It's hard to tell by the picture,but that copper/brass one from lc looks like a csf. And those are not that good. I see a lot come in where the paint is still all shiny and they're only 6 months to 2 years old and the bottom tank is bulging,seams are leaking,the core is bulging like crazy under pressure usually causing tube to header leaks in the corners and sometimes the outer row of fins are already falling off.

 

F word

What do you think of the aluminum one

 

F it, going OEM

 

Yeah, sounds like we are pretty much SOL unless you fork out a ton for a real OEM one. And even then wouldn't they be like 20 years old?

 

If you can find a true oem one that's probably your best bet. I just don't know where or how you'll find one. Our local toyota dealership bought their radiators from us as long as I can remember,and I've worked at our shop since 2000. Ours are not oem. The true oem ones have a little white painted on "toyota" on the top tank.

 

So you're telling me I'm pretty much screwed and am going to get a bad radiator unless I luck out and find one with toyota painted on it

 

Maybe radiators are like parts store starters, you have to take it replace it under warranty 30 times before you get a good one, then that one works forever.


What I don't understand is why crappy Al radiators seem to a problem specific to our trucks. I mean, pretty much every car sold in the last 20 years has an Al radiator and none of them continuously crap out. Does nobody make a good aftermarket rad or is there something else to it?

 

Like a said before,your best bet is to have good/decent parts from a used radiator (tanks and sidebrackets) and have it recored with a high quality core (a pc or tq core from Pacific up in Canada is my choice) and have it put together by a radiator shop that knows what they're doing,doesn't half ass anything,and covers all the bases.

 

I replaced mine with a CSF three core almost 3 years ago, never had any issues with it. See my thread here, https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...pgrade-256930/

 

This is the direction I'm going, I went down and met with a guy at Fort Collins Radiator and he took a look at it and felt very confident that he could take care of it. The truck has been meticulously maintained and I bought it from the original owner. The radiator looks new on the outside so we'll find out what the deal is when he gets into it.

Thanks for all of the replies

 

Just make sure he blocks off the end rows of tubes,and fills up every solder joint. I don't know what core manufacturers they use,but I highly recommend Pacific out of Canada if he recores it.

 

I appreciate it, the guy has been doing radiators for 32 years and his dad owns the shop and has been doing them for a lot longer than that. He feels confident that he will have it all buttoned up and running cooler. He took the time to show me the process and he is going to call me later and let me know what he finds

 

Sounds like you're in good hands.

 

The reason some aluminum radiators are junk is due to the thickness of the metal being used. To cut costs company's are using the thinnest metal they can find. If you pickup a oem radiator you will notice is is heavy. Aftermarket radiators are super light.

 

I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to respond and help

 

Thought I would update this with what he finds and after I pick it up I'll update with results in car anybody else has these same questions...

They took the radiator out and dipped it in a solution that took everything off including paint and they then blew everything out of it and it definitely had 23 years worth of build up(white alkaline type substance) in it. They then pressure tested it and everything tested fine so he painted it up, flushed the engine block and heater core and is puting it all back together.

He took me over and showed me two other Toyota radiators he was working on and mine was in fantastic condition compared to those. I purchased this from the original owner and he took great care of it and the radiator didn't have a single blemish on the exterior whereas the other ones he was working on looked trashed.

I'll pick it up a little later and post the results. He was confident that it should cool the way it did when it was bought

 

So they're not doing any special work to it like Turd Furgeson suggested?

 

No sir, once he dipped it and pressure tested it it seemed good. We'll see when I get it back.

 

Sounds like there's little doubt that it'll work.
It just sounded like the extra work was going to help with longevity under adverse conditions.

 

Maybe so, time will tell. Overall the original radiator was in pretty damn good shape so I'm good with it.

I've put a couple hundred miles on it and the temp gauge it's below half and doesn't move. So far so good