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do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:09 pm
by dc8fixer
I have tried searching the forum with no luck. I wanted to hear from someone that has the griffin radiator p/n 6-277av-bax. I just put a rebuilt stock 350 in my 76 monza(with power steering) I had my original V8 radiator cleaned at a local radiator shop. It takes awhile but eventually it heats up to 205-210 with a 195 stat. I am using the stock fan and pump. The fan is moving serious air thru the radiator. If I spray water on the radiator fins it drops to 195 instantly! It sounds like my radiator is just not cutting it and this griffin radiator would be the fix. I have seen a lot of people talk about them on this site. But wanted to hear from someone that actually has one. I am in Houston,TX and its hot as hell here!

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:37 pm
by Fastmax32168
I have one!
But its still sitting on my living room floor in a box.
So I guess I am not much help. :oops:
Roy

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:56 pm
by robsta11111
Mine does the same thing. 190-195 on a 7 hour drive but let me get in ANY traffic and I am at 205-220 fast. I just ordered the Summit radiator kit. Electric fan, sensors, shroud, radiator, ect. I am going to have to modify where the radiator sits to use the big thing but it was the only size height wise they had. REAL nice radiator.Everything was 358 bucks.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:59 pm
by dc8fixer
My buddy has a 57 Chevy and he went round and round with overheating issues. He dropped in a be cool aluminum radiator and problem solved! Now it runs stat temp all day long. His fits like a glove and is absolutely a work of art(welds and materials are beautiful). I would like a radiator that gives me the same results and fits like the factory one without having to modify anything. The griffin one sounds like the one. But I have a hard time dropping $500 without first finding a happy customer with this p/n.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:04 pm
by cjbiagi
I have a Griffin in my Monza, it's the 400hp dual 1" row model. I have been quite happy with it and it does help solve heating issues. I have done some other minor things besides the radiator but but I did notice a significant improvement in cooling. I have never regretted spending the money on it. There may be cheaper alternatives if you are willing to modify the radiator or your car but I was happy with the "drop in" approach. Texas heat id certainly going to put a stress on any cooling system but I think having the best radiator is the best place to start. If you can somehow fit the bigger 600hp version in there by all means go for it, however on my 75 the stock fan is already about as close as I would want and the thicker 600hp would not fit. I don't even think of cooling issues any more, it may creep up in a long idle on a 95 degree day (yeah I know, cool by Texas standards) but it will only go to about 200 or slightly above. Once you get moving it comes right back down. In any other normal driving condition cooling is not a issue even on a mid to upper 90 degree day.
Some of the other things I have done and suggest are making sure you have a full shroud with the factory 7 blade fan, use molded hoses instead of the universal fit, a high quality thermostat (180 is good), a couple bottles of Redline Water Wetter, A auxiliary pusher fan can help, and I also fabricated some simple ducts to help force all the air that enters the front grill area to go through the radiator. A lower air dam should also be in place and use full time vacuum for your vacuum advance. Other options are to use the dual electric puller fans as some people have suggested.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:45 pm
by dc8fixer
Thanks cjbiagi. The only shroud I have is the top piece that bolts to the core support. I have a triple belt pulley on my water pump and a 1 inch fan spacer. The fan blades are almost touching the radiator fins. It is currently pulling serious air thru the radiator. If the griffin is thicker than my stock radiator I will probably also be forced to dump my stock fan. Because if I eliminate my fan spacer the fan blades will hit one of my drive belts. What do you have for pulley/fan spacer with the griffin ? I am thinking my only solution is to plop down the $ for the 600 HP rad with electric fans. I really wanted to avoid the electric fans route. We are going on day 18 of consecutive days over 100! So I am definetely testing my system. Thank god I put ac in my garage.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:42 pm
by cjbiagi
I have the stock 7 blade V8 Monza fan that had no spacer. It bolts directly to the water pump flange and to be honest there is no way I could use any spacer on my fan without it hitting the radiator. My car was a non AC car, it has the triple lower crank pulley but I am only using two belts. I am not sure why you have or need a spacer unless the AC cars were different.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:57 pm
by megavega
dc8fixer wrote: The only shroud I have is the top piece that bolts to the core support. I have a triple belt pulley on my water pump and a 1 inch fan spacer. The fan blades are almost touching the radiator fins. It is currently pulling serious air thru the radiator.


