tiparosa

Any suggestions where to purchase a new radiator for a 62 Dynamic? I called a couple of local rad shops and they said I need to recore my original but I think I should by new as I dont know much about recore and would not know the diff between repair and recore. The radiator is leaking and looks like its in bad shape.

thanks,
T

mitsudave

If the tanks are still good, a good radiator shop can recore it and it will be good as new. A new radiator for your car may not be available, and recoring is a good alternative to new, and usually cheaper.

texasred

And most of the over-the-counter replacements have fewer rows and smaller tubes.

IMO, Recore!

C.J.

tiparosa

Had the radiator recored and installed it tonight. Cost $350 to recore and the guy added a 4th row/core. Runs without leak. https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...cons/icon7.gif
Smile

texasred

Kewl!

Oldsguy

Now here's a twist on this subject to chew on. I read a thread over at ROP a while back and the jist of the argument was how to best cool a big block. One guy was an engineer of some sort and claimed involvement in radiator design and claimed that a radiator/cooling system can move the coolant TOO QUICKLY, he said that the coolant would not have enough time to release it's heat energy to the air as it passes through the radiator. I never knew what to think about that. So, his statemtent was a 4 row radiator might not be better than a 3 row, or a 2 row. He said another thing to consider besides the number of rows, assuming you really DO need to exchange more heat (I guess negating or ignoring his first argument) would be the shape and size of the flat radiating fins sticking out from the cores. Go figure. I never could decide......

2blu442

I won't claim to be an expert, but I've got a 1970 442 with a 455 and the 3 core radiator wasn't enough on hot summer days. When I moved to this part of the state I found a lot of summer days in the 90's with a week or two over 100. If I was driving through the city stopping at traffic lights it would overheat. That was with good looking tubes inside the radiator and a 160 degree thermostat. I put in a 4 core and that did the trick, no more overheating. That was my experience. John

texasred

Dan,

I remember that argument...errr...discussion. I'm pretty sure the whole thing centered around running without a thermostat which removes the restiction in the cooling system.

If they didn't need a 4 core radiator for HD cooling, do you think Olds would have wasted the money on it?

JMHO and JMQM (Just my questionable memory).

C.J.

mitsudave

This one rears its ugly head every once in a while...I believe C.J. is correct about the running without a thermostat being a qualification for the argument. If you have no means of flow control, it may be true (but still sounds far-fetched to me). If you have a functioning thermostat or at least one of those flow restrictors in there, the coolant would have sufficient time to release its heat energy to the air.