Well the way I see it is...Some of the Guys here have had very good results with there after market Rad's. That's a Good thing. Me...I'm a GM guy. Even though it might not be made here. I bought mine from a GM dealer where I take my 2 in for stuff I can't do because of no lift or lack of knowledge in regards to Programing Etc.

I have a good relationship with the Pats Manager and got a fairly good price on a GM Boxed Rad. I let them install it since I'm there and get a 1 year Parts and Labor Warranty. Some guys like to change out their own and have the space and tools to do that. I wish I did...I would take my 2 and side line it and just do the work. But... It's my everyday driver which lives outside. If I mess up or need to get to the parts store...I'm not driving the vette. My insurance does not cover food shopping or driving around to pick up stuff...only pleasure drives and Car shows.

On My 65 Corvette..I do all the work. But the only computer on it is the MSD EFI system. That's no problem.

If you have the time and the rest of what you need and enjoy doing the swap on the H2 Monster...Then go for it. I am impressed with the guys here that can get down and dirty with their 2's. From Rad's to Transfer Cases to Diffs and Trannies. Those peeps are Wrenchers!!

 

who is pats manager? is there a pats gm dealer?

 

This Is a Dealership that sells and Services Chevy ( Who originally Sold HUMMER) and had the HUMMER Building....(Long Gone). They also sell Subaru and a few other Imports. A Very large dealer. They have a big Parts Department, I bought my 2007 H3 from them when they also sold HUMMER. So I have know the Parts Mgr since 2007. They do all my fluid changes except for oil & Filter... which I have done locally. He has access to the GM Computer Parts System. As they do work on any GM car. So he can match a VIN to a part for your rig. When I need a Part I always send the VIN#.
In Fact if you wanted a Big Block Chevy 502 Crate Motor or BB 572... He probably has one in stock along with other small block motors. They do sell performance parts.

 

ahh a parts manager... lol ok your post had said pats manager. i thought it was the dealer

 

LMAO... Yeah..A PATS MGR,,,,WTF would that be..L.O.L. That's because I can't type for Poop!

 

Gavin, hope this is adding info on Champion and not loading your thread... Thanks for your write ups.
In Jan2020 I replaced what I think was the original radiator in my '09 SUT due to a leak on the pass side where the core is crimped around the plastic-lower side. Replaced with a TYC 13029 (similar plastic design) off amazon.
The TYC started dripping in the same area (pass side, lower at crimp) in late 2024.
I replaced the TYC with the Aluminum 3 Row Desert Cooler from Radiator Express in Jan2025. LOL-I ordered after reading your initial writeup on Champion, just before you posted this thread... I'm using the trans cooler on the radiator currently, but plan to by pass with external soon. The aluminum radiator survived the shipping in great shape-no dents or dings, and looked to be put together well. It installed with no issues. Fit was good, dropped right in.
As a side note, I pulled the oil and tranny coolers out of both the plastic radiators. They all were in good shape and held 50ish psi of air pressure.

 

UPDATE!

Well. I haven’t driven the truck since maybe 2500 miles since immediately after replacing the radiator, it decided to eat its second transmission. Completely shredded to bits and left me on the side of the road. I could give so many details about it but to keep it short… converter failure.

But now after rebuilding it and throwing in some upgrades, everything seems to be holding up. About 2k on the rebuild and 2500 on the radiator. I just drove from Canton, Georgia all the way to Windrock park TN and back and couldn’t be happier. Ran almost of the green and blue trails up and down the mountains.

Transmission worked as expected. Shifts great in 2wd but super clunky and awful in 4 low just like it did the day it left the factory so I’ll call that a win.

Radiator did fantastic. It was 75-80 degrees when we were there and doing sustained hour long climbs in 4 low running 4k rpm the whole time the temp needle never moved. Could not be happier with the results. When I had the champion one I would see temps creep up a bit but whether that’s the radiators fault or poor fan programming by gm idk. I have my fans wired to run full blast all the time now.

As for cold case vs champion fitment, the cold case fit way better. The fan shroud on the champion didn’t fit in the hooks on either side and pushed on the fins of the radiator. I had to use a stack of washers to space it out. The front of the passenger side end tank also rubbed on the condenser line and started to wear a hole in it. These lines aren’t easily bendable either. I had to remove the radiator and strap some heater hose around the condenser line to protect it.

None of these issues with cold case. Only issue I had was the top support bar that goes across would hit the back side of the condenser mounting bolts and I had to grind some off. That being said, they didn’t include rubber isolators for the bottom pegs and I reused the champion ones that may have been thicker than the oem, so you’re mileage may vary.

I would 100% go cold case again tho.

 

Gavin, thanks for the update buddy, sorry to hear about the trans. I know you just switched out the xf-er case not to long ago. The 6L80 is built much better the 4L6X series which would have died a long time back.

Your supercharger must be making a whole bunch of hp an torque on that L92. You are without a doubt the demolition man when it comes to testing H2 parts. Ridden hard and put away broke, lol. Hopefully the rebuilt 6L80 will hold up, I guess your next step will be to bolt in an Allison 1000. Nice thing about it bolts right up to your new x-fer case. I will bet you will have a tough time blowing that up!

Anyway, long story short after doing some some real digging I found out my radiator was replaced with a Murray back in 2017 around the 85K mark so I think I have a little time before I have to swap it out. I called Cold Case and was very impressed with their tech support an how proud the staff is about their products. He also suggested I purchase it from Summit as they actually offer it cheaper which is fine. At the same time I would like to upgrade the external trans cooler.

Take care buddy!