. The upper radiator line is still going to be tricky with the Mustang rad.