M35A2 radiator replaced with aftermarket universal radiator

Okay, so some of you might remember that I discovered my radiator was completely shot beyond repair. It was so badly corroded throughout all the water passages that it just could not be fixed. Well, I did not want to have to spend between $650-$1000 for a new radiator, and that's all I was finding them for. So, I live just an hour and a half from Summit Racing's Sparks Nevada store, so I decided to go there and see what kinds of universal radiators they had in stock. Ended up coming home with a 27x20 inch Afco Aluminum radiator with both the input and outputs on the passenger side to lign up with the hoses on the engine for $235.

Through the application of lots of bends, and hose reducers, and things for about $100 additional, I was able to make the connections. And since the radiator had to be mounted lower than the highest water passages in the engine, I mounted a remote coolant rervoir up high on the firewall in order to keep the system full. I made some custom radiator mounts out of some angle iron and other steel I had sitting around, and it is very firmly mounted, and looks really good.

Took it for a long test drive today, and it seems to work great! Keeps the engine within normal operating temperature even when climbing a long steep hill. The hottest it got was 190 according to the water temp guage and my thermal imaging camera.

I will have to see how it works in the long run, but so far it looks very promising and I am quite pleased with how it turned out, even if I did end up with some goofy looking hose connections. ha ha

Total cost, somewhere around $350 and a trip to Reno, and a couple more trips to my local hardware and auto parts stores, as opposed to a minimum of $650 for a stock radiator plus shipping, and having to wait weeks for it to get here!

So here are some pics.

So what was the total cost ?

Good work! What did the radiator and other parts end up costing you?

porkysplace said:

So what was the total cost ?

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The radiator was $235 and then around $100 more in random hoses that I needed, and the remote coolant reservoir. So around $335 or so in money, but if you take my time into account and the fact that it took me ALL DAY to do it, I probably would have been better off to just spend the $650 for a stock radiator. And in fact, halfway through this little project, I said "Alright, I give in, I'm just gonna buy a stock radiator. It will be so much easier!" But then I reached a point where I said "No, I allready bought this radiator, and I want to accomplish this just to prove to myself that I can!" So I decided to push through and finally managed to get all the connections made.

I love that sense of accomplishment when you manage to do something like that. Although I must admit, I was fully prepared to not be surprised when I took it for a test drive, if it overheated or something. But luckily it seems to be just fine, and looks like I might be able to leave it this way for quite some time, until I feel like forking out the money for a real M35a2 radiator. But if this keeps working good, then why bother.

Excellent work. I think that all too often people get stuck in the "has to be stock parts" mentality with their vehicles. Military and otherwise. I think it says much more about a person when they can think their way to a different solution. In a SHTF situation, or any kind of emergency, you can know that you've solved problems without the most convenient tools, and be better prepared to remain calm and do what needs to be done. Congrats! It looks awesome.

There are alternative methods for removing the pelt of the feline mammal.......there is however no way to induce him to enjoy the experience.

Nice job, I like seeing alternative parts. You done good (nice photos, too!)!

Notice any increased fuel millage with the weight reduction?

Sorry had to ask.

Looks like a nice clean install. To me anything to save a buck is great.

That old radiator should have helped offset the cost some. There's some money in that much brass.

Looks like the biggest issue is the bottom of the radiator's outlet is facing down. I would have tried to have that replaced with a "straight out" outlet. Is the outlet integral? Looks like a 4 core unit? Did you try to make any shrouding for the fan? How about some pics of the mounts, this seems like a good option.

Flyingvan911 said:

That old radiator should have helped offset the cost some. There's some money in that much brass.

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I was just looking at the old radiator yesterday realizing that. Just because it's riddled with holes doesn't mean the brass contained in it isn't atleast worth something. Need to figure out where I can take it. I live so far from anywhere, that I'll probably have to wait til I am going to Reno or Sacramento again for something else and bring it with me.

The absolute biggest issue I had was the fact that the manufacturers of the radiator welded that bottom port facing UP. So because the alternator/generator is right there, it became quite a problem for me having to bend a pipe at a really sharp angle down, and almost bending back on itself to get away from the alternator. So then yes, because I ended up with the lower port going down at such a steep angle away from the engine, that is why I had to put that 180 degree bent flex hose on there to come back up to the engine. I'm sure I could find a pre-made radiator hose that is allready bent close enough to the right shape to make that lower connection better. I wish I was better at welding aluminum, and since I live out in the middle of nowhere, it makes it difficult to take anything to somebody to do stuff like that for me.

I was looking at the radiators that have the threaded ports so you can put different size and angled tubes on there, and that would be a better option.

No I did not atempt to make any kind of fan shroud for it yet. Not sure I will. Even at idle you can put your hand up to the front of the radiator and feel a pretty strong suction and lots of air moving through it.

I'll try to get some better pics of the radiator mounts, but all I did was use a piece of angle on the bottom going across bolted to the vertical pieces of the truck that are on either side of the radiator, and then bolted the bottom of the radiator to that piece of angle. Then for the top mount which you can see pretty good in the first picture I think, was just some 2 inch wide flat steel that I bent some tabs on the ends, and bolted them also to the verticle pieces on either side of the radiator, and then took another flat piece and bent it into kind of a rectangle piece that fit down into the channel on the top of the radiator. And I put a little strip of old fire hose under it, and bolted the top piece in place to hold the radiator there. Could have been done many different ways, but that's the design I came up with from materials I had on hand.

gimpyrobb said:

Looks like the biggest issue is the bottom of the radiator's outlet is facing down. I would have tried to have that replaced with a "straight out" outlet. Is the outlet integral? Looks like a 4 core unit? Did you try to make any shrouding for the fan? How about some pics of the mounts, this seems like a good option.

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Oh, and as you can see, the radiator cap is kind of hard to get at, but that doesn't concern me to0 much since I pretty much abandoned it anyway when I mounted the elevated remote coolant reservoir since now the radiator cap is below the level of the coolant, I can't really ad coolant to the system via the radiator cap anyway. In this case it would be better if the radiator was just closed and did not even have a cap, although because this setup is not perfect, it did help me to get air out of the system when I was filling it up, and I did end up filling it most of the way with a funnel into the top of the radiator, then put the cap on and filled it the rest of the way using the remote reservoir.

Go to http://www.streetrodstuff.com/ and they can build you an aluminum radiator to almost any dimension and specification that you want or need. Havig said that, I can certainly appreciate the innovation that Truckoholic put into retrofitting an "off the shelf" unit into his truck. Well done, sir!
Don

PS-no affiliation with streetrodstuff other than a satisifed customer (used one of their radiators in my 6BT-repowered Travco 270 several years ago).

this was about saving money too so i dont think a custom radiator would really be appropriate.