katprice

Hi! New here, with an old car. I need to get my Olds back on the road because it does well on gas. Went online for a new radiator and there are 6 or so different ones that come up for my model year ('87 Cutlass Ciera Brougham, 4-door, 2.8). How would I know which radiator I need to buy? Does my model have the engine oil cooler? I know it has A/C, but beyond that, I need help. Please advise.

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO. I did a quick search on the internet for a major auto parts site and also found more than one choice. Some of those choices may be the difference in price range (aluminum vs brass/copper and warranty level) and some seem to have a different width; either 1" or 1.25". This may be what you have to pay attention to most, it seems to me that if you do have an engine oil cooler it would be in front of the radiator and probably the A/C condenser. You may be able to look either through the front grille or down from the top or even perhaps up from the bottom; not sure on you vehicle.

katprice

OK thanks. I looked for a part number on the old one but found nothing, just "Harrison" printed on one side of it.

joe_padavano

Sorry, but without more info, we have no idea if your car has the oil cooler or not. Best bet is to pull the old radiator out, take it to the parts store, and match it up.

Redog

Welcome to the site

Oldsguy really put it best. If it does say Harrison on it, good chance it's orginal.

The biggest problem your going to run into with that car is it's what I like to call a "cross over" car. In 1987 there are at least 6 different Cutlasses out there. You have the 4 door full size with both the 231 Buick and 307 Olds, also the 2 door coupe both with a 307 and 231 under the hood. IDK if they made a little Cutlass like yours in a 2 door, but your four door also came with a 4 banger option too. There is your 6 different raditor options right there.

Your going to have this problem with just about every part you buy for that car. Your going to want to look for choices like "FWD" and be careful of some parts companies that will send you a part for a full size Cutlass and so on.

Sorry bro, I really do feel your pain. The same things happen with my 1985 Delta 88. I just bought rear shocks for it and I got 3 choices, all different prices too. I had to really look at the fine print to see that I was buying for a "sedan" with the 5.0. The other options were heavy duty for a Custom Cruiser, and a FWD Delta 88, which actually wasn't made until 1986, but in 1985 the Olds 98 was already a smaller FWD car, the Delta followed that in 1986.

The guy I bought my Delta off of was telling me he just replaced the raditor about 2 months before he put the car on CL. It's for a 1985 Olds 98 or 1986 Delta 88, because he was telling me that it didn't fit right. I knew why right away. Meh, it works, so I'm just waiting for it to crack

joe_padavano

Uh, no, not really.

This car is a FWD A-body Cutlass Ciera. There is no uncertainty about that at all. This body style was introduced in 1982. There is no confusion here with either the G-body RWD Cutlass Supreme nor with the smaller N-body FWD Cutlass Calais (nor with the FWD Cutlass Supreme that wasn't released until the 1988 model year).

The O.P. has it right - there are radiator multiple listings JUST for the A-body Ciera. This is compounded by the fact that today's computerized parts listings have errors and the parts themselves are consolidated to allow one design to fit multiple applications to minimize inventory costs. Again, pull the old one and match it up at the parts store. The new one may not look exactly like the old one, but if it bolts in and has the same cooling capacity, it will work fine.

Redog

^ Joe I have to disagree.

I was looking up front brakes tonight on Summit Racing for my 85 Delta 88 and one of the options was FWD or RWD.

The FWD Delta didn't come out until 1986, but in 1985 the 98 was already a smaller car, since the RWD 98's last year was 1984, and like I said in my earlier post, my RWD 85 Delta looks like it has an 86 FWD raditior in it

joe_padavano

Summit also says that their headers don't fit Supremes...

In fact, Summit even says that their G-body double hump crossmembers don't fit Supremes due to the mythical engine offset, so I'm not sure why you consider them an expert source of info.

Once again, there is absolutely no fuzz on either the OP's car (a 1987 FWD A-body Cutlass Ciera) or on your car (a RWD D88). The fact that some vendors have errors in their catalogs is unfortunate, but the confusion is on the part of the vendors, not on what the car is.

For the third time, due to this vendor mis-information, take the old parts out and bring them to the parts store to match up with the new ones. This is the only way to ensure that there will be no problems.