Champion radiator woes

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Squirrelsmith

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I buy a sweet all aluminum champion radiator thinking it will be bad ass. I go to install it and the overflow fitting on the radiator is for 5/16 id hose while the tahoe takes 3/8 id hose.

So I say ok no big deal I am a machinist I will just make a new fitting or maybe I can just buy one.

I start looking into what the thread is on the champion 5/16 fitting..... hmmm it is very tapered, too tapered. I call Champion and they say it's a 1/16 npt.

I am machinist so I know the included angle on a ntp is about 3.5 degrees. Well I check the angle of this thread and it is a whopping 12.5 degrees!!!!!!

So either they are making a proprietary thread and lying about it or more likely some bungler make a few thousand of these WRONG and champion instead of throwing them away decides to just let their customers jam this part in there.

very disappointing
 
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Squirrelsmith

Squirrelsmith

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Wow I called them back and they say the thread is like that so you can just jam it in the hole and it will seal. What a mickey mouse design. I'm going to make a standard 1/16 npt and use thread tape
 
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Squirrelsmith

Squirrelsmith

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What I will be making to be clear is a 1/16 npt to 3/8 barb. I can't find one online
 
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Squirrelsmith

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step 1 I have a model, step 2 see if I can talk a cnc lathe operator into making it for me so I don't have to fire up the old conventional lathe

adapter.jpg
 
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Squirrelsmith

Squirrelsmith

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Well no luck convincing someone else to make my parts haha. So here is where i am at. Im going to test fit the thread before i go any further
By some miracle I actually found a die for the thread, I was not looking forward to single pointing it

20180411_175739.jpg 20180411_181023.jpg 20180411_181729.jpg
 
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Squirrelsmith

Squirrelsmith

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Final product now hopefully i can be back on the road this weekend

20180411_210353.jpg
 

Rocket Man

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Wow nice work. I wonder what happens to the others who buy this and aren't machinists? BTW what did you pay for the radiator? There's a manufacturer on here who say they've designed the world's best radiator for our trucks and they decided $500 is what they're worth. That's almost 5 times what a stock one runs.
 
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Squirrelsmith

Squirrelsmith

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Yeah i dont know that would really be a bummer i guess you would have to splice the hose at some point. The radiator was $200 shipped it is a 3 core
 
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