Ive have owned a GM car once before and quite a few imports in which I have done lots of work on but changing a radiator on a J-Body is a bitch!!! I dont know if its because it was my first time or what but it took me about 4-5 hours. This seemed to be one of the hardest things I have ever had to do on a car, and lining it back up to fit is a bitch, the worst thing is the clamps GM puts on their hoses, it is quite ridiculous, most of them were coroded forcing me to cut the hoses, most cars I have worked on use the hose clamps with the screws on them.
Bottom line, i hope I never ever have to do this again on my cav!
I came in here casue I saw it on the main page, I was thinking it was going to be someone asking how to or something.... but after reading it, I have no idea how thats the hardest thing you've done on a J. When I swapped out my stock one for the Griffin it took maybe 45 minuets, and a litlte bit quicker when putting the stock one back in.... not sure what you were doing wrong but you were diffinetly doing somehtign wrong or not working with the right tools becasue its an easy job.
no way man my J was bought for 500 bux off a driveway where it sat for about 2 years so everything is a bitch to pull out it was ridiculous man the radiator would not come out at all! But finally got it out with elbow grease...and yes it is the hardest thing because i havent really done anything to my J yet, I know there will probably be harder things down the road. And I dont have all the "proper" tools i guess
Ok when I did it it was in my 04 (about 30K miles LOL)
But for future reference..... one these make those clamps infinitely easier...
for the hoses... use a huge pick set, slide it in between the hose and radiator to brake if free then twist the hoses ad they come apart...
For filling the system an Air lift system works perfect and fills the coolant without any air in the system in about a minute
this is all stuff i have laying around because cars is what I do for a living... but having the right tools makes life ALOT easier
thx for the advice man, I wish I would of known all that in advance but the swap was kind of an emergency hehe
I know watcha mean man. I also wasted half of a day trying to get that thing out and a new one in. Oh, but I also changed the wheel bearings too, but yeah. Pain in the a$$ IMO. Now that I look back, I don't think it will be that bad if I had to do it over.
Convert 00+ headlights to 95-99
Whats really a pain in the ass is getting a new fan on there, finally done took me a few hours, rewired it also added an on off switch for constant air.
It took me about 40-45 minutes to swap out the radiator in my 97 without those tools. Easy job.
i did mine in february and it wasnt that bad. but i will agree about those clips. i was about to hit something they were pissing me off so badly. but other than that, it was a very straightforward and easy install.
yeah what sucked aout it all was the rust and the corrosion from an old head leak and radiator leak, i wish people would just take care of their cars lol, i cant imagine how bad other cars are.
