I’m hoping you 68 guys can answer some questions for me. From what research I have done, it appears that the 68’s had a couple different radiator top plate configurations for the 4 row radiators. The first style (early production) was similar to the 67 except the difference was in the fan shroud mounting holes; the 68 version had a slot on the RH side, two holes on the left and a flat edge c/t these hole/slot locations. The second version (later production) had a metal tab/hanger spot welded to support the upper radiator hose in addition to the other noted differences.
My questions are:
1.) Is this correct, they had two versions?
2.) I’ve seen some cars that only had part of the hanger, I assume the hook part of the hanger broke off and they simply drilled a hole into it, to attach the plastic loop support or did the 68’s have a third version?
3.) Did the 68’s have two different core supports? A 3 row and 4 row versions?
4.) What exactly is the difference between a 4 row and 3 row radiators, outside the obvious core row numbers?

If this has been covered before in a past discussion, I apologize.
The pictures that I have attached have been taken from this site, I have copied them to help me figure this subject out.
Thank you

 

Pretty sure 2 rounded humps top center like your first 3 pix indicate HD cooling.

Whereas your 4th pic, with only flat surfaces top center would be seen on say a 442 w/o HDC or on a std issue 350 Cutlass or Vista w/o AC or HDC [Heavy Duty Cooling].

Of course the saddles would have to match the width of the radiator tanks.

As for the tab for the hose, that is a weird detail. When I got my '68 I noticed that tab, which appeared to be half-rectally cut off by a PO... years later I find that it seems the factory did that for some reason. I'm glad I never got around to "fixing" it.

 

Just to clairfy:
1st pic: Early 68 (4 row) first style
2nd pic: Late 68 (4 row) second style
3rd pic: 1967 top plate
4th pic: 1968 (3 row)

 

I've seen both styles in pics 1 & 2 for the 4 core. As far as I can tell they used the 66-67 top plate for a 4 core top plate for 68 with those minor modifications you've noted. I built my 4 core top plate from a 67 top plate. You can't tell the difference from the 68 4 core with the hole drilled instead of the spot welded tab (your pic #1).

The 4th pic is the standard everyday non-heavy duty cooling version. There are two core supports. One for heavy duty cooling (I assume wider for the 4 core saddles) and one for the standard cooling. FWIW in the 68 assembly manual there is only one part number given for the core support and top plate for each style. In other words they are a matched set. I spent a lot of time researching them before I built my top plate.

 

Mike, thanks so much for the reply. I will be curious if any other 68 guys will chime in.

 

66-3X2 442 spent a bunch of time over the last two or three years restoring a 68 442 convertible. We never did quite agree that the 66-67 top plate was the same basic plate as the 68 4 core but he could chime in too. I remember him saying he didn't think the width of them were the same. In addition to the exrta holes and the elongated hole there's also a notch cut out of the front passenger side on the 68 4 core. You also have to flatten out the rolled edge where the additional holes are in the rear

I never had the opportunity to put a real 68 4 core next to my fabricated one because I was too cheap to spend the $200+ to get one.

 

The top plate for my '68 4-4-2 with heavy duty cooling looks like your second picture with the exception that the tab for the radiator hose plastic clamp is not sawed off (my '68 was produced in the first week of April 1968 in Lansing). The top plate for my '69 4-4-2 with A/C (Fremont car, produced 3rd week of May 1969) looks similar to your 4th picture, except there are two slots on either side of center instead of just the one slot on either side of center shown in your picture. The fan shroud on my '69 bolts through the aftward of the slots on each side.

Randy C.

 

Hey Randy, how's it going?

Good catch on the notch and the mounting holes, guys. Well in my mind, that pretty well confirms my theory, the 68 had two versions of top plate, early production (pic 1) and laste production (pic 2).

Thanks Mike and Randy.

 

I've seen both styles of top plates also. My first '68, built in June '68 had the later plate with the tab. My current '68 is an early Sept '67 build & it has the 67 style top without the tab. There were all kinds of running production changes on these cars,early 5 bow/late 6 bow headliners,early/late hood latches,etc. I build Ford Econoline Vans for a living & we have updated part changes all the time. Sometimes a new part gets online before all the old stock is used up so a bunch of vans will be built with a new updated part,then they'll go back & use up the old stock,so it can be hard to pin-point an exact date/time when a part might have been changed.With 442s being built in numerous plants around the country + Cananda at the time ,who knows what plant got what part & when

 

On the four core rad support, there are two brackets welded on the rear side to mount the lower tabs of the fan shroud, aft of the support, whereas the other rad support for the two and three row rads does not have these brackets because the shroud tabs are located to the inside (forward) part of the support. To change from 2/3 row support to four row I bought Toronado lower rad saddles ( PN 407182 L&R ) and put them in place of the smaller saddles. The Toro saddle is held in place with a 1/4" bolt, in the factory provided hole.

 

Kevin & others:

Please don't take this as a complaint, but a suggestion to aid all readers...

You have Pain[t] on your computer, right?

To present photos of subtle differences to the world, it'd help if each photo had a bit of text in it...

Open pic in Pain. Open another Pain document for text. Make a text box, type in pertinent stuff like "1967 Olds F85 &c. Radiator Top Plate". Select that and a bit of white around it, copy it out and paste in onto the photo. Situate it to not obscure crucial part details. Ctrl-a to select all [the entire image], move it up and left to crop away useless pixels. Then crop lower right corner with the teeeeeensy handle in the corner. Then save. Voila', anyone looking at the photo anytime ever gets schooled quickly. For extra emphasis, a colored circle, arrow, or similar can be made to point out features of interest- the cutaway corner, the elongated holes which I still don't see, etc.

I realize now that your file names have the info in there, but within the pixels of the image is better. I took the liberty of modifying the above images:





12325_68-E4Rowtopplate.jpg

 

This link may lead to the 1968 Early type photo, annotated

[deleted due to photobucket finally working right after clearing browser cache &c.]

evidently one cannot sinmply remove a post, once posted.

 

My '68 442 post coupe looks like pic 2, and has the metal tab where the plastic clamp goes. But the clamp is missing.
My early '68 Cutlass "S" w/ A/C w/3 row rad has pic 4, but has the plastic clamp.

Gene

 

Thank you everyone.

Octania, thanks for the tips on how to modify the pictures in Paint, I’ll keep that in mind for my future posts. I’m not real savvy when it comes to these different computer programs.

 

this is another plate off a '68 442 w/hd cooling , no A/C. I had many years ago.

Gene

 

Thanks Gene, I was wondering if there was a third version