RADIATOR INLET AND OUTLET REVERSED WILL IT BE OK?

[9secondz28]

ok i purchased a griffin radiator custom size for my Chevy but they sent me a ford but its the same dementions, the original inlet was low on the passenger side and the outlet back to the block was high on the drivers side but the new one is opposite i can still fit it but will it make a difference cooling wise they wont take a return so im stuck

[9secondz28]

anyone know if it will work ok?

[Lucky13]

What do you mean by still fit it? I think the one that feeds the water pump will have to be the bottom outlet. Now you can come over with a pipe and custom hose to get it there with it being on the wrong side, no problem there. I have seen people use exhaust pipe, and take hoses and cut them to work with the pipe and it worked fine as long as the bottom radiator outlet is whats plumbed to the water pump.

On the BB Mopars there where two different water pump housings so you could have water pump outlet coming off either side by swapping housing, so it was no big deal. Is there a Chevy pump that comes the opposite side?


Jess

[ProPower engines]

Seems like a whole lot of dickin around.
Why not just call them and get them to send the correct rad?? The extra PITA with bastard hoses etc. is going to make the PS pump a pain to deal with.
The rad won't care and it will work but seriously why would you go through it. They have the right rads just get the right one

[9secondz28]

like i said in my original post im not able to return the rad. im stuck with it and wasnt cheap and there isnt any other pump housing i can use due to it being a gen 2 LT1 in my 4th gen camaro

[mike walsh]

I anticipate seeing that on E-bay soon! Can't return it? That sucks. It will work but coming up with hoses will be a pita.

[Matt Gruber]

the top is easy as they sell a swivel neck.
a friend at a muffler shop could bend a pipe for the bottom, as mentioned, if there is room.
It will work fine.

[Koolaid]

Why not find a good local aluminum welder and have them relocate the bungs?

Functionality wise the way it is will work, but that lower hose is going to be a nightmare and look like crap each time you open the hood for as long as you own the car.

[9secondz28]

its not that i dont have room for hoses cause i do it was just the matter of the radiator working i didnt know if the inlet needed to be higher or lower or neither

[Koolaid]

Your inlet is not higher or lower - it is moved across. Just to be really clear - your water pump cold intake has to come from the bottom of the radiator (no matter which side) and your hot water return out of the intake has to go to the top of the radiator (no matter which side).

[Lucky13]

Your inlet is not higher or lower - it is moved across. Just to be really clear - your water pump cold intake has to come from the bottom of the radiator (no matter which side) and your hot water return out of the intake has to go to the top of the radiator (no matter which side).

Yea this is the main thing, the punp cant work against the weight of the water so the pumps intake has to draw from the bottom of radiator.


Anyway the exhaust pipe with hose at the ends will work. But I think after seeing it that getting the inlet and outlet swapped would be a easy/cheap/fast fix that would then look like nothing ever happened ( like already meantioned). Someone with a tig could work that out so sweat. Its a shame to even have to go through things like this but you have to work with what you got sometimes.


Jess

[9secondz28]

what any local place near me will charge to remove and relocate and weld i might as well buy another radiator and sell this on ebay or any forums ...

i still have mixed info on it working or not, does inlet and outlet make a difference in flow and cooling? now thats my question

[ZIGGY]

My 2 cents says sell or trade it. Getting someone to tig it will probably end up costing you more, or you'll get a cobbled-up job or both. What everyone is telling you is that, as far as cooling function goes, it doesn't make a damn which SIDE the inlet and/or outlet is on, but the pump must pull from the bottom(think about it sucking air from the top). Return to the top. Okay?

P.S. - I don't think you'd want both inlet & outlet on the same side unless the rad was designed for it.

[enigma57]

Your inlet is not higher or lower - it is moved across. Just to be really clear - your water pump cold intake has to come from the bottom of the radiator (no matter which side) and your hot water return out of the intake has to go to the top of the radiator (no matter which side).

X 2!! To 9secondz28...... Its not a big deal. Many moons ago (1974), I found myself in the boonies out in far West Texas with a busted radiator in my '55 Chevy running a built 327. Had very little money and a few tools with me. No wrecking yards anywhere nearby. Ended up installing a radiator I pulled from a '57 Cadillac in a nearby farmer's field after making a deal with him...... $15 bucks if I pulled it, no guarantees it would hold water, but I could use his drill motor and an extension cord to drill mounting holes if I had a 3/8" drill bit of my own (I did). The Caddy radiator was a bit larger, but I made it fit. Lower hose outlet was on the 'wrong' side.

Just to get home (another 800 miles across Texas)...... I cut a piece of 1-1/2" OD copper tubing the appropriate length and soldered a 90 degree copper elbow to each end (one facing away from the other). 1-3/4" ID radiator hose was a nice fit over the OD of the copper fittings. I used a short piece of hose and a couple of hose clamps to join this crossover pipe to the Caddy radiator outlet (driver's side) and clamped my existing Chevy lower radiator hose over the elbow on the passenger side.

To secure the copper tube, I cut a piece of scrap radiator hose, split it, glued it with yellow 3-M weatherstrip adhesive I had in my toolbox to the copper tube to isolate it from rubbing on the frame (now of days, I'd use a dab of black RTV form-a-gasket to glue it on) and secured it to the front frame extension with a couple of large nylon cinch straps fished through a couple of existing holes in the frame and pulled tight across the rubber strips I glued to the copper tubing.

Worked like a champ and cooled better than my smaller Chevy radiator had. Intended on pulling it and taking it to a radiator shop to have the lower outlet swapped from side to side 'some day', but never got around to it. The '57 Caddy radiator and jury rigged lower hose with the copper crossover tube remained on the car until I returned from the service 6 years later and swapped in a big block and a large cross flow radiator.

Of course, the '57 Caddy radiator was a brass tank / copper core setup and yours is aluminum. So if you make a copper crossover tube as I did, you would want to coat the inside of it with gyptal paint or perhaps drop a zinc artificial anode into your radiator, secured by a brass chain so the dissimilar metals won't cause your aluminum radiator to corrode.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

Harry

[Lucky13]

No difference in cooling, but the pump pickup has to be from bottom of rad, no matter which side. Then the other hookup has to be oppisite side.

Even if you just run a hose/pipe to get this one to work there will be no diff in cooling.



Jess