Factory fit all aluminum 3 row radiator!?!?

dbral · 11-16-2023, 11:36 PM

On ebay right now. There are a few left. For the price, i'm gonna try one out. Will post back findings.

tw0123 · 11-17-2023, 12:39 PM

I have one of these, haven't put it in yet though... Kyle Maffitt has done an install on it and I'm pretty sure he's got a YouTube review of it on his channel kmaffittgagt

My only concern is they don't ship to Canada, I got lucky and found one in a part out that was never used and scooped it up asap haha!!

dbral · 11-17-2023, 05:44 PM

Kmaffitgagt is the channel that tipped me off to these. His is a 2 row one from the description. The car in his video did not have a/c or a/t but it looks like all provisions are there for that. Seems like a good deal

Good find and yeah, a lot of parts can only be found during a part out for these cars unfortunately. Kyle's channel is a good place to see what once was available for these cars years ago too. Fun to watch but depressing at the same time lol

tw0123 · 11-18-2023, 06:17 PM

Oh for sure!! I try to jump on parts so they don't get scrapped or lost... I can't leave these cars stock haha... I have a bunch of rare parts on my good alero and some fun goodies in the daily as well... wish I could ger my hands on a final 500 as well!!

dbral · 11-19-2023, 08:59 PM

Oh man, a final 500 in the stable would be great and part of the fun of owning these cars is the hunt for rare old parts or coming up with ways to work around not having them lol.

dbral · 11-30-2023, 08:01 PM

Arrived last week. Pretty official looking and it is a 3 row design

dbral · 08-17-2024, 11:30 PM

So, i ordered this radiator for our GA a while back in hopes that it would help with the coolant temps rising past normal while driving in the brutal summer heat we always have down here. As it turns out, the upper half or so of the A/C condenser fins were plugged with debris right behind where that large upside down air scoop is behind the bumper cover on the n-body and must have been blocking just enough airflow to cause this issue and still allow the A/C to operate as cleaning the condenser fins fixed that issue.

Fast forward to today. Our new Alero (Matt's car) now that it can idle normally and the A/C can be operated at all times (After repairing the MMS mistake), will start to heat up with the A/C engaged. At highway-ish speeds the temps will rise approx 10 degrees and at lower vehicle speeds / sitting still, the temps have gone up ~30 degrees to the point where we just shut the a/c off before it gets there now. The car generally runs 175-185 degrees with the A/C off and the cooling fans on high. With A/C on we have seen it climb to 215 ( And was prob. still climbing!) with cooling fans on high as well. The car has 2 giant Spal fans that seem to move a lot of air. They have proper looking shrouds. Using a mirror, I was able to verify that the condenser fins were not plugged like our GA was. All of the factory lower air deflectors are in great shape. The car has a body kit so it has bigger openings up front than factory. It has a MMS "direct fit" radiator that looks like a turbo car intercooler. Huge bar/plate design. It appears that the condenser is mounted flush against the rad. core and tanks as there are no provisions for factory A/C on this rad. My theory is that the hot condenser is transferring heat to the rad through physical contact as there is no air-gap between the two. Should i try to make stand-offs to separate the rad/condenser like factory? Should i swap in the ebay 3 core as it has the provisions and proper spacing for factory A/C? Should i try a stock replacement rad? Is the MMS bar/plate rad better than the normal tube and fin stuff? Leaning towards making stand-offs for the current MMS rad as an experiment at this point. Any advice would be appreciated.

homegrown · 08-18-2024, 07:13 PM

Don:

There is maybe a 1/4" gap between the A/C condenser and the MMS radiator. I know because I had to get two of the stand-offs re-positioned because they were initially welded on in the wrong place.

dbral · 08-19-2024, 12:27 AM

Matt! Looked like they were touching to me? Can only see the bottom 4-5 inches of the condenser/rad though. Will get a better look and maybe a pic if I can.

The radiator looks like it would keep a Kenworth cool. Not sure exactly what is going on... Thinking about trying to space the two out to factory spec. but may have some space constraint issues. Do you have any ideas?

dbral · 08-19-2024, 06:23 PM

There is no clearance between the rad/condenser tanks. Can't get a good visual on the cores but feels like there is a slight gap there. Dunno. Going to try to separate them like factory if possible as a first try.

homegrown · 08-19-2024, 10:22 PM

It's certainly a tight squeeze. The condenser in there is not the OEM one, but one of the better ones I could find on RockAuto. I figured it'd be a good idea to replace it when the new radiator went in. If memory serves, the ends of the condenser are a bit deeper than the core.

dbral · 08-22-2024, 12:56 AM

Tight squeeze for sure. The condenser looks to be in good shape with straight fins and the A/C works well. The current core air gap may not be an issue. Recently read that Vintage Air states a 3/16" gap is fine.

It's possible that the rad just can't keep up with the triple digit heat index/obscene humidity here. The weather turned milder this week and the car ran a solid 175 during the morning commute and did not go above 198 on the way home with the ac on.

Just assumed that a giant radiator like that one would keep a car cool in Death Valley.

The car is running great Matt and we are enjoying it. Such a huge difference compared to a stock Alero in power and handling, esp. at highway speeds.