Knee deep in a timing belt change/water pump reseal, and remembered just how crappy my 35 year old radiator has become.

Dude at the auto store has a "Murray" brand radiator for $106. This sounds too reasonable and elusively generic. Anybody have experience with one of these? Should I steer clear?

Don't waste your money on an OE Volvo radiator - it doesn't look any better made to me than a quality aftermarket unit like Nissens, costs a fair bit more, and doesn't come with a plug for the temp. switch hole (minor complaint, but an annoying one).

Blackstone or Valeo are original equipment suppliers for radiators.

There is nothing wrong with Al/plastic radiators they are more efficient than copper and will last 20 + years if maintained.

Dan

Hey Dan,

Valeo bought Blackstone so Valeo is now OEM for all Volvo models.

You are right about al/plastic tank radiators. When I sold my 90 244DL at 20 years old and with 300k+ miles it still had its OEM Blackstone. No leaks...

Jim

In the past 3 years I've put new radiators in 2 240 automatics. The Nissens one was very easy to get all sealed up around the tranny lines, and the other, locally made, wouldn't stop weeping around the top tranny line. This could have expensive consequences, so, as was said above -- if you have an automatic, go for a better brand. With a manual, it's only likely to be your cylinder head gasket that is at risk in a radiator failure with overheating.

If you have a standard tranny, then get what fits. Three hoses and a bleeder to the pastic filler tank. It works or it don't.

If you've got an automatic with the tanny/rad connection, then there is more potential damage with a failure and/or poor quality fittings/ construction.

CFS: used to make a 3 row rad that IPD sold...so more (I've got then running in 2
Volvos for years) has some 2 row "until stock runs out"

Nissens. If you can find the all metal


However

If you've got the original Brass/Metal, then if it ain't in bad condition, just clean it out, you can take it to a radiator shop that will "hot flush" it or "rod" it. as long as the mid metal part is not rusted out.

You can even have it re-cored, at the right shop. Replacing the middle finned part...keeping the top/bottom

The killer was the later model 240s that came with Plastic/alum rads...pretty much not fixable.

It's a standard, so no worries there.

Not sure if it's brass/metal, but 98% certain it came with the car from the factory. It's in pretty sad shape: top left corner (facing toward the front of the car) seems to have a little leaky-leak, and there's corrosion all down that side.

Probably cheeper to get the generic dude from O'Reilly's. Thanks for the tip, though.

The generic is probably cheaper, but if you plan on keeping the car a long time then you might consider a good brand - OEM (now Valeo), Behr or Nissens. A cheap radiator might not last long and you could end up replacing it in a year or two.

Radiator shop really? Like an 8-track tape or and LP or a dodo bird or drive-in movie? If nissen has one for that antique jump on it.

don't diss your elders

was a time when ..............

Unlike most Brickboarders on this site, I go for price and warranty.

Of course, my daily driver never gets more than about 20 miles from home, so if the radiator break, it's not really that big of a deal (to me anyway).


Now....for my wife's car.....it's a different story.
Quality over quantity....or at least that's what I've been telling her for 40 years.