Copper & brass radiators, what are options?

[mikester]

side note about fan shrouds. The two piece “chevy” shroud protrudes approximately 1” closer towards engine (5” out from radiator) where the one piece olds style one is about 4” from radiator

I used a Cutlass shroud on my 81. Picked up a nice spacer and the fan is in the right place but it looks like the shroud might not clear the hood. Everyone on the forum said it will but I dont have the hood on yet. Im nervous. LOL

 

[CopperNick]

One other thing I have personally noticed about G-Body fan shrouds is that the V-6/231 units extend further away from the radiator because the engine itself is shorter by two cylinders. The extra length is to make sure that the fan itself is inside the shroud so that it is properly pulling air through the rad instead of from around it. The V-8 versions are shallower, for lack of a better term. I have also found that the design can vary slightly in terms of its details from model to model, That said, a shroud from a Regal will generally fit a rad and cradle from an olds or Grand-Am, if the swap is V-8 to V-8, because the factory 2 core rads and cradles themselves are more or less a universal cross model item. By way of example on that, the current radiator cradle in my 85 SS Monte originally came from a 78 G-body Olds Cutlass. Along the way it spent some time attached to the front frame rails of my 78 Monte. When I scrapped that hulk, I kept the cradle because I knew it was in good shape and rust free and held on to it for my 85. Always considered US Rad as being a quality manufacturer. Hard to find anything that doesn't have Hecho en Chine stamped on it somewhere; harder still to find a good recore shop as they took a beating from the EPA about the lead that they used to use when soldering the tanks to the cores.

 

[84cutspreme]

I am seriously looking into US radiator. Seems like they do their R&D. I am leaning towards their aluminum radiator. In all my research they are very good price too.

These were options I found:
Becool #62018 - $699.99
Griffin #6-70006 or 6-70007 - $867.81
Cold Case #GMG544A-1 - $399.00
US Radiator #AL0059145 - $420.00

That being said I have Becool unit and find it to be junk, read post on here about cold case. Griffin seems to be prices highest...not sure if its just because of name brand. I originally wanted copper and brass but after reading this article https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1304cct-how-to-select-a-radiator/ with input from US Radiator I am back to aluminum. Seems they recommend aluminum over copper/brass unless really trying to stay with stock appearance. Only thing I originally thought about was triple pass setup but seems there are some downfalls to that setup. Mainly cannot run trans cooler in radiator and seems more for racing applications. They also seem to recommend clutch fan over electric. Also recommend no trans cooler in radiator.