So far so good on week 3! Not one issue with the GM style radiator conversion. No leaks or circulation issues with the cooler lines, heater hose re-routing or throttle heater deletion. Overflow tank is working as it should too. She's running at 180-185* in stop n go traffic and highway driving! Super glad I eliminated this weak point on my rig. The hood nipple is a small small price to pay for a great running rig. Gonna eventually put a hood vent or scoop over it and match it up on the other side.

 

How thick is the new rad? I need to make some more room in the engine bay for my 6.2 - thinking this might be the way to go!

 

core is 1 inch and side tanks are 3 inches. So 3 inches at widest point sticking out. plenty of room. very pleased with it. drove it to trail, 120+ mile roundtrip with steep highway inclines @ 70 mph, wheeled all day and she sat @ 179*. I highly recommend this swap. Easily under $100 and a little fabrication.

 

you know i have been pondering this, and looking at what you did with the lower hose vs the stock rover hose, i think that removing the heater core line and collant tank from that lower hose by itself may be the major improvement in cooling here,by causing the cooled fluid to go into the engine not swirl around all ***** nily through the heater core and pressure tank

also i have noticed on mine if you idle to long you lose heat from the dash as soon as you raise the rpm heat comes back ( i am talking when its real cold out) and I have no rushing water noise or air pocket it is simply due to coolant flow seeking path of least resistance which is the other reason i am thinking the lower hose is the weak point in the design

I am trying to figure a way to do this without changing my new rover rad to the gm

i could buy a moroso in line pressure T that uses a gm rad cap and has an overflow nipple , put that in the upper hose, run the over flow hose across the rad to the bottle,hell for that matter i can get a smaller overflow and put it where my factory jack was and get rid of the rover bottle and gain all that room by the batt for relays and stuff

i am sure i can use a gm lower hose in place of the lower hose with some cutting

so my only issue is how to feed the heater core, i had thought i can go from one of the small rad nipples and adapt it up to the heater core hose but that will make pressure instead of flowing volume

 

Or simplify it and ditch the rover rad. Sell it to some noob here and get the late 90's - 2004 GM one for $67... Hoses and cooler fittings from pick n pull run about $15.

 

Okay......

You deleted the throttle body heater lines, i'm curious if anyone knows how that would affect a truck in the midwest... we had temps -15 (-40 windchill) this past winter.

I don't want to accidentally cause another issue here

 

You can "T" the tb heater lines into the heater cores lines. Honestly the throttle body freezes due to rushing/condensing air not just outside air temp. Rover put the heater before the butterfly so IT would not freeze shut/wide open/part way....blah, blah, blah.....lawsuit! Dusty1 did a fondue warmer whiz bang whirly gig setup on his project motor.

 

Hmm.. interesting, I was thinking the tap off the heater lines, do they have taps that are small enough? or just use whatever size hose is there and a reducer...

time to do some more research heh.. My wifes van has something similar (not a T, more like a Y to avoid disrupting the flow) maybe it'll be a junkyard find.

 

Yeah no inputs on tb heater from me. I'm stationed in sunny San Diego, Coronado to be exact. 75-85* all year long... it's a rough life! Haha

 

Hittin the junkyard today......

navy: couple of questions for you...

1. How did you mount the rad to account for the vertical motion (bouncing etc) I see the anchors on the side to keep it in place but I do not see anything to prevent this.

2. You anchor the fan shroud to the original top/bottom plates, but there is a decent gap between the rad and the shroud, I would imagine this would cut down on the effectiveness of the cooling? You went with electric fans if i recall, did you just not worry about it cause of that?