Radiator 1936 Pontiac DeLuxe Tour with 1952 239 Pontiac straight 6

[Silverstreak36]

Need a replacement radiator for a 1936 Pontiac silverstreak flathead 6 my harmonic balancer broke off from age and killed my rad. Any thoughts where I might find one thanks. Recore is out of the question sadly. I'm in Canada 

[3macboys]

12 minutes ago, Silverstreak36 said:

Need a replacement radiator for a 1936 Pontiac silverstreak flathead 6 my harmonic balancer broke off from age and killed my rad. Any thoughts where I might find one thanks. Recore is out of the question sadly. I'm in Canada 

If you are near London, Ont go see Steve at ACE Rad and he might be able to fix you up or at least guide you in the right direction.

 

Don

[Silverstreak36]

In New Brunswick haha middle of nowhere. There's no fixing it blew a hole right thru it and the bottom was already corroding pretty bad 

[3macboys]

Unfortunately I can't help you there, but right about this time last year I was on my way to Gagetown to see my one son and remarked to my wife that I'd just driven 14 hours to get to Woodstock again!  Kidding aside with the amount of heavy equipment and what not out there you should be able to find a real rad shop that can take care of you.  So long as you have the tanks they can likely build you a rad.   

[Bloo]

As far as I know a 36 radiator fits nothing else. Maybe a 35 but I doubt it. Eights are different than sixes too. As I understand it a six radiator might fit in an eight, but not the other way around. I hope you find something, but recore is probably the only way.

 

 

[Silverstreak36]

Sadly price of recore is minimum 2500$ I checked and no guarantees that it fits normal again. I see radiator express has oem build one's for 1400 usd wondering if they ship to Canada or if anyone has dealt with them 

[3macboys]

I suspect those prices are if you are looking for the original style fins, honey comb or similar, but if you are willing to go with "new" style it will be much cheaper

[Bloo]

I am not surprised at the price, and don't think it would cover any "original style fins". On that subject, it is a Harrison strip core, and those can still be made in Australia. I have not priced it, but $2500 doesn't buy you much ordinary radiator these days, never mind strip core. I've had my 36 radiator out and know what it looks like. Earlier this spring I had my fan magnafluxed because of the risk.

 

It is a tall narrow cross flow radiator with a third tank at the top that functions as a condenser for alcohol antifreeze. The radiator cap on the left connects opens into this third top tank. The top tank drains into the right tank. The mounting wings are odd shaped, curved, and are part of the nose structure of the car. There are no other radiators even remotely like this, except perhaps radiators for slightly older Pontiacs. Those would have similar cores. I doubt any of those could be close enough to fit as is.

[Silverstreak36]

https://www.radiatorexpress.com/product/all/pontiac/1936/deluxe series silver streak/base/36l-l6/230505/1485740

 

Here's the one I was looking at and referring to. I assume this is oem style but aluminum.  My question will then be do I just use a after market fan 

[Bloo]

Well... That sure looks like a 36 Pontiac radiator.

 

What kind of a radiator cap does the new radiator take? I imagine it takes a modern one as I hear many aluminum radiators for antiques do take a modern one. The original radiator was an open system. The original radiator for an Eight (which doesn't quite fit a six) was pressurized at 4 pounds with an old prewar-style large pressure cap. In your case you would probably be way better off running 4 pounds pressure, maybe even 7 or 15 pounds. Do you have a heater? If you do, and it is a prewar one, you probably don't want more than 4 pounds, as old heaters weren't intended to take a bunch of pressure. If not, I think I'd go for at least 7 pounds. maybe more. Your 50s engine should have a water pump that can deal with a little pressure, so you should be good there. The last packing pumps were on early 37 models.

 

Aluminum radiators are generally less efficient than brass, In an old narrow-hooded cars like a 36 Pontiac, it is possible, even likely, that your cooling is limited by the size of the radiator opening. For cooling efficiency, old time racing wisdom says aluminum wins on weight, and brass wins on size. You always want a race car lighter, but the implication for a street car is that when you are size limited by the air intake, you are going to give up some cooling by going to aluminum. There are very modern aluminum racing radiators that buck this trend and can be more efficient thanks to radical core design. My guess is you won't get anything like that in a radiator for an antique. What you get will probably be very traditional, and you will be giving up some cooling because it is aluminum. These cars don't cool particularly well in the first place, and yours has a bigger engine. Some pressure will help keep things under control.

 

You will have to have either the nose off or the radiator shell and grille assembly completely off to get the radiator out of this car. When you do that, take the water tube out of your block and look at it. If it's bad, the engine will run too hot and have a tendency to boil over. Spoiler: it's bad. It's behind the water pump. Pull it out and look. Then, get a brass one if you can and a steel one if you can't. 1937-1954 Sixes all take the same one.

 

There are tin shields on a stock 36 Pontiac under the radiator shell that prevent grille air from getting under the hood without going through the radiator. Not having this massively reduces airflow through the radiator. If they're missing, find or make some. Originals are hard to find, but there is nothing complicated or special about them, so making some would be no big deal. Similarly a rubber dam goes from the top of the radiator to the inside of the shell for the same reason. Make all air that comes through the grille go through the radiator.

 

I don't know what to say about the fan. There is just too much I don't understand about how it was set up with that newer engine and why it had that catastrophic failure of the balancer. If the car were one year newer, that engine would have almost bolted in. 1937 and later engines do not have the bosses for the side engine mounts. What keeps the engine from tipping over?

 

Fans... well you probably don't want the 36 one and it probably won't fit anyway because it was meant for a packing pump with a different style fan hub than any of the newer ones. It also is a nearly identical design to an infamous Hupmobile fan that is known for exploding and taking out radiators. Something newer would be better. You don't have much room. You'll just have to measure and see what you can get in there. It probably has to be smaller than the 36 one, and you are already short on cooling. If you have a 37-48 water pump and an extra hole drilled in the block, the fan will be up higher. What will it hit? The upper hose connection? I don't know. If you have the 49-54 pump, I'm not even sure it will fit behind the radiator. If the fan is as far back as it was in 36, and it has to be because they almost touch the radiator, then it will hit the harmonic balancer unless the fan is really really small. If it has a 33-36 pump on it, well I don't know how they did it. They're not real similar. If you go electric, it probably helps at low speed and idle, but blocks at speed, making your cooling worse at speed. For what its worth fans with few blades and a lot of pitch block air less and fans with a bunch of cool looking almost flat blades block air worst.

 

Did this car ever work properly for you for an extended period of time? If so, great. If not, you might be spinning your wheels trying to repair it if the engine is not tied down well enough.

 

Good luck with the project!