455 Radiator debate: Aluminum vs Brass

[cfair]

All,
Just wanted to solicit opinions on the brass vs aluminum debate. I have a couple of 66 big cars, both in good driver shape. Both have the factory shroud and thermally controlled 6 blade fan & recovery tanks (puke tanks) from a mid 70's eldo. My convertible 98 is out getting a new motor and the guys who pulled the motor (a radiator shop) showed me that the old brass rad was blooming at the corners. So I need a new or fixed up radiator.

The refreshed motor will come back running a bit hotter than it went in from the new compression, so to enjoy it for summer when it's hot enough to have the top down, I want to make sure it runs at 180-190 even in traffic.

The choice seems to be 2 row aluminum or 3/4 row brass. My rad. shop guys are suggesting brass. They said there's some new kind of approach with fin counts or tube size that makes things run cooler in traffic. I don't think they do aluminum, so they lean toward brass. That's fine, but I just wanted to confer with you on views about how to keep these big cars cool.

My 66 Starfire is running fine, but I took it on a 250 mile trip Friday and with outside temps in the high 70's in freeway accident-traffic it pushed up to 200 or so within minutes. When I put the A/C it even at 50-60 miles per hour it was pushing 200. So I don't run the A/C much, even though it really works well.

So you can imagine I'm looking for better cooling on both cars. What are your views?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

[AJCDFIN]

IMO i would think with a/c 2 rows is inadequate,3 or 4 seems best. As far as the 66 todays pump gas causes those early engines to run slightly hotter , but 200 is not overheating with a 195 stat.