I spent the last 6 months rehabbing a 110yo house for my brother, and I am finally done. I havent touched my rig since Feb, and I really want to hit it hard and get it back on the road. Pretty much everything in the conversion (see sig below) needs some tweaking, refinment and finishing. I figure 40 productive hours of labor, but my estimates never work out in my favor.

The first thing I want to dive into is the Rad. I got a unversal 2 row aluminum GM style from speedway. I sliced the rad/fender supports and rewelded them. Rather than weld a flange on them and mount them regular SII style I want to use the standard Chevy type top and bottom "holders" with the rubber inlays. The easiest way looks to tack the bottom ones to the frame, and then make a crossmember coming across the top of the factory rad supports to tag the Chevy top mounts to. What concerns me is that flex will not be a friend to this setup because the bottom will be affixed to the frame, and the top will have the poly body mounts and 3"BL working against it.

What setups are you guys with GM types of rads using?

Should I just have some flanges tig welded on and go the stock style route?

Nothing.....come on guys, I need come creative thinking here

I don't think flex will be a problem as long as you have the fan clearance. Having said that I would still go with the SSII style mounts for simplicity.

What I don't get is since you went through all the trouble of sectioning the core supports why didn't you use the Eldo radiator?

BTW: For my 472 conversion I'm buying an aluminum radiator that fits in the stock location. Looks like it will be about $280.

I really wanted aluminum. I had a 4 core SII rad, and it didn't cool worth a shit. I know the Caddys can be had in 2, 3, or 4 but I wanted to try the aluminum. I got the rad from Speedway, it is 2 row, and I think 31x19. It was 189 bucks I will set it up to have room for a engine driven fan, but am going to see how a Lincoln MK fan works. The dia is a couple inches larger than a taurus. I actually have collected a whole pile of elec fans of different sizes at around 5 to 10 bucks each at the self service yard. I might end up with duals.

The reason I am grinding my teeth over this is on the BB Doug Shailor has pics of rubber mounts used betwen the rad flange and the supports to allow for flex. I don't think I will have room for that and a engine driven fan. I never had a problem with the stock setup, but in all honesty I haven't done a pittance of the hard core you guys out west do. Aside from Musky I don't know of another guy within a few hundred miles who wheels his Scout. When I come out there and show you guys how its done :flipoff2: I don't want my alum rad to crack or split a seam.


If I rig up something with the chevy style "clamps" the rad will be as stock and easily replaced. If I weld on flanges and something happens I will need to get the replacment radiator modified in order to work properly.

OK thats a lot of keyboard work for me, can you guys please give me some suggestions or talk about your setups?












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I can't answer your question as Im not following what you have. Is this a horizontal flow rad? But it has flanges top and bottom?
What if you just used the bottom flange and made a "clamp" of sorts for the top. Kinda like many of the older GM stuff and put a thick rubber spacer in between the clamp and the rad.:)

Originally posted by ChiScouter
I really wanted aluminum. I had a 4 core SII rad, and it didn't cool worth a shit. I know the Caddys can be had in 2, 3, or 4 but I wanted to try the aluminum. I got the rad from Speedway, it is 2 row, and I think 31x19. It was 189 bucks I will set it up to have room for a engine driven fan, but am going to see how a Lincoln MK fan works. The dia is a couple inches larger than a taurus. I actually have collected a whole pile of elec fans of different sizes at around 5 to 10 bucks each at the self service yard. I might end up with duals.

The reason I am grinding my teeth over this is on the BB Doug Shailor has pics of rubber mounts used betwen the rad flange and the supports to allow for flex. I don't think I will have room for that and a engine driven fan. I never had a problem with the stock setup, but in all honesty I haven't done a pittance of the hard core you guys out west do. Aside from Musky I don't know of another guy within a few hundred miles who wheels his Scout. When I come out there and show you guys how its done :flipoff2: I don't want my alum rad to crack or split a seam.


If I rig up something with the chevy style "clamps" the rad will be as stock and easily replaced. If I weld on flanges and something happens I will need to get the replacment radiator modified in order to work properly.

OK thats a lot of keyboard work for me, can you guys please give me some suggestions or talk about your setups?

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Either way is going to work great. Just make sure you have enough fan clearance. If you want to use rubber spacers and SII style mounts all you need to do is account for the thickness of the spacers when you weld on the flanges.

What are you doing for a heater port on the radiator? I know it's not that warm in Chicago.

As far as wheeling your Scout how come you haven't moved out here yet? You know you're just delaying the inevitable.

Having just done this very thing, except with the 3-core '73 eldorado radiator (which still required chopping the front up), I'd have to say go with the stock style with the brackets coming off the side.

I was way easy to set-up, and a breeze to install. Once you have the radiator clearanced you just drill a couple holes and mount it up. I think I'll add some ruber bushings in the future, but for now it got my 472 running!!

Not that cold, brrrrr. I pulled out the glovebox years ago and mounted a big honkin heater from a winnebago up under the dash. With the soft top in the winter it barely keeps up on the highway. Still have to keep the hat on in really cold weather.

Things might improve though, I just bought but haven't picked up an aftermarket SSII hard top

For the rad hoses I figure to just use some generic elbows and rad hose. I will weld in a bung into a sleeve between the hoses on the return line for the heater hose return. Will do the same on the pressure side for the temp sensors for the fan.

Thanks for the imput on the mounting, I am leaning toward welding the flanges on the rad and mounting it stock style.