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Hi everyone!
I recieved a call from the radiator shop today and was not sure what the correct asnwer to his question was. I thought I would pose it to the group.
The radiator has some blockage in the upper chamber but will be cleaned out. It also has one small leak that they will fix. Here is the question:
With the brand new rebuilt engine, should the Radiator be recored or is it acceptable to use the original as it sits. It has no dents, creases, bruises or anything on it. It does show minimal signs of wear.
The radiator guys says it has decent flow right now, but are going to dry it out and vacuum clean the inside to get the rest of the crud out. He believes the flow will them be up to specs.
Should I try this first, or go straight to recoring?
Thanks, Rick
G’day Rick
My personal experience with my 29 car was that over the years the over generous use of the water pump greaser had clogged about 1/3 of the bottom corner of the core at the outlet with grease that had “condensed” out & turned SOLID, & I mean SOLID—like asphalt. Virtually impossible to totally remove. We all home in on the rust crud in the top which is reasonably easy to remove. My radiator had what the radiator guy said was “decent flow” when tested—BUT in 105 degree heat on a long uphill haul at 60 mph after a fast 1 hour run
My ’31 had a decent original radiator, that seemed to work OK. When I re-restored the car (it had first been restored in 1960), I took the radiator to a local shop. They found some blockage, and also a few pinholes. I believe the pinholes showed up because they put high pressure on the radiator, not realizing it was a no pressure system.
Short story long, they went in after the pinholes to try to fix them. By the time they called me, there were two places in the core that you could stick two fingers through, the core was ruined.
Replaced the core, aggravated that the car was losing “originality”. However, in the end, the car has run cooler and no issues whatsoever with cooling, save for the one time the water pump ran dry of lubricant and sucked in air, but that’s another story.
I’d recommend replacing core and being done with it, fighting cooling issues is never fun.
I’m also a believer in slowing down the flow through the radiator, since with both cores, when I was at speed and took foot off gas, water would overflow radiator. Took a freeze plug the outer diameter of the inner diameter of upper hose, drilled a 5/8 inch hole it in and installed in hose, problem solved.
Rick,
There is a P-A radiator on eBay and the guy previously had it listed as a Series 80 – 81 radiator.
I set him straight last evening.
I do not know if it would work for your car, but from your “tiny and limited view”” photo there seem to be similarities.
The link is below.
I also agree with the chaps above.
Peter
“
Rick,
If you decide to retain the original core I would recommend that the tanks be removed, and all solder be removed. Only then can one ascertain whether there are blockages or not and additionally all of the original solder needs to be replaced IMHO.
James
As James has commented, Taking off the tanks is the least thing to do. However the old solder in the rest of the radiator is 85 years old & most of the tin in it has been dissolved by electrolysis. So once you start unsoldering & re soldering it will provoke leaks in the old solder & it can be like chasing your tail. Remember the film strips of the core matrix are also held together with solder.
When I started to unsweat of the bottom tank on mine it took fire there was so much grease in there!!! –Jak.