It's also going to need a oil cooler or an external one. Any reason you don't want the stock one? You can do the HD chevy fan clutch/fan mod and be ahead of the game.

Camel trophy trucks used this type of cooling system. It was good for them. I think if everything is in good shape it works well. You're right about the fact no one uses a different style radiator. I've never seen one.

I like your truck. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

Thanks. Yeah gonna look for one with 4 cooler ports and add adapter fittings. I also plan on deleting the throttle body warmer ****...

 

theres a dude with the username sedat on disco web and pirate, he swapped in an aluminum radiator for a K5 and converted to an open cooling system.

 

Made some progress. Took about 3 hours but got the top end apart. All that's left is to pull the heads. Gonna do that tomorrow and clean everything else up. Gonna blowout the valley, any tips on what the clean all the gunk with without damaging anything. Gonna degrease the block too now that I'm at it. No coolant I'm the valley but there were signs of blow-by on the I take manifold. Scaling and such. Crossing my fingers that I don't have any steam cleaned pistons when I pull the heads tomorrow. Not too worried as compression checks were good but who knows with these wacky brit contraptions... Lol

 

Be sure to have heads checked, mine were warped had to be cut

 

Pulled the drivers side head today. Took about an hour and it claimed a 5/8 chrome vandium impact socket. Haha. Had that socket for 10+ years and have used it on what seemed to be harder jobs. Pretty straight forward removal with no notable issues. Coolant in #1 cylinder is from the head, not from the block so don't freak out! Poured out of the head as I was pulling it off the block. NO STEAM CLEANED PISTONS! ***** yeah! On the drivers side at least. Lol. The normal carbon build up and sludge from PO not changing oil as often as he should have. BTW, inner valve covers were disgusting! Have rebuilt Chevy blocks from the 60's with less sludge and old oil build up than this. I'm gonna deep clean everything before installing and wipe down the valley really well. Blew out oil cooler lines, no clogs. Straight edge check on the head looks good to my calibrated eye. Gonna pull the valves, clean up the heads, smooth out and replace valve seals. Rods look good and so do rockers. Passenger side will be done tomorrow. Wish me luck!

 

post pic of push rods they seem to go from ball ends to mushrooms

 

Yeah rods are good. Not mushroomed. Got the passenger head off today. No steamed pistons! Everything looks good. Just really dirty. ***** the bastard that didn't change his oil as scheduled with this beauty. Soooooo much build up and caking of oil. Carbon build up on heads and valves isn't too bad. Straight edge check was good on this one too. I'm confident enough not to take them to get checked. Just gonna clean them up and replace the valve seals.

 

Man I don't want to tell you how to do your build....but that is a really bad idea. These heads frequently warp and disfigure from excessive heat. We are talking only a few thousandths of an inch being enough to ruin your HG job. I doubt you can see the width Of a half of a sheet of paper with your eyeballs.

 

I've ran aluminum heads on all my rigs. A quality head gasket will compensate for it if it's a *** hair off (half sheet of paper thickness) . Some of you guys on here are really paranoid with these rigs. Maybe for a good reason? We will see... If this rig gives me too many temperamental issues and will act up for a thousands of an inch or any other dumb shyt I hear complaints about, I'll take it out to the desert and blow it up. Simple enough. Just a toy for me