you still need a full fan shroud on it, I know its pulling air thru but it will pull alot more air thru with a shroud and will pull the air thru from the front of the radiator instead of the side. Even if you have to use a shroud off something else, get a full shroud on it. If your radiator is a 2 row with 1" tubes its plenty of radiator to cool a mild v8.
Another thing you could do is use a mixture of 60/40 if you live where its hot out, meaning 60% water and 40% antifreeze as the glycol in antifreeze holds heat. Redline water wetter works well also. Place in a 180 thermostat and drill a couple of 1/8" holes in the out ring, this will move a little bit of coolant at idle and avoids the big rush of hot coolant when the stat opens , seems to balance out the system a little better, also you wont have air trapped in engine this way.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:20 pm
by gerbsinmd
cjbiagi wrote:I have the stock 7 blade V8 Monza fan that had no spacer. It bolts directly to the water pump flange and to be honest there is no way I could use any spacer on my fan without it hitting the radiator. My car was a non AC car, it has the triple lower crank pulley but I am only using two belts. I am not sure why you have or need a spacer unless the AC cars were different.



Clyde, it must be the A/C setup, I have a factory fan with A/C and it has a spacer between the fan and the pump. Without the spacer, the fan won't turn.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:54 pm
by Wizeguyrc
I had Griffin build me a radiator a couple of weeks ago. 27 x 13 x 2 3/4 thick. It has the two 1 1/4 tubes. Only cost me 425.00 plus shipping. You can speak with Patrick and he will know about the drawing I sent him. I will get some pictures up asap. I'm going to run a big block and I had to open up my core support so the radiator will set half way underneath. So I had my rad built with no cap. I will install one in the upper hose. I have installed other 1 1/4" tube Griffins on customers cars and have had no issues. Great product.

Tracy

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:50 pm
by gmagilla
A place called Pit Stop USA . com has this radiator for $269 or did a while back Griffin #155222X the HP sieres 26x19x3 I guess with power steering it won't work , you could git rid of the power steering , my car steered just fine without it . This car had 13.5 comp. and NEVER heated up in traffic on the hottest days , NO SHROUD , just the way it is in the picture , with 185 stat . The 1.25 " tubes are the reason it cooled so well .Spend the money and get the HP and you will not have any cooling problems . I had no inner fenders so that did help getting the hot air out of the car .
Radiator fan no shroud.jpg

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:07 am
by Gtdhw
I have an AFCO, medium sized, gutted thermostat, no mech. fan, 16" pusher electric fan and stock water pump. I run 185 all day. 190 in traffic if it's 95+ out.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:32 am
by dc8fixer
thanks for the replies keep the pictures coming too. I went for a test drive after work tonight. At 11pm it was still f!@#$in 91 degrees out!! It never got above 210(stayed 200-205 75% of the time). Maybe I should leave it alone and not worry about it. I would really like it to run thermostat temp though. I was looking in the service manual and saw some interesting things. Apparently some had a aux fan? It looks like it blew thru 1/2 of the radiator. I also found some shroud pics. I have the standard V-8 set-up. I have also attached a pic of my pulley's/fan. The blades are 1/4 inch from touching the radiator fins(so will the griffin be too think with this set-up?) I am trying to keep my pulley set-ups and power steering. Currently have 1 free pulley groove(which I will drive a a/c compressor if $ permits.) I think at this point I will see if I can borrow a friends pusher fan or aquire 1 from the junkyard to test. I'm thinking it would be better to have a pusher fan that covers about half the radiator(just like the service manual shows). Because I think the factory mechanical fan would be worthless if the whole front of the radiator is blocked. What does everyone think?

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Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:18 am
by megavega
you still have a brass /copper radiator, just upgrading to the griffin or aftermarket aluminum radiator with the 2 row 1 inch wide tubes will cool the car. The reason the aluminum radiators cool so well is the tube to fin contact area it allows more heat to dissapate to the fin. A 2 row aluminum with 1 inch wide tubes is equal to a 5 row brass/copper radiator as far as tube to fin contact area, your current tubes are only 1/2 inch wide. The alum radiator has a finer fin so thats better for heat distribution. You will get alot better cooling just upgrading the radiator. When using a mech. fan a shroud is the single biggest benefit you will install.

Re: do you have a griffin radiator in your car?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:30 am
by Wizeguyrc
Yeah, I would do what ever mods. needed to use the aluminum rad. and correct shroud. And if you plan on adding A/C into the mix, you are really going to see the temps. move up the scale.