Pinto Car Club of America

Has any one put an aluminum radiator their car?
What are the ins and outs?

I'm looking for a simple bolt in with no cutting required but if that can't be found then plan B involves spending hours looking for a good core & building my own tanks.

Speedway motor sells a brand called tru-kool for about 150 bucks, the 4 cyl takes the 22" w/ inlet hose on passenger side, v6 needs the 22" one w/ drivers side inlet.  These are not bolt in replacements they are racing radiators. I hunted high and low for replacement radiators the cheapest I found for my v-6 was $188 for the factory 4 cyl radiator but the inlet and outlet were wrong. So I went with the racing radiators they were cheaper. Had to get creative with the hoses and I mean creative. But mines a v-6, the 4 cyl ones are pretty easy. Only problem is the diameter of the outlets on the race rad. they are 2 inch dia. Plus they dont come with brackets. They completely fill the radiator space. These 2 core race radiators are supposed to be equal to a 5 core brass radiator.  On the v-6  my fan would have hit the upper hose so I just went with an electric fan, but I dont think this will be a problem with the 4 cyl. Definately freed up a few horsey's with the electric. So far I have to say the quality is excellent.  At the dirt track one weekend I saw a guy completely run over one of these rad's and the next week it was back in his car,  tire track and all. Well good luck.

I put an Afco aluminum radiator in my v8 pinto, p/n 80100fn.  It measured 22x19 and had 1 1/2 upper hose and 1 3/4 lower hose barbs on the tanks and only cost $160.  I had to cut just a little bit of the radiator framework to get it to fit, but it only took about 30 minutes with a sawzaw.  Plus the afco radiator hs upper and lower mounting holes to mount it and they line up perfect with the upper and lower radiator frame.  Take a look at my website, it has pictures of the radiator mounted up.  www.geocities.com/dragpinto78 (http://www.geocities.com/dragpinto78)
Brandon

Those sound better than a m2 v8 one, at least price wise. The m2 v8 is just too big also, I got it in, but no room. Hoses (lower one more) were a chalange too. My next turbo swap will get one of these. Thanks.

Bill