I have a 09 4.8 that's needing a new radiator, I'm looking at doing a turbo setup down the road and was curious if anyone has upgraded their radiator or is the OEM good enough. Any suggestions on what to upgrade to...

 

I recently got one of the Mishimoto replacements. Pared with a 160* thermostat I havent seen over 185 even during long boost pulls or burnouts.

 

I have a dual core "Scotts" just another china variant. 5+yrs, boosted, towing, offroading: you name it its been fine

 

I just finished mounting a Mack truck radiator in my Colorado.

 

Have a two-row aluminum 34" radiator and it works great, added the oil cooler into the mix.

Problem I did run into was there was the missing piece that limited flow in the bypass hose up top to the reservoir. This would keep the truck from reaching operating temp.

 

Can you expand on how you fixed that? My truck has to run the winter front cover if it's less than 30 out. Never gets warm otherwise

 

I took a vacuum cap/plug that fit into the hose, found another that would fit inside the larger vacuum cap and drilled out a small hole.

Put it in the hose, with the dome side towards the reservoir, pushed the plug in with the reservoir nipple. It works enough to restrict the flow and allow the thermostat to do it's job.

It now gets to operating temp in cold weather. Is this a good fix? Probably not. A milled piece would be better long term.

 

In my last vehicle I put an all ALUMINUM radiator because the old one died from the plastic end caps. I didn't even realize it was a better radiator and my temps dropped quite a bit in traffic and a ton on the highway. Much better. Beforehand it was borderline overheating in the hours of traffic i sit in each day. I just ordered a Mishimoto as well but it looks like someone beat me to getting it installed. The one in the Yukon was "sila" or "silla" branded. It was about half the price of the Mishimoto. Doesn't look as nice but never had any issues with it even after about 3-4 years of service.

 

looking at the rad in the 04 denali I would have sore it was a mishimoto. The temps on the truck are great! Never see into the 190s. What thermostat did you put in it?

 

Plain jane stock thermostat. I tried to find info on the company but it looks like they went out of business.

https://www.letgo.com/en-us/i/sila-r...b-584f27559c67