Radiator advice

[R Moses]

I have narrowed my Radiator choice down to a Ron Davis at WildHorses 4x4 or the USA made aluminum one from Jeff’s Bronco. Has anyone had any experience with either one of these Radiators?

 

[1969]

What’s your reasoning for these two?

 

[ba123]

I have the Howe radiator from JBG. It is a VERY nice radiator and it works great but know that the description sucks and it is HUGE!

It took a lot of cutting brackets to make it fit, but it does.

 

[R Moses]

My reasoning is to get best radiator I can get. Both of these say they fit without modifications.
And made in the USA is important to me also.

 

[Shimmy]

i've read that the aluminum radiators leak frequently. have you considered a copper or oem style radiator?

 

[ba123]

My reasoning is to get best radiator I can get. Both of these say they fit without modifications.
And made in the USA is important to me also.

Without modifications is funny. The JBG one fits without modifications to the body, yes, that is true. I bought some EXTRA EXTRA large black bottom radiator mounts off someone on eBay and I used the JBG ones, that are actually Scott Drake and are way too small on top, but if you cut most of them off, they still look ok.

But, you have to cut most of them, literally. If you decide you're leaning towards the Howe JBG, look on my build thread, I'm sure I posted something there but happy to take some more pics if needed.

 

[R Moses]

Don’t really want to cut anything, if
I don’t have too.

 

[R Moses]

I thought the better built (USA made radiators don’t leak).

 

[ba123]

You could buy the ebay brackets and use top and bottom but they aren't really pretty on top.

 

[ba123]

I thought the better built (USA made radiators don’t leak).

Any radiator CAN leak. But if you buy either of those two, those people should stand behind it. I don't have a lot of miles on my Howe but it doesn't leak and the times I emailed Howe with questions, they responded quickly.

 

[R Moses]

Thank you ba123, it’s looking like JBG may be out.

 

[R Moses]

yea, that’s good to hear. I don’t have I welder and I’m only a YouTube certified mechanic, so I don’t have a lot of expertise on custom mods.

 

[SteveL]

Get the copper/brass replacement and dont look back. The aluminum corrode pretty quick in the elements or if you keep the coolant mixture perfect. They're also brittle if you like to bounce around in the bronco.

 

[Mark1911]

Ron Davis for myself, put in a couple of years back and been extremely happy with it.

 

[Brush Hog]

Been running Tom’s aluminum 3 core stock replacement radiator for over a year. Perfect fit easy install and cools well. Runs 190-200 no matter the outside temp (100 plus summer time temps in NorCal are common).

 

[Shimmy]

^ i was eyeing that one. thanks for the info

 

[Dylan_Shaffer]

I went through 3 of the aluminum Jeff’s broncos ones. First two leaked within a year.

 

[dmoses42]

If you still have an original radiator, you can take it to a radiator shop and have it rebuilt. They should be able to fix the tanks if they aren't too bad and put an entirely new core in with a 2 row or 3 row configuration. Probably won't be cheap, but it will definitely be better than a chinese made aluminum one. My local radiator shop quoted me $590 to rebuild mine if it needs an entire new core, but after looking at mine, I shouldn't need a new core.

 

[bfoldy]

I've been using the Howe radiator from JBG since 2005, and it's been top-notch. While I'm not certain about any updates in design or manufacturing since then, based on its enduring performance, I would recommend it without hesitation.


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[anoblefox]

The 4 core brass rad is still working great after allmost 40 years! It was purchased from K Bar S back in the day.