Champion Radiator Aluminum 3 core swap

Yea OEM single row, I want to say it's the 18 3/4" one. Whatever is the smallest size listed, it frees up a ton of room.

 

So my neighbor builds all these desert trucks with roll cages and crazy custom suspension, they have aluminum radiators (his current truck has it mounted in the bed area behind the cab). He's been building trucks for a long time, and I asked him about the radiators and he says they've all been champion. His Franken-truck right now is a Ford ranger with a chevy 350.

I told him that people say they crack and he gave me a surprised look and said he's never had one fail, and that he's put them in 4 different trucks, but not a tacoma. We live an hour away and he gets a discount on them.

Have all the people who had them crack been running the same, wrong coolant or something? This guy runs these vehicles like a maniac out in ocotillo wells. They're not rock crawlers, they're like trophy trucks, as in hitting big ass jumps at high speeds, etc. They're holding up for him for years, is there just something wrong with the mounts for tacomas or something?


I really don't want to buy a plastic one again.

 

I ran the Toyota red antifreeze in it and it died at 30,000 miles.

I didn’t see any cracks just leaking at the tank and vertical core joints.

Champion did update the antifreeze info and red toyota antifreeze was not an option.


If there was any glue used to assemble these radiators that would make sense that the red antifreeze would eat away at the glue but I think they claim no glue is used. So I don’t know. Maybe glue is used.

If it’s all welded together it should not make a difference.

My custom radiator is all welded at every joint and I run the red stuff with no issues

 

I’m surprised that these champion radiators are failing. I have a 24in 1969 big block mustang champion radiator in my 1966 Mustang that I modified and cut the front core support to fit in. It works fine and cools the built street/strip 408w engine that’s in the car. I beat on that car like there’s no tomorrow and never have I had the radiator fail. Once the original radiator in my truck starts failing, I will be putting in a champion one.

 

It's mostly because we take these things offroad and put it through abuse and the radiator flexes. I bet $100 for somebody who just drives around on the road and uses it as a normal truck it would be fine.

 

My money is that they use glue to assemble these radiators and the red Toyota antifreeze that is recommended because of the aluminum heads breaks down the radiator glue joints.
Champion posted an update somewhere to use the green antifreeze if I remember

 

This. The flex and vibrations from offroading are far worse than anything a street car sees.

 

That could aid it but I still think it's related to flexing and just not quality assembly. But I'm not going from red Toyota to a green because of a radiator that maybe saves 10* of temps....I'll keep my cheaper plastic radiator and red Toyota haha

 

I am running green Prestone antifreeze from Walmart in my 66 Mustang, perhaps if I were to do the champion radiator swap on my truck, I should drain and flush the block then refill with green Prestone antifreeze?

 

Probably right. The Champion Rad in my 86 Minitruck has been flawless, with running Red.

 

Well I went champion, I'll scream bloody murder if there's a problem.....
muscle cars nuts have been using these for awhile....they wouldnt stay in business if what say here is true.

Mounted mine on floating bushings, and thoroughly flushed the red stuff out......
and dont do off road......learned/tipped off from these guys here.....

5K and so far so good......couldnt be happier, takes 1 and half as much coolant as the denso one...

You know one day I'll say......I warned you about the red......
Red is more enviro friendly, its the only reason why they're using it......wont kill your cat.
Honda wont even use it...they use the blue.
Kinda like water based Kilz,.....yeah right...absolute junk.....

IF toyota starts selling bridges.....or turbos.....

 

Guarantee you'll be fine mainly because of this point. If I had a strictly street truck I'd still be running it

 

My radiator started leaking 30k miles with red antifreeze and zero off road miles and supercharged, yes it definitely did a great job except for the leaking issues

 

I run green antifreeze. My Champion still shit the bed.

It's not the antifreeze.

 

It is extremely frustrating trying to find a solid radiator to replace the OEM Harrison that was well made. I have been following this thread for years looking for a good replacement as I know my OEM Harrison would fail soon and the day has come... I ordered the champion a couple years ago and sent it back because of the build quality and reports of leaks... I called my Toyota dealer and had them look at their inventory all over the country and no one has the OEM Harrison... It is sad that the aftermarket radiators are made so poorly... So what is the verdict on the best "OEM" replacement? Any help would benefit the many looking for a solution. Cheers.

 

https://throtl.com/products/koyo-95-04-toyota-tacoma-v6-4x4-manual-radiator-vh010513

You can buy a Koyo if you wanna drop close to 4 bills

 

@Laxtoy I am not aware that the Koyo has been proven to last over time.

@RattleTractor Had his first Koyo fail. How many miles did it last? How many miles have you been using the second one?

Also I believe @04Pre_Runner installed a Koyo and it started leaking. How many miles did you have it installed before it leaked?

 

I apologize for never updating anyone in this thread on my Koyorad. My head gasket started leaking at 139K and I sort of stopped worrying about my radiator. So far it looks like mine is fine and I just had a faulty Koyorad radiator cap. I see multiple people on Amazon reviews complaining about bad caps.

What's strange is I didn't see any Toyota SSL pink residue around the cap that would've tipped me off about it's failure. The residue was mostly allover the fins and lower section of the radiator.

 

@04Pre_Runner Sorry to hear about your head gasket.

How many miles do you have on your Koyo? Did Koyo replace the faulty cap easily? Who did you buy the Koyo from? Thanks!

 

I bought mine from "Options Auto Salon" in California. They refuse to add packaging for the radiator and the way Koyorad packages it isn't enough. So I wouldn't recommend them. The radiator comes without a cap and I didn't dispute the cap failure with Amazon. I meant to but life got in the way and now it's been well over a year.

I have about 5,000 miles on the Koyorad so I'm not a good test case.