I recently was glazing the champion radiator on this forum saying how good it was, but since then some things have changed and I unfortunately have to correct myself.

after just a year or so my radiator is leaking out of where one of the rows meet the tank on the drivers side. Now I was under the assumption the radiator express doesn’t have a warranty, but turns out they do have a lifetime warranty. So I had just purchased another one directly from champion by accident.

When this radiator arrived a week late thanks to fedex, the package was completely destroyed and the radiator ruined. Champion seems to be very cooperative so far with customer service and said they could send me a new one or refund me when I send them pictures. I asked if they could send it through ups instead since fedex seems to destroy everything before it shows up at my house. They said no. Even if I was willing to pay extra, they wouldn’t do it. I just told them to refund me. We’ll see what happens.

I noticed cold-case has radiators back in stock and I ordered one through summit. Figured I’m not gonna put the same junk back in if I can find something better. I’ll let y’all know how this one works out. They claim to be better than the 3 row champions.

 

You are correct about Fed Ex, they can screw up an Anvil in a sandbox with a rubber hammer.

Good luck on the radiator quest.

 

The market is littered with inexpensive aluminum radiators from China. Well I would not put one on a daily driver, I did install one on my old 1990 Ford f250 that I use occasionally. That was 8 years ago, and it still has the original Champion radiator cap on it. It's a roll of the dice. For an old beat up pickup with 250,000 miles, I took the chance with a $150 radiator at the time.

 

My Money says... DeWitts.... Don't know if they make one for a HUMMER H2. I have one in my 65 Corvette with a 502 BB Motor. Been in there for over 10 years..Of course I change the rad juice every 2 years.. They have a truck section listed.. But I would call them. They maye have one that is used my other GM Models that might work with the H2. These guys are the Cadillac of Radiators. AMERICAN MADE.

https://www.dewitts.com/?gad_source=...E#gad_source_1

 

My 2003 H2's radiator is identical to my 2014 Escalade. Probably same as Tahoe's and Suburban"s

 

yes they’re all the same radiator. 1500s 2500s tahoes Yukons Escalade. Same part number.

 

My cold case rad arrived yesterday and I put it in. First impressions are good.

It’s packaged way nicer than the champion. Includes straps to hold the box together and thick foam on either side of the rad. Idk if you can tell in the pictures but there’s footprints on the box yet not a single fin is damaged on the radiator.

I did notice the welds are not as nice as the champion but I’ve seen worse. Also cold case has their logo stamped on the side tanks. This would’ve been done before the tanks were welded, so that shows this manufacturer likely isn't selling the same no name radiator somewhere else.




The fitment is better than the champion. It doesn’t hit the ac condenser hardline on the passenger side like the champion, and the tanks stick out farther on the inside meaning the fan shroud actually fits properly without pressing up against the core. My only complaints are that it didn’t come with isolators for the top or bottom mounts. I had to reuse the bottoms and I found some rubber grommets for the tops. Also I had to grind down the top support bar on the core to clear the two bolts for the condenser.



I was able to reuse my evil energy an adapters for the oil cooler which was nice. Just left the trans cooler side plugged.

If anyone is interested on the inside of the 3 row champion vs the two row cold case I put a borescope inside them and took pics. You can see the difference in row size. It’ll be interesting to see if one performs better than the other. The oil cooler setup is the same though.




one final thing is that the cold case radiator arrived straighter than both old and new champions. They both had their bottom and top rows crunched in slightly. And coincidentally that’s where the old one leaked. Right at the bottom rows.

 

Gavin, I thought I would ask you for an update on your happiness with the new Cold Case radiator. I have been putting this off for some time now but I just got a wake up call from a good friend who now has to replace his trans on his 09 Escalade because of a failed internal radiator cooler line. He just hit the 110k mark and always changed his fluid but apparently that's not enough. Anyway, he looking at nearly a 5k bill to get it all fixed.

Talk about a pain in both the *** and wallet especially when you think he like myself was considering replacing or radiators last year but couldn't find a suitable US made replacement.

Anyway, back then I was looking at a Champion, Denso, Asciutta and even trying to find a genuine gM but Delco's 22840115 were hard to find and really expensive, way to much for a plastic tanked radiator.

I know you replaced your champion with a Cold Case and wanted your feedback as to if you would recommend it. I was considering the Denso but I would like a thicker core then the 1.25" used on it.

Obviously fitment is also important and I think you mentioned the Cold Case seemed to fit better, All suggestions are welcomed!

 

Ttttgggg

 

Well the plot thickens a little. Gave Cold Case today to get some additional info on their radiators. Yes they are made in China, and according to them their are only a handful of custom radiator manufactures in the US.
For the most part they are custom built one off's and cost a fortune. Even the so called GM/Delco radiators and made by Denso for GM.

With all that said I started to do some detail looking at my H2 to see how bad this was going to be. Humm? whats this green tag on the tank on my radiator, it talks about stripped threads not being covered under the warranty.
I thought someone's been here before so I started looking closer. I was thinking that green warning tag would not be on a radiator from the factory. Then looking closer I noticed some of the shroud bolts and radiator support bolts have marks on them like they have been off before.

So, I believe someone before me has already replaced the radiator, when and with what I have no idea. I hate to waste money replacing this radiator if it does not really need it. I do wish I could find some identifing marks on it to at least find out who makes it and possibly when it was made. Again, more questions than answers....