Well the radiator on the 71 finally let go so I am in the market for a replacement. I wanted to replace this 4 core eventually anyway and you'll see why. I can only imagine what this person what on when they make this quality repair.

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It looks like an excellent brazing attempt and maybe some JB weld mixed in there! The car never ran hot but I wonder if those tubes were even flowing.

 

In the old days when tubes leaked they were just clipped and soldered shut.

 

That's what I've always done. What are you going to do, replace the tube? Fix it? Good luck.

- Eric

 

10 tubes ruined seem excessive to repair a leak but I'm sure was the cheaper option than recoring whenever this was done. Replace it with a 4 core aluminum one. Cost to recore this one would be more than replacing it and my car is not a collectors or numbers matching so will do the upgrade.

 

I've seen it to where 1/3 of the tubes were soldered As long as the radiator maintained temp it was serviceable, looks were secondary. Good choice on using the aluminum.

 

A better job then the clown who took the heater matrix out of a Mk6 Lincoln I once owned, he (I doubt it was she) stuffed bondo over the leak and put it back.
I didn't enjoy taking the dash apart to find this 1/4 assed repair. It didn't cost very much to get it recored properly, although the guys who did it had a bit of trouble finding a correct replacement.


Roger.

 

Another "quality repair" I remember seeing allot of when I used to work in my Dad's garage was the ever present "oatmeal in the radiator" way of fixing leaks.

 

Not sure what your stance is on being 100% correct under the hood is. If you don't mind a nonstandard radiator then go to Advance Auto or the equivalent and get the aluminum with plastic tank replacement. Its not listed for all years but its the same radiator from '66 through '76. It'll out cool anything else you could put in.

 

They make an aluminum / plastic "modern" radiator for GM A-bodies, Smitty?

I did not know that.

Do you have a single model to look up that you are fairly certain will cross to it?

I also didn't realize that '66 through '76 would interchange (I'm ASSuming A-bodies again).
I swear sometimes I've also swapped between A- and B-bodies, but other times I think they didn't quite fit - Do you recall any specifics?

- Eric

 

Advance Auto lists one of them as Ready-Rad 433161. Its a single row 1" wide aluminum tube. It'll out cool any 3 row copper core. I'll have to dig a little but they also make a two row. The width of the tanks is right but they are not as thick as the factory tanks. So you need to make a little spacer to keep the tank from moving for/aft in the mounts. You don't want this construction of radiator clamped tight though. It needs a little bit of wiggle room to keep from getting tweaked with expansion/contraction and frame movement on rough roads.

 

Okay, starting with your information, I did some checking.

The 433161 is listed as good for B-bodies starting in 1971 and A-bodies starting in 1972, with Olds listings including 98 from '71 to '84 and '72 to '77.

It is showing 1-row 28 3/8" x 17" x 1" with headers 2 3/4" x 18 5/8" and connections 1 5/16-1 9/16" top and 1 9/16 bottom.


The 433322 is listed as good for A-bodies '65-'71 (no B-bodies listed), including 455 and 442, with A/C.

It is showing 1-row 28 3/8" x 17" x 32mm with headers 2 3/4" x 18 5/8" and connections 1 9/16" top and 1 1/2 - 1 3/4" bottom.

They also list the brass 4-row 433348 as the "Super Heavy Duty Cooling" choice.

Here is the 433322 at Advance:



It's a hundred bucks.

Thanks for the tip!

- Eric

 

Many years ago I discovered that the radiator outlet switched to a different diameter between '70 and '71. I ordered a radiator and was sent one with the wrong size lower hose connection and had to have a different one installed at a local shop. The water pump outlet and lower hose on the '68-'70 350s is larger than the one on the '71 and up.

The specs above confirm that the lower hose connection is a different diameter between the two.

 

Yes it is.

I once discovered this on the side of the road while replacing the radiator in the car with a spare that I had in the trunk ("Be Prepared").

With enough determination, the smaller-outlet hose can be made to fit on the larger outlet nipple.

- Eric

 

I'll have to look into that radiator for the 71.

 

Eric, I have that radiator in my car. There is an adapter sleeve, which is basically a rubber bushing that is slipped over the bottom to take up the difference in clearance. You just slip on the sleeve, slip the hose over it and clamp it down.

 

... Which works fine if you have the smaller inlet nipple and the larger hose.

If, however, you have the larger inlet and the smaller hose, the fun begins!

- Eric

 

You can use the ribbed flexible generic hoses which come with different sized ends.

 

Not when the traffic is whizzing by you at 80mph you can't.

Besides, they make the correct hoses - there are just two different sizes - one with the bigger end and one with the smaller end.

- Eric

 

Why not just carry 2 different sized hoses and an extra radiator

 

There's one in every group...

- Eric