How much were they?

 

We got a group price from Griffin. There were 50 of us, and the price was $365 + shipping each. Before the group buy, I was looking at spending $600 for one from Griffin.

 

HMR offer two types of aluminum radiators

Never asked the price though

 

...and have had an issue with my radiator. It had worked so well through to December that one of my rad fans unplugged itself, and I never noticed; gauge readings never changed. With one fan I should have been fine. Unfortunately, that fan too seized up and blew a fuse. I think I actually drove about 7miles on the expressway, pulled off into rush-hour traffic, and into a mini-mall on X-mas Eve, and parked without temp needle going crazy. It wasn't until I was buttoning up the car and fiddling with the alarm lock that the car overheated. <<--- scarey if your seeing it for the first time, now I understand what the hose does!

After a few moments of hurried fuse pulling, relay plugging, and water pouring, I got the fan running and cooled the car down. I have no doubt that if I were on the stock radiator I would have boiled over at the first stoplight as opposed to the parking space infront of the SuperFresh.

I've also learned that used fans aren't worth the peice of mind that comes from new fans.

BTW, anyone ever investigated replacing the stock fans with new more modern units?

Heybiff

 

heybiff,

Great follow up story.

I learned a long time ago that saving 50% on used parts will cost you 150% later (or should I say sooner), when you have to replace the used part again. I now only use new, it is not worth my time to continually replace a half priced part. Certainly not worth the frustration of being stranded twice.

 

That's why I'm so keen to just update the part, and not have to worry for another 16yrs. Unfortunately, I can tell the PO replaced them too.

Heybiff

 

You have to buy them from Griigen. They are direct bolt in.

 

Mine has been fantastic. Get rid of the famous lower temp electric fan thermostat, you wont need it. This radiator has more reserve capacity.... no need to waste battery juice to run fans when the car is parked.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. From what I've heard, from this post, and previous posts, no one has a complaint about the radiators. So it sounds like they are the real deal. My main question was the change in water temps if any.

Sam Lin - I see what you mean, it makes sense that the radiator doesn’t have a whole lot to do with how hot the car gets, but I figured that if the radiator was more efficient, it should drop the temps some. I think the better way of saying this is that it would take the car longer to get hot, not necessarily run cooler. Is that assumption correct?

I think this was already answered, but Griffin does not sell to any distributors that I know of. They are a custom radiator type shop, you give them the specs of what you want, and they build it.

Anyone else interested in getting one? I am debating on getting one now, or waiting until the fall.

Matt

 

There are plenty of Griffin stock applications - whether those are stocked by Griffin or ordered and then stocked by individual retailers I don't know.

Warmup time is not affected, as nothing is changed on the engine side of the cooling system, and that's all that matters when the thermostat is closed. Where the radiator's added cooling ability would make a difference is if you were already maxing out your cooling system (stock radiator not getting much airflow due to clogging or you sticking a front mount intercooler in front of it and having hot ambient temperature) where despite the thermostat being open and fans on, the car's temperatures keep rising. In that situation, this radiator will keep it cooler.

Sam

 

Sam,

Thanks for the info - That helps out a lot.


Does anyone have pictures of how this radiator looks installed on their car? I am interested in seeing it, as well as Scotty from Griffin asked me to round up some pictures for him, as he never got to see the finished product installed. If anyone has some pictures of it installed, post them on here, or just send them directly to me, matt87951 AT yahoo DOT com.

Thanks guys!
Matt