Griffin radiator FAIL!

[HotRodPC]

I won't lie, I had a fearful moment when I had to hash though all these entrails. But paying due diligence and going slow made it a breeze.

The hardest part is messing around with the pcm to get it to do what you want. Lots of folks won't fork out for hptuners, but it pays for itself after you've made 3 mistakes that you can fix with a keystroke instead of shipping the computer out every time.

And having the tuner you can always go back and play with stuff to see what works best and such. You can also do gear swaps and adjust your speedo and all kinds of things.

 

[gpmorgan]

Ls rule no doubt, but I'm old school. I recently installed a dressed blueprint 632 tall deck in my 92. I managed to make a 10mpg tire shreading, transmission destroying machine out of it. Good thing it's a toy. Put one of those fitech units on it so I get to do some programming too. I've got the trans in the bed now putting clutches in. What fun.

 

[gpmorgan]

Oh yeah, went to our annual car show a couple of weeks ago and it just don't look right to me to see a 57 Belair or 67 chevelle ss with a ls.

 

[gpmorgan]

I was thinking about getting one of those griffin radiators but looks like I may need to reconsider.

 

[Old Painless]

Yeah even id wince at anything pre '70 with an ls.

Griffin is sending me a new radiator, so I'll let y'all know how well that one holds up.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Yeah even id wince at anything pre '70 with an ls.

Griffin is sending me a new radiator, so I'll let y'all know how well that one holds up.

Hope it all works out. Wiring doesn't scare me I've been doing goofy European swaps for years that's some tedious **** there. I just can't acclimate my brain to the 5/7 swap sound. The things shreek not rumble. When you wake up a BBC you know ***** gonna happen and the tires are scared. Yes the LS will burn tires I know but I guess with me it's a sound thing.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Oh yeah, went to our annual car show a couple of weeks ago and it just don't look right to me to see a 57 Belair or 67 chevelle ss with a ls.

Agree 100% you open the hood on a Chevelle you want to see a packed engine bay not the inner fenders as the focal point or some donkey dick hanging off the intake.

 

[MikeB]

I installed a USED Griffin in a 55 Chevy car and ran it from 2004 to 2014 with no issues at all. At the time, there was a lot of chatter about how Griffin used epoxy instead of welds in some areas, which was supposedly a bad thing.

BTW, from what I've read, you shouldn't run a 16 psi radiator cap on an aluminum radiator! I run a 12-13 psi cap on my 82 pickup's $120 aluminum radiator. And if you ever pull a vacuum on one, don't go beyond 20" hg.

That's not to say you didn't get a bad radiator.

Edit: Since this has morphed into a LS swap thread, gotta say I'd love to have that power and efficiency, but wouldn't want to do the swap. You always hear about the "complete engine and trans" in excellent shape for $1500-$2000, but those are seldom even in decent shape.

A buddy of mine bought an LS1 and auto trans from a late 90s Camaro with 70K miles for $2500, and proceeded to spend around $2K on refreshing the short block and heads. And he's probably looking at another $3K for trans rebuild, exhaust, fuel tank, fuel pump, ECU reprogramming, wiring, etc, etc. To me the list seems endless. And, man, just converting my six-cylinder 3-sp manual truck to 350/350 was a major undertaking!

Anyway, if you have the budget and patience to do the swap, I envy you!