1939 Buick Century radiator recommendations

[C-Lamb]

Looks like my radiator needs to be completely re-cored. 

 

Matt recommends Dave Tacheny, who I'll call tomorrow, any other ideas?  Local shop wants $1200. 

 

Thanks all!

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Check the dimensions against a 1950 Special radiator. I have one.

 

  Ben

[Larry Schramm]

On 7/20/2021 at 10:35 PM, C-Lamb said:

Looks like my radiator needs to be completely re-cored. 

 

Matt recommends Dave Tacheny, who I'll call tomorrow, any other ideas?  Local shop wants $1200. 

 

Thanks all!

 

Not too bad for a new recore.  The best thing is if you block/engine is clean and you do not have leaking head gaskets, your overheating problems will be gone.

 

 You should price a brass era radiator.  $1,200 is cheap.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[Victor W]

I'd highly suggest you make sure the block is clean before the radiator. I went through this same issue recently. I was amazed at how much rust, dirt and scale was in the block.

 

I knocked out the frost plugs and flushed the block. You can see the results in a recent thread on Cooling System and Evaporust. I had tried flushing the block without doing that but it wasn't getting to the heart of the problem. 

 

My Special went from overheating within 2 miles to running cool and stable. I flushed, no joking, 4-5 pounds of crap out of the block. I put the temp rubber expanding frost plugs in for now as I plan to check if any more junk is stirred up at the end on the summer.

 

I also back flushed the radiator and am running a filter on the upper hose which is also stopping any residual junk from making it in the radiator.

Edited July 23, 2021 by Victor W
Typos (see edit history)

[DonMicheletti]

Victor W is absolutely right. The radiator is only 1/2 of the cooling system.

On my '38 Roadmaster I cleaned 1/2 bucket of crud from the water jacket.  It never overheated again in over 30 years of use.

I didnt do a thing to the original radiator..it was  fine with a backflush

[Buicknutty]

 You may very well need a recore, which my '41 Roadmaster did too. My original rad was too far gone to repair, so since mine was going to be primarily a driver, I had a modern high density core made for it. Cheaper than an original, and a bit more efficient. If the original type is important to you, then go for it.

 I don't know the current price for one, so I can't help you there.

 However my main point is to reinforce cleaning out the block. I had flushed mine several times, run cleaner through with the old rad still in place etc etc.

 I really spent a lot of time on doing that, then I did what I should have done at first, knocked the frost plugs out. It was at the back where the crud was. Another poster said about 4-5 lbs of crud. I bet mine had all of that and more! The rear most plug is at #7 so it also takes a bunch of work to get it cleaned out around #8. The head was off mine at the time so the job was a bit easier. Though worth doing if you want your car to run it's best.

 Then it ran cool in just about any weather, as long as I was moving. I've since added an electric fan to help in traffic, or slow driving.

Keith

 

[Robert Engle]

On the 32 engines I have worked with, I have found that removing the rear head bolts ( at #8 cylinder) and rodding and flushing through these bolt holes is important.

 

Bob Engle

[C-Lamb]

Thanks guys, I will definly be spending some serious time cleaning, thanks!