Hot Rods Aluminum VS Copper/brass Radiators

If your engine doesn't get up to thermostat temp, your stat is stuck open. Unless it's -20 below zero out.

 

I think it comes down to quality. I have 2 Champion aluminum radiators, one in my 59 El Camino, one in my 49 Ranchero. The Chevy has no issues, with either a 427 or 327. Just an ebay unit. The one in my Ranchero, for a 292 equipped Galaxie, had problems cooling my 289. I have some scrap radiators and am planing on teaching myself how to solder and repair them so I repair the 0e one so ican drive the Ranchero in the summer.

 

I bought a Walker Radiator because my plan is to run a roots supercharger on a 500 Cad engine, and I wanted to be sure that I had the capacity to cool it. Gotta say that I think they are still way too expensive. If I was building a naturally aspirated engine I would just use an aluminum radiator. Go to a BIG show (like the Street Rod Nationals) and ask as many people as you can find with a similar old car what brand they are running and does it do the job. While I didn't do that, I can tell you that the vast majority of 32 Fords there had aluminum radiators and they were driving them, not just showing them. In particular, a lot of them had A/C as well as automatic transmissions compounding the needs. I'm using an aluminum radiator in my LS3 powered S10 pickup thats waiting for me in the pole barn to finish up.