NEW RADIATOR!!!
Ordered the bolt in replacement radiator from
Champion Radiators. Its a fully welded, aluminum, 3-core with built in trans cooler and it fit right into place with only a minor trimming for the petcock. The first one delivered had been man-handled by FedEx and had a bent mounting bracket and the corner was smushed in just enough to make me uncomfortable. A quick call to Champion and they shipped a replacement right away.
Not wanting to waste a free Saturday in the garage, i picked up some 5/16 hard line and bent them for trans cooler lines. Lessons learned: i need a better tube bender and it would have been much easier to run the line before the engine was in!
Fast forward a week and the new rad arrived Friday afternoon (with much more protective packing foam this time) and went in Saturday. Since it was made for my truck specifically it fit right into place, almost. The petcock was moved from the passenger side to the driver's side and was bumping against the lower radiator shield. Once that was notched out a 1/2" i was ready to hook up all the lines and hoses. Needing only some slight massaging, the hard lines I bent the week before worked great.
Some other little bits of progress included replacing an eye sore chrome water filler neck with a black one to match the engine, cause looking good is really what it's all about. I also ran the old manual choke cable to the carb, which is set up for a mechanical choke. After swapping out the stock intake to the Edlebrock Performer I realized the choke actuator wouldn't work any more. So the temporary fix is to revert back to manual choke operations.