Best Radiator for a Street/Strip 75 Formula 400 Firebird.
 

So I’m looking for the best drop in style radiator for a street/strip 406” 75 Formula Firebird 400. Th400 car, 8.5” 10 bolt with 4.56’s. Soon to be 3.42’s. Looking into a trans cooler as well. But as far as the radiator goes, I’d like atleast a 3 row radiator, aluminum if possible, and drop in ready. Motor is not a stock dropped in 400. It’s a 69 YS code 400, bored .030” over, Spotts Performance HCP01 cam and lifters, edelbrock performer, Holley 800 double pumper spreadbore. Longtubes, soon I’m hoping to get tribal tubes tri y’s to make me a set of his headers!! Just looking for a nice good sized (plenty enough to keep it cool) radiator to put in the car. Also was wondering what’s everyone’s opinion on the best high performance transmission filter I could get for my th400 as well. Thanks for any help any of you guys may can give me! It would be greatly appreciated!!!

Cold Case aluminum radiators are what you should be looking at.

You wouldn’t happen to have a part number for one that could put me on a good start would you?

Here you go:

https://www.coldcaseradiators.com/node/164?sku=GPF18A

They sell oversize 2-row which cool better than 3 or 4 row radiators. I recently bought one of their heavy duty 2-row (1-1/4” tube) radiators for my 1964 Le Mans equipped with a 421 HO, TH350 trans and factory air conditioning.

Second for Cold Case

Other details for good cooling that often get overlooked are hose related .
No flexible ribbed type hoses should be used since they create turbulence and that turbulence causes a restriction.

Also the lower hose needs a to have a steel spring in it since suction on that side of the system can collapse the hose.

Cold Case is what I have in my 77 TA. 550+ HP street car…Nice radiator.

X4...Cold-Case fits great...my '70 Formula 400. I did paint it with a light coat of satin black rattle can paint. They look factory-ish once installed and painted...unless you really look hard at it.

Dennis

The best value for alum radiators is champion IMO.... yes there are better brands but you pay more. If you care about factory looking stamped tanks or brand names printed on the core then other brands have that, but for best value that provides excellent cooling with a no hassle lifetime warranty, champion is hard to beat. I got mine for about $200 shippped, current prices are still very goood at ~$250 shipped. https://www.ebay.com/itm/28330881052...2&gad_source=1

I have been using the 3 row champion in a 500+hp street/strip firebird for almost 10 years now & it works great & was direct drop in to a factory shroud. Suggested them to a few friends that are also very happy with them, myself & friends have never had a cooling or quality problem, 2 of them have 425-450 hp 461 stroker pontiacs & one has a 600hp, 750+ on nos sbc, sbc one has been in use for almost 20 years. My car sees hot summer day city or back roads driving as well as hot summer days at the track running low 11s, never overheats & struggles to get to 170-180 if temps are in the 60s to low 70's.

As for warranty, I did request a replacement on my first one when I noticed a small ding in a tank after install, it was right by a weld so I was concerned, contacted champion to inquire about it & with no questions asked they sent a free replacement BEFORE getting the old one back, sent a prepaid label for returning the old one. Other brands may have a warranty but I doubt they would send a new one before getting the old one back to inspect & approve a replacement.

Just a suggestion for a better priced quality radiator, nothing wrong with the other brands but the better value is champion, IMO.

Do some research before ordering your headers..Many members on this forum are owed either a finished product or their money back from Tribal Tubes.

Strongly agree with this point. The radiator is only one piece of the cooling system puzzle. You also need to make sure the water pump plate is spaced correctly, the correct (or optimized) pulley sizes are being used, the proper size fan, fan clutch, and shroud are in place, and the factory air baffles/dams/seals are present. All of those things play a part in keeping the engine cool.

For what it's worth, I've been happy with the Cold Case radiator in my '66 GTO. I appreciate that the tanks on them have an appearance that is closer to stock than some of the other options on the market. You won't fool anyone who actually knows what they're looking at, but they do blend into engine bay a bit more than others.

When I put my first 455 in my 78 the original 3 core would not cut it. A factory style brass 4 core has worked fine for all the different motors and Texas heat. I can "hot lap " it at the track and it stays cool .

Another vote for cold case. I had a long thread way back comparing the 4 core brass(which worked fine) and cold case as well as comparisons to be cool and griffin that I also run. Cold case is good quality in comparison and does an excellent job cooling dad's 700 HP street engine. Hard to beat for the price. I also appreciate the stockish appearing tanks and no up charge for that, all the cold cases look that way. When you want stock appearing tanks from griffin (an option) you pay another $100 for it. I will admit though griffin does have a better looking stock appearing tank when you compare them side by side with cold case, but the price difference is big and they both cool just as well. Both have high fin count and both use large tube.

Cold Case ….

Broken record...Cold Case.

I had a Cold Case in my Catalina. Worked great until a water pump failure chewed it up. I ordered a Summit brand aluminum radiator to replace the Cold Case. The Summit branded radiator was identical to the Cold Case it replaced except for the cap. Just FYI.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22519872782...4B6M2A4MKVKPDW
Save your $$$ this is a excellent radiator.

Im sure that one will work, but with only a 1 year warranty Id spend a little more and get the champion that has a lifetime warranty & will cool a 500+hp engine with ease.. providing the engine is tuned & running right.

One issue I have with those square tanks is they really don't fit as nice as they should, the factory curved rubber isolators are about useless with those and sometimes even mods to a factory shroud has to be done.
I'm not a fan of cobbling stuff up just to make something fit.