2.3L (Diesel) Radiator gone bad

[Juddys123]

The radiator in my 1987 2.3 diesel recently decided to start leaking. I took it to a radiator shop and the guy told me there was rust damage that makes it beyond repair. Does anyone know who makes the OEM radiator because to my knowledge they can’t be had anymore. The radiator that I tried to get fixed wasn’t even the original one and I was told it was out of a 1972 Chevy nova and that someone had welded a bracket onto it from the original radiator to make it work.
I know a Mitsubishi pajero and mighty Max have the same motor as my Ranger but will the radiators in those work for me?

 

[franklin2]

Do you have any fabrication abilities? Sounds like you are going to need it.

My first line of attack would be to look at all the gas offerings in 1987 for a ranger. You would think they would be reasonably close to fitting the support up front. But that might make the hose hook-ups a pain or impossible.

In the old days I would see guys doing engine swaps and have large radiator hoses running all the way across from one side to the other with exhaust pipe used as a splice. I thought it really looked rigged. I now take that back and apologize to those guys, I was looking at a late model chevy tahoe the other day and it had the large radiator hose on top running all the way across with a splice in it, albeit a plastic splice from the factory.

 

[franklin2]

I was seriously thinking about buying one of these kits for my Bronco. I had a 1984 2.8 but had a 1986 2.9 radiator installed. The radiators were different and I had to splice the hoses for both applications to make it fit. What I liked about the kit below, it has different sized diameter ends you can install. The 2.8 had small connections and the 2.9 radiator had larger connections.

Amazon.com

 

[rusty ol ranger]

The radiator in my 1987 2.3 diesel recently decided to start leaking. I took it to a radiator shop and the guy told me there was rust damage that makes it beyond repair. Does anyone know who makes the OEM radiator because to my knowledge they can’t be had anymore. The radiator that I tried to get fixed wasn’t even the original one and I was told it was out of a 1972 Chevy nova and that someone had welded a bracket onto it from the original radiator to make it work.
I know a Mitsubishi pajero and mighty Max have the same motor as my Ranger but will the radiators in those work for me?

Check www.car-part.com.

I did a quick search and it came up with 2 in junkyards in california. But there was a couple diesel options (with AC or with super cooling) i just picked regular

 

[RobbieD]

In the old days I would see guys doing engine swaps and have large radiator hoses running all the way across from one side to the other with exhaust pipe used as a splice.

Guilty.

I thought it really looked rigged.

I thought that mine looked pretty trick. I even painted the exhaust pipe black.

As they say . . . beauty is in the of beholder. But, then sgain, it was 1975 and I was a know-it-all at 19.


Mine was a thick Chrysler radiator into a Camaro, and it stopped it from overheating.