Hello. I have been doing alot of work to my 85 GSL-SE and i didn't touch it all winter so now that its warm agin i have been out fiishing my build. so i get to work and i look over and notice my radiator outlet tube is COVERED in rust
at this point i will not even try to use it and have been looking around for a new one. and dam are they expensive. So in my searching i have found mostly 3 row and a few 2 row radiators that are just inside my budget, but i found a 1 row that is the price im looking for.http://www.shepherdautoparts.com/all...3l_rot_83.html

my question is how much of a cooling downfall will this have? i look through here and it seams like i currently have a 2 row but im not sure and i dont know how to tell.


incase it matters it's a 85 GSL-SE fresh rebuild custom street port and polish 750cc injectors stock ECU and autozone "high preformance" coils and distributer (tho i bet its about the same as stock). the car will be a daily driver in oklahoma temps from 0-100 F and will be at AutoX on the weekends.
any help or advice will be greatly appreciated


Thanks,
Chase

 

I've only seen 2 and 3 rows used.

So whats your budget?

 

http://www.rotary-works.com/mm5/merc...gory_Code=RADI

for a little over $100 more, I will get this one. but measure your stock rod as I'm not sure if this is the long or short radiator.

 

I was trying to stay under $175 with shipping. but i did more research and i don't think a 1 row radiator will sufficiently keep my engine cool. so i went ahead and just ordered a 3 row just to be on the safe side http://www.dhgate.com/aluminum-radia...e4b290ea9.html

its just over what i wanted to spend but i still stayed under the max $200 i had. only thing about this is im pretty sure i will need to get an electric fan, but thats not a bad thing

 

based on the pix, you just bought a short radiator (78-82), not 83-85.

 

Does the 84/85 GSL-SE use the short rad because of the FMOC?

 

no. the 79-82 cars use a short rad, with the oil cooler right under it. the gsl-se uses a radiator that's about as tall as the 79-82 radiator+oil cooler, and the oil cooler is in front of the radiator

 

So there shouldn't be any problems since they are both short, right? If there is a problem I'm not worried about it.

After I paid for it I got an email saying that if there are any issues with fitment I have 30 days to report the it and send it back for full refund including shipping.

 

No, he was saying the radiator in the -SE is as big as the radiator and oil cooler TOGETHER on the 79-82.

Basically, 79-82 had short, everything else was long. They just changed where the oil cooler was a couple times.

~T.J.

EDIT: I seem to recall something about most of the short ones being 3 core, and the longer ones being 2. I assume its because more length equates to additional surface area cooling, thus less core needed? Who knows.

 

Guys, an easier way to think of it is the GSL-SE and all 83-85 beehive cars use the same tall rad. OEM radiators for manual cars had one row. Auto rads had two rows. All aftermarket rads should have two rows and auto fluid tubes at the bottom. It is rare to see a single row tall radiator these days.

For all short radiators, OEM manual rads had two rows and auto rads had three. Now all aftermarket short rads have three with trans fluid tubes at the bottom. It is rare to see an aftermarket short two row rad these days.

Seems like I repeated myself a bit there.