Notices
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners 2nd/3rd gen pickups, and 1st/2nd gen 4Runners with IFS

2 or 3 row radiator?

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old May 13, 2015 | 10:11 AM
  #41  
irab88's Avatar
Registered User
15 Year Member
Liked
iTrader: (4)
 
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 6,499
Likes: 37
one thing that will help greatly are vents in the hood. they help hot air to escape and allow cooler air to be drawn in. also, opening up places in the grill that are blocked should help.

sorry, no experience with the radiator, just thought i'd chime in with some heat elimination advice
Reply
Old Sep 8, 2015 | 12:21 PM
  #42  
87runner_'s Avatar
Registered User
iTrader: (1)
 
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
From: Phoenix...land of the "A/C REQUIRED"
Followup to this thread...
I purchased a new copper radiator from Performance Radiator.
They call it a "2-Row Big." (for a V6)
IIRC... it has 2 x 5/8" tubes instead of 3 x 3/8" tubes and GREAT tube density.

Larger tubes have an increased tube/fin contact area, which is the benefit of the aluminum radiators.
Fin contact area appears to be a huge factor in cooling effectiveness. My old radiator was a V6/3 row, but they said
it was old and many of the fins were not making good contact anymore.
It wasn't overheating, but I was having cooling issues.

For an off-road rig I decided on the copper because it is more thermally efficient vs aluminum and most importantly
it can easily be repaired. If the aluminum housing cracks it's basically junk.

I'm VERY happy with it so far, but I haven't put it under any extreme testing,
being that it's September now and just got the truck running.
We here in Phoenix won't see +115*F temps (in the shade) again until next year.


COOLING SYSTEM TIP: Add a couple teaspoons of Downy fabric softener into your cooling system...like additives such as Water Wetter, el al, it reduces the surface tension of the water (this is a function of fabric softeners)...it's cheap and as a bonus it makes your cooling system smell April fresh!
Reply
Old Oct 11, 2015 | 03:20 PM
  #43  
JaMTek's Avatar
Registered User
 
Joined: Sep 2015
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
The only good a 3 row radiator is for, is fluid capacity. It was proven by the manufactures years ago that a single row wide tube radiator was more efficient than a 3 or 4 row radiator. Now a staggered tubed 2 or 3 row radiator would be more efficient than a none staggered tube 2 or 3 row.

In a 3-4 row (none staggered) radiator, the heat from the first row is transferred to the second, then to the third, etc. By the time the super heated air gets to the third or forth row, they become less effective in removing the heat.

A nice all brass 2 row staggered tube core, where the rows don't line up, would be ideal, but I think a std 2 row linear tube radiator is about as efficient as a single row wide tube radiator.

There was a time when you could go to a radiator shop and order a dual row staggered tubed radiator core and they would solder your top and bottom tanks to the new core. Not sure if that is the case these days, but its worth looking into.

I would definitely stay with a all brass radiator. The aluminum radiators with plastic tanks are expensive and disposable, most likely the entire radiator will need to be replaced when they start to leak at the tank seals.


JaMtek

Last edited by JaMTek; Oct 11, 2015 at 03:23 PM.
Reply
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
kawazx636
The Classifieds GraveYard
34
Oct 6, 2021 03:03 PM
ladybugRC
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners (Build-Up Section)
458
Aug 21, 2020 10:41 AM
mreagen
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners
10
Oct 5, 2015 04:27 PM
scott90
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners
7
Oct 4, 2015 09:21 AM
Matthew Perez
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners
9
Sep 28, 2015 05:43 PM




All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:02 AM.