[scottybaccus]

You sound committed to an all aluminum unit. But in the interest of information...

I have stopped installing all aluminum radiators in customer vehicles for two reasons.

The main one, long term resistance to cracking is lower. Race vehicles see few miles and a lot of maintenance. Street vehicles, especially trucks, see many miles, and little maintenance. I grew tired of cracked water-necks, and rogue leaks on the tanks. You have to make sure they are well insulated from vibration, and that there is no tension on the hoses and cooler lines.
Another concern especially with lower cost, imported radiators is the quality of the aluminum. We have started seeing a chemical reaction of some sort. We're not sure if it is electrolysis (doubtful, they are fairly well isolated electrically), or a corrosion reaction. The first time we saw this, we found a car with a pressurized top hose, even though it had been parked for days. We popped the cap and heard it whoosh. After shrugging it off, and putting the cap back on, we came back the next day and it was pressurized again. In the end, we drained the coolant, and replaced it with water. The issue stopped. All we can figure is that the aluminum was reacting to the antifreeze. Now we've seen it in three other cars. Some we did not know the origin of the radiators.

I'm a huge fan of OE engineering. The late model aluminum core with plastic tanks is well proven, and best of all, it's cheap. In my '87 LQ4 swap, I used an '87 OE HD cooling option radiator with a huge, two row, core. It was a Spectra Premium, from Rock Auto, for $140. It has worked really well, and fit perfectly. When it does give me trouble, i can buy two more for what a nice all aluminum radiator cost.

Just my .02