Black 84 Z

Recently my radiator decided to puke most of my coolant out while driving about 65 mph over a lengthy bridge with nowhere to pull over. When I finally crept it to the other side and pulled over it had gotten hot enough to blow the water pump gasket, but the head gasket seemed to hold up fine as it seemed to drive alright. Now I am in need of a new radiator as I don't want to fix the current one. I am looking for a direct fit type as I have very limited space and time to be able to work on it.

Right now my car while not at all stock probably doesn't need more than a stock replacement radiator. It originally had the LG4 and since then I have replaced most everything, exhaust to full 3" with headers, Holley 650 dp and perf intake, and had a 350 built when the 305 died. I wish I had known more when that happened because I just had to trust the engine shop to put something together for me. What I supposedly ended up with (story for another thread) was a 9:1 CR, old tech L82 cam, and the same I assume 416 heads that came on my 305. Nothing to write home about performance but will have to do until it to dies.

All that being the case I don't need a really hi perf radiator to keep it cool and don't want to drop a $600 Be Cool unit in it now. I was looking at a couple of the part store replacement ones and each has their own version so I wanted to see if anyone had any experience/opinions on any of these: Murray from O'Reillys, Ready Rad from advance, spectra or spectra premium from various places, or should I just get a Delco from amazon? Most of them have similar specs from what I can tell so I am looking at fit, durability, and performance (street only, no strip). If 1 is a few dollars more but clearly better then that is what I would get, but no reason to go overboard.

novaderrik

they all probably come from the same factory in china, so don't worry about the brand.
i got one from NAPA for my car for $130.. it's a thick 2 core aluminum core with plastic end tanks, and other than the drain plug being a POS that i had to fix by putting in the one from an 82 Trans Am radiator i had laying around, it's been a good part.

Black 84 Z

I pulled up the 2 radiators that Napa had listed for my car and they both were Spectra Premium pieces, can I assume that yours was as well? Anyone else have any experiences?

Black 84 Z

I ended up going with a Murray from Oreillys, which turned out to be a Ready rad anyways. Fit well and has kept it cool so far so no complaints.

blackbmagic

Grab a champion with the two larger cores. Around the same price as stock, all aluminum, cools better, looks better, stronger, and fits like stock.

I have the 3 core and it took me 20 extra minutes with the razor to trim the rubber supports a little wider and even that fits like stock.

Ron U.S.M.C.

I also went with a Murray from O'reillys (with a life time warranty for $89.99)just last week and I also have no complaints.Car stays with in the 180*range as that's what my thermostat is set at, so far that's even in traffic. I run a large 16" front pusher primary fan on with key and a 12" puller fan on the back side mounted over a 12.5"x17"oil/trans.combo cooler set at stock temps as back up in case it gets that high.=
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...HT0/433918.oap
Its nothing special but is working fine for my mild set up.