Radiator Conundrum

vote #3 for Champion... great customer service too. I misordered my first one and the return/help with the custom setup I was doing was awesome.

I will also say that I tried several others.. Northern, eBay, summit, and all the alum ones that bolt to my grill cracked in the same place (right at the wings that bolt to the grill). Got so tired of draining/leaking fluid everywhere and rewelding them that I changed the setup to a custom-built cradle and haven't had any problems in over a year now.

 

Maybe different where you are, but here in road-salt NH the cheap replacement I put in my YJ rotted to dust in just a few years. I've posted about this, with pictures, previously.

OTH the OEM copper originals in my other much older Jeeps seem on track to last until the end of time, plus the heavy copper and brass can be easily repaired or even re-cored.

So my two cents, I'd always give serious consideration to repairing or rebuilding an original.

 

I did keep my original, which had a few leaks, intending to one day have it rebuilt. It is low on the priority list since the replacement works so well.

 

Thanks Guys—I was tempted to get an eBay one for the price but settled on a 3 row RadySpeed from Amazon for $170, and can report on that. Fit pretty well although the spread on the slotted mounting holes was about 3/4” narrower than original measuring centerline to centerline. It did fit without any mods. It included a black billet rad cap which is a nice touch.