Bought a $300 radiator for my '68 Mustang, still overheating two months later

I swapped in a cheap aluminum radiator thinking it would fix the cooling issues, but it only dropped the temp by 5 degrees at idle. The core is too thin for the stock 289, and now I keep seeing hot spots after 20 minutes of driving. Anyone else wasted cash on a budget radiator and ended up going back to a copper one?

1 comments

1 Comment

fionarodriguez3d ago

My buddy had the exact same thing happen with his '70 Charger. He put in one of those cheap aluminum ones, chased it for months, changed thermostats, water pumps, even flushed the block twice. Turns out the core was so thin the coolant just flew through it, no time to shed heat. He finally broke down and found an old copper replacement on Craigslist for half the price of a new one. First drive after that, temp needle sat dead center, never moved again. Some things you just can't cheap out on, and radiators for old V8s are one of them.