In between maintain the other vehicles in my fleet (especially the wife’s car and truck LOL) I’ve started sorting out the cooling system. Of course that dovetails with a few other parts of the project that will be addressed at the same time. Before hanging a radiator and fan I will need to; rewire the headlights, install front turn signals, build brackets for the horn and install the trans cooler and hoses. I also had to decide if I was going to install a heater or not. After going back and forth I finally decided that I would.….mostly to have defrosters for some of the winter cruises I do.

I happened to still have the original radiator for the truck, so getting measurements and seeing how it was originally mounted was where I started.



Nobody lists a replacement radiator for a 37 Dodge so it was more time spent doing a computer search for something that would work. I wasn’t having much luck finding anything that would fit or was affordable. After an hours or so looking at various radiators I remembered the post here on the site from a couple of months ago from the guy who had used a first generation Mustang radiator in his 37. The width is right but it could stand to be a few inches taller. I really debated about whether to keep looking for something bigger or to go ahead and order one. I eventually ended up deciding to take a chance on a 2 row (1 inch tubes) and see how it does. My thinking is the engine is only 341 cubic inches, it will have open hood sides and it will not have AC (and without the AC it will stay in the garage on those 100 degree days we have ).

The radiator has a built in transmission cooler but as the fittings are only ¼” NPT so I won’t be using it. When Chrysler designed the 518/46RH they went to 3/8” lines and fitting and a bigger cooler to keep the transmission temperatures down and recommend they don’t be downsized. So I also ended up ordering a remote transmission cooler.


While I was waiting on the radiator and trans cooler to come in I decided to get started on the heater. As I’ve been trying to keep the majority of the things I put on the truck pre 1970, I happened to have the perfect candidate, an old Arvin unit that I had pulled from a 1950s truck.





The motor and switch were good but it needed a new core. Fortunately a little time with the catalog at the parts store and I found one that could be adapted.



It mounts up out of the way but the switch is a bit difficult to get to so I’ll leave it set to high and use a switch in the dash to turn it on and off.





I decided to use an old style water control valves that most of these add on heaters came with. I remember these from couple of the old trucks we had on the farm when I was growing up…….turn them on in the fall and off in the spring LOL.


Naturally the water pump I’m using doesn’t have a fitting on the inlet side for the heater return hose and none of the radiators I was looking at had them either so I picked up an inline adapter with a 3/8” pipe fitting.





I’ll probably get started on rewiring the headlights, horn and turn signals first and then get the radiator and cooler (which came in today) fitted in the nose. The electric fan in the picture is a left over from another project and I’m still kicking back and forth about whether to use it or a mechanical fan.


Of course now that I dragged out the electrical stuff, doing the rest of the wiring will probably be the next project.






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