Dolores

The PO put an aftermarket alum radiator in this car and apparently the car will overheat after 10-15 minutes. Before I start troubleshooting I’d like to double check a few things.

1. Can anyone confirm that these cars have a fan shroud? Mine has the top metal piece that holds the radiator in place but nothing else. There is a 5-6” gap between the fan and the radiator. Maybe someone could post a picture of their fan/radiator area that would be awesome.

2. What is the size of the stock radiator? The aftermarket one looks like a dual core and is 28x18”

3. The car has new water pump and hoses. Do Delta 88’s of this era have any kind of temperature sender, and do they have a temperature gauge/indicator? One of my options is to install aftermarket electrical fans - I have installed fans on other cars and in general I prefer the water pump/sender configuration rather than the “between the fins” method.

Thanks
Andy

Oldsmaniac

What about the Thermostat,,, a 180 degree will be fine. There is no fan shroud on non air conditioning cars.

joe_padavano

Yes, the 67 D88 should have a plastic fan shroud. The car has an idiot light sender that has both HOT and COLD terminals for the two lights on the dash. There was no factory temp gauge offered. The correct water pump for both A/C and non-A/C applications on this car is the 5.1" version, and yes, there is a gap from the fan to the radiator, though that sounds excessive. The stock radiator is a three row and the end tanks are different thicknesses. There is no correct aftermarket radiator available that I've found. Even most of the available stock "replacement" radiators are not correct for these cars.

Dolores

Thanks for the quick responses. I’d prefer to go the stock cooling route if possible, does anyone have a part # for the stock shroud? If not I can fab one up- I have the FSM arriving this week and I hope it will have some pictures of the stock setup.

oldcutlass

What temp is the engine reaching?

joe_padavano

The factory shroud is P/N 394297.

BILL DEMMER

2-core radiator sounds a little thin, the original one in the d88 i boned out was a 3-core w/ac. it also had a shroud, and a clutched, 6 blade fan. what people seem to miss about replacement radiators is, the fpi(fins per inch) count... more is better. just a couple of other thoughts: how is the ignition timing? does the mechanical/vacuum advance work? does the car have an efe/crossover valve that may be stuck closed, forcing exhaust gasses through the motor(it's supposed to do that with a cold motor, not a warm/hot one).

bill

Dolores

Great suggestions. I’ll be dealing with some business stuff this week and the FSM arrives Wednesday, so I’ll post back here next weekend with some results.

Oldsmaniac

Thanks for that, the 66 non Ac cars did not have a shroud so I "assumed" the 67's were similar.

cfair

In 66 they made only 1 shroud for both big and small bocks.

It does not cover the entire width of the back side of the 66 big car radiators. However you get a Toronado shroud or later 455 cutlass shroud, cut it vertically and graft the wider driver’s side (screws, zip ties, whatever) onto the 66 shroud for complete coverage. I added a rubber U channel with bulb seal to mine just to seal it up. And foam seal on top just for good measure.

What also made a difference in my big 66’s was the flowkooler closed impeller water pump. They make all 3 lengths of Olds pumps. They seem to last longer than generic rebuilt water pumps too. Quality of the rebuilt stuff is really fallling off. Some here don’t like high flow pumps, check out their views.

There should also be masticated rubber in front of the radiator below it stuck onto tabs in the bumper and on both sides to force (or direct)I incoming air through the radiator and not around it. You can get this in rolls from Fusick and cut it to fit.

Both my big cars run very cool now 160 around town, maybe 180 in traffic. I’m thinking of going to a 180 thermostat for lower emissions and better efficiency.

Hope this helps,
Chris