radiator, water pump

Mar 16, 2005 9 Replies

Hi,



I have a 89 Mustang LX 5.0 and I need a new radiator & water pump. I am trying not to spend a fortune to replace these but don't want to get ripped off either. Would like to keep it undser $250 total. I've seen lots of radiators and pumps on ebay in the price range but if you have any recommendations I'd appreciate it.



Thanks


Hey Doug! If I were you i'd go to pep boys or one of the local auto parts places and shop around. One of them carries a direct replacement

3 core radiator for about 100 bucks. Also, IIRC the waterpumps are about 15 bucks and have a 10 dollar core charge. You could get by for a lot less than the $250. Good luck. Erik D. '94 white lightn> Hi,

Thanks, I knew I could probably spend less, but was hoping to put higher end equipment in, as I will probably doing some upgrades over the summer. If there are any radiators or pumps that you might recommend spending the extra money for, let me know. Otherwise I'll just got with your suggestion.

thanks again

OK Doug. I bought a Griffin a while back for my '93 mustang and I think it went for around $150. I bought it from Summit, I don't remember the size or part number though, sorry. It was a 2 core aluminum with 1" cores. It was much nicer than stock but you have to get one of those things to hold it down. I think that was like 20 bucks, but I rigged mine to work with the stock brackets. Stock brackets work, but look like crap on a nice shiny aluminum radiator. As far as waterpumps, I am not really sure which is the best but I know edelbrock makes them for fairly reasonable prices. Erik D. '94 white lightning '01 white GT

Go down to autozone and get stock replacements. Under normal conditions they last a long time and are generally the best bang for the buck.

Exactly. For most drivers, the stock parts last forever, and are pretty cheap. No need to upgrade, because you're just paying extra money for capabilities you'll never use. It doesn't hurt anything (usually), but it can sure waste money.

Besides, click your heels together three times and repeat after me: "There's no such thing as bolt on. There's no such thing as bolt on. There's no such thing......" :)

Ihave a Ron Davis aluminum radiator and a stock water pump.

I had a Ron Davis at one point in time in my '93 lx. It didn't last too long. I had to have it repaired once, then it broke again. At that point in time I decided to go ahead and buy the Griffin. It was cheaper than the Ron Davis but it looked alot nicer as far as build quality. Erik D. '94 white lightning '01 white GT

The real problem with aftermarket is they spend more money on advertisement than they do on R&D. More often than not the advertised performance gains are more hype than anything else. Case in point, on an otherwise stock 5.0 Mustang, Flowmaster 2 1/2 inch cat back exhaust, advertised "up to 15 horsepower gain" in fact results in less than 1 hp. With the added 'benefits' of window rattling noise, and a really noticeable loss of bottom end torque.

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