Local dealer says they discontinued. Luckily they have one in Stock for $350.
55037652AA radiator
- Thread starter Gollywomper
- Start date
OP
Not yet. Lol. It’s on will call in my name.
I've been painstakingly counting tubes on radiator photos on RockAuto looking for something that I would have any hope to match the stock unit in capacity. It's not gone well so far.
The one I had on my 99 was of unknown brand, did ok in most conditions but once I added a winch, it couldn't hold design temp at highway speed above 85 ambient on even the most modest uphill grades. It actually got up to 235 once on a 97 degree day as I drove 30 miles from Pueblo at 4700 feet to Colorado Springs at 6000. It had 44 tubes. Mopar has 55. The best I've found on RockAuto has 48 and none of them have had the corrosion preventative e-coat that Mopar provides.
What I'm curious about is some of them say they're 1 row or 2 row "equivalent". Not sure what equivalent means. With the same core depth, rows are meaningless on a single pass cross flow heat exchanger like our radiators are, so if they've just split the tubes by depth it doesn't really do anything.
(Mopar radiator top, unnamed aftermarket bottom)
The one I had on my 99 was of unknown brand, did ok in most conditions but once I added a winch, it couldn't hold design temp at highway speed above 85 ambient on even the most modest uphill grades. It actually got up to 235 once on a 97 degree day as I drove 30 miles from Pueblo at 4700 feet to Colorado Springs at 6000. It had 44 tubes. Mopar has 55. The best I've found on RockAuto has 48 and none of them have had the corrosion preventative e-coat that Mopar provides.
What I'm curious about is some of them say they're 1 row or 2 row "equivalent". Not sure what equivalent means. With the same core depth, rows are meaningless on a single pass cross flow heat exchanger like our radiators are, so if they've just split the tubes by depth it doesn't really do anything.
(Mopar radiator top, unnamed aftermarket bottom)
OP
My current radiator runs a bit warm on the hwy. I’m not 100 percent sure on why. I’m guessing the winch, ac and power steering cooler are all contributing in some way by blocking airflow. Thinking it’s possible my radiators cooling capacity had diminished enough that those are playing a part on a radiator with 175,000 miles.
Damn it's a good thing I bought one a while back and shelved it to replace the POS Griffin when it finally shits the bed.
my LJ (06 w/ 130k miles) gets a touch warm, like a needles width past the 210 hash mark, at interstate speeds in the upper 90s outside. Now wishing I'd have swapped radiators with my TJ when I swapped the axles, suspension, and transfer case. Still not as bad as the aftermarket unit that had been in the 99 before I swapped; it's small enough that I'd want to confirm with a live data scanner before I actually condemned the current one, because I could believe it was just discrepancy in the gauge vs the way my 99 read. but it's been on my radar and I've just had other priorities.
As for alternatives...I completed my review of RockAuto photos and found that APDI, UAC, and Denso are ones to avoid at only 44-46 tubes. I would put a small amount of money on my previous radiator being a Denso because that seems to be the most likely available in a parts store in the Texas panhandle where I bought the 99.
FVP and OSC are middling at 48, which I found curious because FVP was listed under the "premium - OE quality + added features" group.
It seems the aftermarket only wants to provide one radiator for both transmissions because they all have fittings, and that gets interesting because a couple of manufacturers (GPD and CSF) have apparently decent tube counts on their quick connect versions but their barbed fitting versions are down in middling territory. No idea why they would use different cores for different oil connection types, so I worry that the different connections were released at different times and there was a core change in between. I'm not aware of a reason not to use a radiator with a cooler, and in fact the thought has crossed my mind whether I could repurpose it as a power steering cooler, I just don't know if it would be cool enough since I *think* that's just an oil-to-water heat exchanger buried in the lower tank.
The CSF 3465 with the heavy duty label is interesting because it actually claims a core depth of 1.625" vs the 1.25 of everything else, AND a photo showing approx 58 tubes...but I'm skeptical because it's in the lower end on cost.
I don't know anything about any of these brands so I can't speak to their longevity.
I bought a "lightly" used one a few months back when I thought I needed to replace mine. Luckily it was not the cause and I have a mopar spare.
TKFX
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