devilmans hand

plastic radiators are ok in cars where you do not expect to get a lot of excessive vibration like you would off-road and on washboards. I've had the plastic ones crack from casting imperfections, usually Mexican made radiators.

The brass radiators are worth the price, they are easily rebuilt and repaired, and come stock in most Toyota trucks. Just grab one for cheap, clean it, and throw it in. Simple as that.
I picked my v6 brass stock rad for $30 used. Washed it out with vinegar and clr, then flushed it. I'm a cheap ass though.
If you really need the extra cooling, see if you can stuff a landcruiser radiator in there.

If you get a radiatorbarn radiator, be sure it is the stock brass type. They carry a bunch of oem-like products for the best price new.

Turd Furgeson

They wouldn't re-core your radiator? What kind of radiator shop is this? I always prefer to re-core them so I know the customer has the best quality core we can get (20 times better than the core the aftermarket uses) and the fact that I put it together without cutting any corners,blocking off end rows in serpentine style cores,using extra solder on every joint, etc.

Richard

how much is to recore a radiator from an 88 V6 4Runner ??

rokblok

iTrader: (1)

I had managed to get three V6 radiators from my local yards, and I scored them cheap. But when I took them to the local rad shop, they cleaned them up and there were a few pinholes in each one. So they tried reselling the pinholes, but when it got warm enough to solder, more pinholes would emerge. I believe this was primarily due to improper coolant maintenance scheduling(if ever) and the brass/copper was just eaten to thin. I was there watching and participating so there was no trickery or dishonesty. After attempting to fix the used ones I brought them, I asked what was available and since I needed one pretty fast, they just got the aluminum/plastic radiator that I am currently running.

I agree with all statements above, plastic gets brittle and cracks, aluminum is hard to repair in the field, and brass/copper dissipates heat better. But this is a 95 percent road/5 percent trail truck that I use for work. And I figure since most, if not all, late model vehicles these days come with aluminum/plastic radiators, it should last me a couple years anyway...

jerry507

All the plastic tank failures I've had have come from the band pressing the plastic to the metal and not from failures of the plastic.

If I was made of money I'd buy all metal. But when I can spend 100$ for a radiator at autozone, or 270$ from Radiator Barn and probably still replace them at the same time because of corrosion or excessive fin damage, it's hard to justify it.

It'd be a different story if it was a trail rig though and not your DD.

Turd Furgeson

I don't remember how much it is to do one of those, I'm just the one that does the work. I think the last v6 rad I re-cored for a friend on my own time with my cost on the core. My cost on the 3-row PC style core was about $190. So our shop naturally marks the price of the core up a little,then has to charge for materials (solder,flux,tin eze) and my labor of dismantling,cleaning,tinning,reassembling,testing, and painting. So my guess is about $300-400 to re-core a 3-row v6 rad. I could be shooting a little high though. I'll have to ask my boss. I know it sounds expensive,but it really ends up being a MUCH better radiator than anything you're gonna find in the aftermarket replacement radiators as long as the parts off your old rad are in good shape. The oem toyota v6 rads tend to crack in the area close to the fill neck on the top tank. And the 4cyl rads tend to crack on the top tank around where the top neck is soldered in. Most cracks can be fixed unless your tank is really weak/too far gone.