[chevyguy_72]

Originally Posted by TR65

Chevyguy,

I used a Griffin after my fabricated Champion developed a core leak. Griffin is located close to where I work and I visited the factory. They form the tanks in-house (like all the rest of the radiator). They make sheet metal punches and dies of the tanks, stabilize them by filling around them with lead and then form the aluminum using a hydraulic press. They have a radiator museum that they use for getting patterns and dimensions. Some close up pictures are in my thread below:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=615934

Don't know if formed tanks are better but the Griffin ones are very nice.

I have a couple of years on the Griffin now and it has worked perfectly.

TR

Thanks for the info... The Griffin is the only stamped unit I have been looking at... and it costs close to the same as the fab units...

Originally Posted by BR3W CITY

IMO the biggest advantage to the fabbed units is that
1) no ill-fitting brackets or leaky stamped seams. Good quality stamped units offset this somewhat, but overall build quality is what your usually paying for.

2) fabbed units can be made to really any specification. Things like trans coolers, a/c coolers etc can be "built in" to extra circuits in one radiator. Prices can get VERY high on some of these things, but also consider their applications. Things like the Veyron and baja buggies use complex systems of chained radiators and fluid pumps. Particular sizing, core # and type, # of passes etc can all change the functionality of the unit.

I also like the flexibility of the fabbed units... I actually looked at one this weekend in Daytona (Turkey Rod Run) by PRC. That guy actually suggested running an external Trans cooler instead of a built in for 2 reasons...
If you kill the trans you will most likely have to buy a external anyway because you will prob never get all the metal shavings out of the built in one... and also more cooling potential...
Which is better... cooling 200 degree fluid with 90 degree air or 130 or higher degree water... kinda makes sense....