Champion radiator woes

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

I will take some pics and add them as I make the new part for fun

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

Test fit the thread fits nicely

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Rocket Man]

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.

 

[Squirrelsmith]

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

 

[Squirrelsmith]

Here is a link the where i bought it. Its ebay but i talked to champion customer support today and they had record of me buying it which was surprising. Lifetime warrenty that is honored through this second party ebay add.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-1995-...&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&redirect=mobile

 

[Rocket Man]

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

Now that I would pay, that's a good price for an all aluminum radiator. That other vendor here, @Mishimoto, started off with a bunch of hype on how great their new design lowered temps etc but no price until later and when they dropped the $500 figure I was like "I'm out" lol. They got a lot of interest though but no way would I ever drop $500 on a radiator. Plus the originals never really had any issues with cooling except maybe the trans and for that it's better to add a TruCool 5k for an extra $80.

 

[Squirrelsmith]

I was thinking about using a 5/16 barb to 3/8 barb to splice the hose originally so i suppose this is what you would do. Kind of mickey mouse but it would be better than spending $500!

 

[Squirrelsmith]

Now that I would pay, that's a good price for an all aluminum radiator. That other vendor here, @Mishimoto, started off with a bunch of hype on how great their new design lowered temps etc but no price until later and when they dropped the $500 figure I was like "I'm out" lol. They got a lot of interest though but no way would I ever drop $500 on a radiator. Plus the originals never really had any issues with cooling except maybe the trans and for that it's better to add a TruCool 5k for an extra $80.

The only reason i bought this is a plan on upgrading to a higher horsepower engine in the future. My old radiator with the leak didnt seem to have any problem keeping the engine cool haha. So i agree $500 seems way out there for one of these old trucks, its not like we are taking them to car shows

 

[Rocket Man]

The only reason i bought this is a plan on upgrading to a higher horsepower engine in the future. My old radiator with the leak didnt seem to have any problem keeping the engine cool haha. So i agree $500 seems way out there for one of these old trucks, its not like we are taking them to car shows

Yeah I've got a blower headers and a cam, drive it hard all the time and have no problem with cooling on a stocker so I think Mishimoto tried to fix a problem that doesn't exist lol.

 

[Squirrelsmith]

Little update. This is one of those radiators that comes with a lovely extra hole to make it universal with who knows what other vehicles. Anyway it comes with this nice rubber stopper that is already riddled with cracks and looks ready to blow at any minute.

 

[swathdiver]

Little update. This is one of those radiators that comes with a lovely extra hole to make it universal with who knows what other vehicles. Anyway it comes with this nice rubber stopper that is already riddled with cracks and looks ready to blow at any minute.

View attachment 202594 View attachment 202595

Yeah... no...

Gotta find a plug that can take the heat and pressure.

 

[Rocket Man]

Now that's stupid. Plus it looks like it might be hard to find something else to plug it with. SMH.

 

[Squirrelsmith]

Basically makes this radiator a bust

 

[Rocket Man]

Basically makes this radiator a bust

Between the 2 major problems with it, maybe so. Too bad that Mishimoto one is $500; that's just too much IMO.