When switching from 18" to 22" radiator, are new cooler lines needed?

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adam83

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I need to take out my original 18" radiator to get it rebuilt, and the shop is backed up and I was quoted 5 months. I'm going to get a replacement aluminum radiator in the meantime. The car is a 71 duster, slant six, 904 automatic, non a/c.

I was about to order a 22" Champion cc527, but it looks like the inlets for the tranny cooler lines are spaced further apart than the inlets on my stock 18".

My stock inlets are spaced 6" center to center. Is that spacing different on the larger radiator? I'm not going to bend my stock lines to fit a temporary radiator, and would like to avoid installing different lines.

My other option is to buy the liland global 18" radiator from rockauto, which looks to have the correct spacing, but I've not heard good things about their radiators.
 
Im not sure you understand my post. I am buying a radiator regardless.
 
So I talked to champion, on their 22" cc527 radiator (their only slant 6 offering) the tranny cooler line inlets are about 10" apart, so the spacing is definitely different than my 18" original. I dont want to chance it with liland global/rockauto and end up having to pay to ship back a bad radiator, or end up in a warranty fight with them, so I bought the champion directly from the manufacturer website. I'll get better customer service if something goes wrong, and the radiator almost certainly is better quality.

So now my next issue was tranny cooler lines. Both Right Stuff and Inline Tube sell hardlines for a 71 A body with 904/slant 6, but after talking on the phone with both of them, neither could tell me if their lines were for the 18" or 22" radiator.

So my options are, spend about $60 and order the hard lines, and if they fit, awesome, if they don't fit, bend them as needed.

Or, spend about $40 and get this universal kit that uses 4 short runs of hardline that attach to trans and radiator, and cut to fit hose to connect the hardlines. 1964-86 Mopar 727 904 Transmission Trans Lines Universal 5/16 Tubes 1/2-20 | eBay
 
or maybe just use hose barb adapters and run tranny cooler line from rad to trans. Idk, it is temporary. Guess I could try getting the straight tubes at the parts store and make my own, but I dont know the correct flare of the ends. What type of flare do the stock tranny lines have at the ends?
 
I had the liland global for your car in my 66 ( slightly modified ) worked great until I put a hole in it with a wrench.... if I could have gotten another ( 2 row ) I would have. still waiting for my 2 day shipping ebay special to show up...... nothing like ordering something on a Thursday paying more because of the 2 day shipping and getting it a week later....
 
Vitamin Dart if i would've seen this post before I yesterday I probably would've ordered the liland now that I know it worked for someone. But the champion already shipped so I gotta stick with it. Can you post a pick of yours? The liland was the same price as the champion so I'm interested to see the differences in construction
 
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I can try and get a picture, mine had a little accident last week and lost a fight with a wrench ( I did something stupid ) the construction is not as nice as the Champion radiators I have seen but, it was a Lot cheaper back then. I did notice mine was a single row and worked very well. I am tempted to order a Champion for my 66 so I can move it forward a little to gain some fan clearance.
 
I installed the champion. It took a little boring out of the bolt holes on 1 side to get the bolts through to the stock core support the insert locations. No big issue. Sits closer to fan but still have clearance. The bottom oem hose fits well, the upper oem hose is way too short, had to get an aftermarket upper hose for a 22" car, and trim a bit to fit. I wasn't paying close enough attention and ruffled a few radiator fins on the install. I had a custom trans cooler line made at local Shop. Didn't realize they didn't make the bend at the transmission sharp enough until I started installing. Tried to do some surgery to the line but butchered it. Ended up putting a slight bend to original line at radiator and it worked perfectly. Now I will focus on getting an overflow bottle.

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adam83 said:
Now I will focus on getting an overflow bottle.
Click to expand...

Champion has nice overflow bottles. I put this one on my 66 with one of their radiators.

DSCN1740.JPG


Also, Amazon has scads of them. I put this one on my Coronet, it was $30 or so.

DSCN1800[1].JPG
 
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