Thread: Radiator question

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Hey guy's. I'm new to the sight, I signed up so I could follow Don's "3K" T bucket build! Just spent the last 5 days going through every page watching him and his son's build 3 of the best looking rods I've seen in a while! I'm building a T bucket also with a stock '76 Cadillac 500 motor and I'm putting a '32 shell on it that I chopped about 3 inches. I am also trying to this as low budget as possible and simply don't want to pay for a new Walker or anything, just wondering if any of you guys knew of a rad that would fit in the shell while still cooling the beast! My parts guy gave me an idea of one that might fit with the dimensions I gave him, but it was for a toyota 4 banger pickemup, don't think it will cool it, or will it being an open engine ride? Any help from you guy's would be huge and greatly appreciated, keep up the good work.

I guess the dimensions would help, huh!! 24" high x 18" wide.

Ken

This is a case of pay it now or pay it later. That's a heluva lot of engine to cool without a lot af surface area and the fact that Walker has their 4 tube Z-Line make the amount of time spent running around, trying different combinations is a waste when you could be out driving. I too had that bright idea when I built my 'bucket, and tried to work with a couple of local radiator shops as well as my friendly "recycler" then gave up and bought the Walker. The nice thing - it was warranted and a leak appeared after 4-5 years. It cost me one way UPS to their shop - and I believe they shipped a new one back. There are other suppliers, but Walker is 'my supplier' - the AVATAR car has one too.

Welcome to the forum and I'm glad you enjoyed reading about a year and a half of my life. Thanks for the nice words.

I agree that a good radiator, although a major hit in the wallet, really solves a lot of overheating problems. The last year of my 27 being on the road I suffered through the temp gauge climbing at every light, and finally tore it apart to redo the whole car and try to fix that problem.

I've been buying my radiators from PRC lately and love their aluminum work. I can't get my 23 to come up more than 170 going down the road with a 180 thermostat. That Caddy will need as much radiator as you can get in there, plus a good fan and shroud.

Don