Welcome to FYIFORD.

The 69 has the lower hose on passenger side. The 70 has it on the driver side. THAT IS PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY DIFFERENCE in the two radiators.

I have a 1970 style 24” Griffin in my 66 and the lower hose is on the driver side.  Your option on a 289 to get the lower hose on the driver side is to convert to a 70 water pump, but that also requires different alternator, power steering and AC brackets, balancer markings, pulleys and timing pointer. In some cases, timing cover is different. Pulley offeet is typically different, and you may have to custom fit some stuff together.  You can get creative to make something work.  If you only have an alternator alone, the 70 water pump swap is fairly easy.  Let us know exactly what you have and we can better advise.  Pics always help.

Some early radiators having both hoses on the same side have a diverter fin in the upper tank that forces water coming in through the upper hose connection over to the opposite side of the tank before it circulates downward to the core.  Not sure if the 69 Griffin version has that feature or not.

Contact the radiator manufacturer on their construction as some do place baffles internally.  Whether you go PS or DS lower hose, the result will be substantially better than the narrow stocker in the 66.  I have/had a supplemental install thread in the tips and tricks.  I went with the big block radiator which has DS outlet and is thicker than the small block radiators.  There were a cascading series of changes I had to make but it all works now.  All the pictures in the thread are lost to tiny pics.  If you would like the pictures, send me a message with your email address and I'll send them to you.

When I put in the 351w, the stock 289 rad was still in.  I was able to take it to a radiator shop and they moved the opening to the other side.  It worked fine awaiting the new, bigger radiator to be installed.  That works well enough thru the cool days only.

GPatrick wrote:

Contact the radiator manufacturer on their construction as some do place baffles internally.  Whether you go PS or DS lower hose, the result will be substantially better than the narrow stocker in the 66.  I have/had a supplemental install thread in the tips and tricks.  I went with the big block radiator which has DS outlet and is thicker than the small block radiators.  There were a cascading series of changes I had to make but it all works now.  All the pictures in the thread are lost to tiny pics.  If you would like the pictures, send me a message with your email address and I'll send them to you.

 
The big and small block radiators were same with exception of inlet/outlet size/position.  Same tanks and frame. Could be had two or three row core.  Shrouds were different.

I always like to get radiators with stock-appearing tanks that have the proper mounting indentations in the upper and lower tanks so factory type mounts can be utilized. Radiators with cheaper, squared off type will not work properly with the 67-68 upper clamp style mounts.

You can move the radiatoe to the FRONT of the radiator support.   I did and gained a little space between the WP and rad. I had the worng WP (long snout) on it!  grrrrrr!!
6sal

Good to know!

I ran a Norther brand radiator daily for just about 10 years until it started to accumulate buildup in the cores and cooling performance started to drop off. I never had any issues with that radiator. I then switched to US radiator that leaked about 10 months after installing it and by the time I got around to dealing with it it was out of warranty...Ive just been adding water to it for the past few years. Its a very slow leak but a leak none the less (about equivalent to steam vapor from a pin hole right under the upper hose)

I know the Griffen radiator is recommended but its going to cost well over 800. The Norther radiator is about 350 less than half the cost. Im suspicious that the Griffin is actually a bit more than twice as good. I know in many cases with much of the stuff I deal with that it makes the most sense to buy one notch down from the "best" in many cases you'll ply 45 to 60% more for a 8 to 15% increase in performance and quality. Sometimes this makes sense but it may not in this case since I dont plan to push that radiator to 95% of its performance....in most cases I suspect it will barley have to work compared to what I have now to keep the car cool going from point A to point B...yes it may see some track time but not often. 

Is the Norther as good as it was 15 years ago? Is there a 2nd best radiator that kind of meets my above example if the norther is crap now?

Thanks
-Gun

Welcome GunJam.

FYI, Between my 289/c4/carbed and my 5.0/t5/efi I am still using an aluminum 2 row (1” tubes) radiator by Northern, from Summit Racing about 10 years ago.
I looked today and looks very similar to their Summit brand for 65/289.
I haven’t had any overheating issues.
I also run a 14” electric fan...if I remember correctly about 1500ish cfm.
It’s thicker than my previous 16” but my 16” wouldn’t fit in the core space of new radiator.
Definitely had not planned on that at time.
It’s been working well for my use...summer driver/cruiser.

Nothing wrong about a wider radiator, great idea.
I would get the largest 2 row that will fit.
65/66 have limited space between core support and water pump shaft.

Just make sure to consider overall thickness of radiator and fan setup to match the space available.
And good luck on your project(s)...I’m sure ya have more.😁

I am a fan of all mechanical for the reliability, but the dual fan set-up from a V6 Ford Contour is thin and works and fits well and is bargain priced.

I went with the Norther 24" radiator. It looks well built. It also does not look like its going to fit reasonably  (this would be true for any brand not an issue with northern)

I was under the impression that it would mount to the area of the core support that was left after trimming. I see this is not the case. It looks like there is perhaps .75" of fins on each side that wont be utilized. 

Now I understand better why the 70's style bracket mounts are used.

When installed it appears that when moved as far forward as possible the fins will first contact the core support that was trimmed. What are you guys placing between the radiator and the core support to fill the gap as im sure you'll want to leave about 1/8" to prevent the rad from touching any metal.

Thanks

Right that makes sense..you dont want air going around the rad.
But you're not worried that vibrations will cause damage to areas where the core support touches the rad? Isnt it touching on fins? The metal mounting flange hangs well past either side of the core support right?
 

With the 70s battery tray installed and the 66 mounting bracket welded per the Mustang Steve write up here is where im at. 


The drivers side has much more overhang than the PS. Im not sure yet why this looks so much worse than all the other installs ive read up on before.

Overall dimensions 19 7/8 x 25 1/2 x 3 1/8

Last edited by GunJam (2/29/2020 8:36 PM)

Have you enlarged the support opening for more air flow?
6sal6