Larrys'66

I do have the three pass radiator from the donor car and wondered if there is a good recommendation on flushing the radiator to remove any corrosion while it is out of the car. Any recommendations on a cleaner that won't be too harsh on the brass?

As I am preparing to swap my 330 for a healthy 455, I am trying to get all of the parts organized in advance.

oldsmobiledave

Take your rad to a professional rad shop. Have then clean & pressure test it.

oldcutlass

X2 - and they can repair anything they find wrong right there. It's not that expensive.

HWYSTR455

If it's a copper/brass radiator, and it's more than 4 years old, chances are pretty good it will need to be reamed, if places even do that anymore. Most just re-core or replace. Probably better just to cut to the chase and replace it, there's many affordable aluminum ones out there now. Think I paid $265 for my last one and that included shipping. Probably spend at least half that at a radiator shop.

.

classicmuscle442

Here starts the MAW's, old radiator with new motor can cause serious problems, somethings are better of being new, may save $$ in long run. Paid radiator shop to check and clean a radiator and after picking it up I could shake radiator and hear stuff moving around. Looked inside with flashlight and it was still dirty and some tubes were partially plugged up. Getting hard to find quality shops.

oldcutlass

That's the key, a quality shop. I'm lucky here.

jag1886

I agree with taking it to a good shop and have it cleaned and rodded out then pressure tested. It will cost a couple of 100 but it's money well spent.

oldcutlass

It should not cost that much to clean it.

dc2x4drvr

If you want to maintain originality have it recored, using the original tanks.

Allan R

With apologies to the OP for jacking this thread slightly.

I was going to try and maintain originality with my car, but found out the rad is a 2 row core and I wanted 3 row. After checking on line prices for copper/brass core 3 rows I almost fell out of my chair. Including shipping that would be close to 500.00 plus tax. So I called some local shops and asked how much to re-core with a 3 row. They all wanted close to 400.00. So now my dilemma is whether to restore or buy new. Originality would be nicer IMO because I'll still have the Harrison tags on the tanks. Nothing is cheap here nowadays. Down side: Will the Harrison tags mean anything after I convert to 3 row? The car survived all these years with a 2 row, so the other dilemma is whether to keep that feature.

W30Olds

Depends on how old it is, I've cleaned two radiators (one an aluminum core, one a copper core) with vinegar and water (doesnt have to be hot water either) and the insides came out nice, lots of crap came out though. You also should shake them with the vinegar/water inside. If it's really old, listen to everyone else, take it to a shop.

69ishHoliday

Radiator shops typically use ultra-sonic tanks to clean with vibration. It doesn't take very long and is typically followed by a pressure test and soldering of leaks. You should get a clean, test, and repair from any old established radiator shop. They do them all day long and will probably appreciate it if you pay in cash and don't require a receipt.

costpenn

As I have learned, it does no good to get the radiator reconditioned if the block water jackets are full of corrosion ( it will plug up and restrict the water flow on that new radiator) Make sure you repeatedly flush your engine out with the existing radiator - provided it is flowing at all.

69ishHoliday

Costpenn, this is a very good point. I recently had quite a bit of work done to my car's engine and the mechanic used a steam cleaner / pressure washer and cleaned the block's water passages. I couldn't believe how much longer it took for the engine to come up to temperature. It had so much gunk clogging the block that it warmed up to 180 degrees in just a few minutes.

rustyroger

Let me endorse this too. No matter how clean or new your radiator is, if you have a block full of gunk you will clog the radiator in short order.
Flush out/ recore the heater radiator too, and replace the hoses if you have any doubts.


Roger.

matt69olds

Good advice. Flush and clean the system BEFORE you spend the money to rebuild the radiator. That way you don't fill the repaired radiator with debris from the engine.

steverw

I took my rad to a shop here they opened it up and rodded it out $75. After my block was machined i noticed crap falling out of the water jackets when upside down on the engine stand. I took a long flat blade screw driver and scraped literally almost 2 pounds of crud from them. Now some of the weight of that was probably oil that got in while machining the block as all the crud was moist but it filled 2 inches across a gallon size zip lock bag. Most of it was fairly loose in the water jackets, that would have eventually ended up in the radiator. It took about an hour and a half to clean both side water jackets but now i can see all the way to the bottoms. I also flushed them with high pressure sprayer after all the scrapping. Clean as a wistle.
Steve

Lars

I would try CLR in it first, then if that didn't work, bring it in.

jag1886

Yes it does I had one rodded out and that's exactly what it cost. Good shops don't boil them in that acid solution anymore they pull the top tank to clean it.

oldcutlass

I had my Plymouth done a few years back. He removed both top and bottom tanks, rodded, pressure tested, repaired, and painted for under $100. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Fun71

Several years ago I had a high-efficiency 4 row core installed on my original Harrison 3 row end tanks, so you should be able to get a 3 row core made using your original end tanks.

jag1886

Must be a regional thing or your shop has a really low hourly rate. Or sometimes I swear they see me coming or maybe it's just I say 65 Cutlass and they tack on an extra 20%.

oldcutlass

Living in a small town has it's advantages.

Larrys'66

Thank you for all the tips guys, I will heed the advice. I found a local, old time radiator guy to have a look at it to see what the radiator needs. Now I need to plan to flush out the block, missing this detail does seem like a silly mistake. I started removing the old heater core tonight, so I am sure the new one will be clear. I do see some scale in the water pump, but the cooling ports were clear when I had the intake off; at least as far as I could see.

Lets see how the rad shop visit goes, I may have a contact to recommend to the folks in Pa.

Thanks for sharing the years of experience.

Larry

therobski

Is the 66 core support the same for a 67? I put a Suburban aluminum radiator in my 67 461. drops right in and the motor runs very cool. 150-180 thats it> If you interested I can you provide you more detail.