Bowtie Brody's Namesake 96 454

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Cokeman95

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Just buy the electric actuator. I swapped to it on my 95 and it was a big improvement over the thermal one.

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Mangonesailor

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Oh look! You've got a 454 badge now too!

Dude, the factory radiator is already aluminum with 3-4 cores. After I put my new one in it cools fine. I towed my Subaru up 85 from Charlotte in June. No issues, and that's before I out a new radiator in AND towing mode didn't even work! You'd should be fine with the factory radiator if your coolant is in good shape.

Maybe add water-wetter (I think summit carries it, as well as some auto parts stores) to assist the coolant to remove heat.
 
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BNielsen

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Just buy the electric actuator. I swapped to it on my 95 and it was a big improvement over the thermal one.

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Or go full manual and Posi-Lok it :D I love mine.

I'll probably just go with the electronic slug for simplicity sakes; sometimes I wish these trucks just had lockout hubs instead of actuators.

Oh look! You've got a 454 badge now too!

Dude, the factory radiator is already aluminum with 3-4 cores. After I put my new one in it cools fine. I towed my Subaru up 85 from Charlotte in June. No issues, and that's before I out a new radiator in AND towing mode didn't even work! You'd should be fine with the factory radiator if your coolant is in good shape.

Maybe add water-wetter (I think summit carries it, as well as some auto parts stores) to assist the coolant to remove heat.

I've actually had the 454 badge for about a year or two now; there's one on the GMC grill stuffed in the shed, the back one used to be red but the sun bleached all the color off it.
Once it starts getting hot out again I'll probably do a coolant flush to clean everything out and start running general purpose coolant and water-wetter. After my little hiccup back in September of overheating the truck while sitting in a drive thru I get real anxious when I see the temp gauge creep up. Plus I think one of the tanks on the rad is starting to crack where the plastic meets the aluminum core, I've been trying to follow little leaks and get them fixed as I go and that's the most notable one I've seen.

Not all have the thick radiators.
I wish I would've known that when I had to replace my rad in 2018.

Also I just noticed; the Cold-Case rad I'm looking at is an oversized two-core radiator. So that's interesting.
 

454cid

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Dude, the factory radiator is already aluminum with 3-4 cores..

Factory was 3 cores.... I think 4-cores went away with copper/brass. Modern radiators have 2 very wide cores compared to the old copper brass radiators. It's kinda neat to see the way the tubes are formed.... giant machine that kind reminds me of a sewing machine or very old dot matrix printer. The cores start out as a roll of metal "tape" and it's run over various forms that progressively roll/bend it into shape.

...do a coolant flush to clean everything out and start running general purpose coolant and water-wetter.

What do you mean by general purpose coolant.... what are you running now?

After my little hiccup back in September of overheating the truck while sitting in a drive thru I get real anxious when I see the temp gauge creep up. Plus I think one of the tanks on the rad is starting to crack where the plastic meets the aluminum core

I wouln't worry too much about the overheating once or twice. I used to overheat mine daily years ago when I was driving it 100 miles a day to work and back.... It leaked faster than I could replenish the water and I had no time to fix it.

My radiators seem to last about 8-10 years and crack by the upper hose connection and oil cooler connection. I think the hose bounces around a bit and flexes the plastic tank enough so that after awhile it gives up. The hose has that steel support but it's not really held down. With this last radiator I've installed, I zip tied the hose to the steel support next to the compressor.

Also I just noticed; the Cold-Case rad I'm looking at is an oversized two-core radiator. So that's interesting.

I bought a TYC (two wide cores).... seems to be built well, and it was definitely packed well..... lots of foam in the box. My only complaint is that the filler neck is slightly high. The cap rubs the hood insulation. I have not driven the truck much since installation, not that I think about it....I needed a new pump, and I've been driving my Saturn on my 100 miles back and forth to work.
 

Supercharged111

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Aluminum may not conduct heat as well as copper/brass, but it is stronger. This is why a single core can be an inch thick. When a single core is an inch thick, the extra surface area now makes it more efficient that a comparable 2 core copper/brass unit.
 

Z71Hobbs

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Okay update time! OR lack thereof.
I bought my girl a camera for her birthday and she insisted on going for a photoshoot at this old gas station that's like straight out of 98; super cool.
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I haven't done jack **** to it in the last 2 weeks. I tried to find and seal up my leak on the passenger side with no luck, so I guess I'll have to pull it all back apart. There's an intermediate higher RPM belt squealing that might be the junky tensioner and/or idler pulley.
The parts pile isn't dwindling but it's not expanding either. I need to get the Big 3 done but I want to throw on an AD244, new Odyssey battery, clean up the 0411 wiring/tow mirror wiring/etc. etc. etc.; still trying to make up my mind on if I want to have some bigger injectors thrown in when I get ready for the dizzy, the fuel pump is still hanging on so that's good.
Then there's some other upgrades like a new 3" thick 3-core fully aluminum rad I've been eye balling from Cold-Case, I'm pretty well convinced at this point after towing almost 9500 pounds I'm going to do the NBS knuckle mod, but there's a few things I'm still not 100% about like the tie-rods. Also trying to figure out master cylinder that'll work with the future rear disc as well as give the brakes a firmer pedal. P30 MC? Or maybe the Express one? Any ideas there?

Still haven't decided on the 4WD situation, I may just buy the electronic actuator instead of trying to dick around with the cable kit or having the front diff permanently engaged and run the risk of tearing **** up. Still waiting on the 4.10 gears, the truck in the yard with them didn't get scrapped so I'm hopeful. Probably also going to pull the trigger on a new hitch, new brake controller and new 7/4 pin as some of that stuff is getting haggard due to me either trying to un-hack what the POs did, or what I had to hack to make it work.

I'm somewhat debating on starting a new thread dedicated for actual updates instead of the incessant rambling of me going off about plans and other stupid **** but I dunno yet. I'd have to recover some photos so I could start from the beginning again.
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I really like the tailgate emblem.
 

BNielsen

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Well I tried to do a quick and dirty replacement on the actuator, got one from NAPA only to realize it was the wrong one.

So I returned it, went to get the correct one only to find out there's not a single store within 30 miles that had it in stock. Guess I'll just cough up the 250 for the electric slug and harness from LMC.
 
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