Radiator Recore

[Guest unclefogey]

Stopped in today at my engine rebuilder to drop off the Dante Red engine paint and the black Fireball decal I had purchased from Bob's for the finishing touches on my '41, mod. 46 engine rebuild. Liked the black sheet metal color on my engine (rocker, sparkplug, pushrod galley covers) with red Fireball decal, but didn't like the "Nice car, engine color is wrong", comments.

Was about to leave when the guy I was talking to asked the mechanic about the other problem they had run into. Seems that after the radiator was cleaned, it had ended up with more holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese. I was given two choices of a core matching the original which was described as a "V-channel" core @$710, or a standard core @ $525.

The car will never be a 400 pt. trailer queen, so I was wondering if I could get over the possible comments of "Nice car, radiator is wrong", whether the modern core would be a smarter way to go for maximum cooling? Engine never had a cooling issue with the obviously ready to blow radiator, but threads on this site concerning overheating questions seem to blame an engine rebuild for overheating during break in. If the two cores would have no real difference in cooling capacity, I would probably bite the bullet and go for the close to original core.

Guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

John

[Matt Harwood]

I think you should go with the core that will work best, probably the standard core (and it's cheaper, too!). These straight-8s need all the help they can get in the cooling department and it will make it that much more reliable and comfortable to drive. Paint the new radiator black with that Eastwood radiator paint (which is just thin lacquer), and 9 out of 10 people will never even notice the new core. And those who do can go jump in a lake--it's your car, do it the way you want it. Build it for you, not for the critics.

I have two radiators--an original that I'm going to use while I show the car for the first year or so, and one that is going to have a massive modern aluminum core for driving that will go in after I win my BCA Senior. Your car sounds plenty nice and accurate enough that nobody should complain. And who cares if they do? Not I.

Hope this helps.

[Nick_S]

Go with the modern core, much more efficent and not many people will know unless somebody points it out. It's a LOT tougher to spot than blatant red and black.

[flackmaster]

Sticker shock indeed. I am having a similar (1937 Packard) radiator done now. Two years ago I had another one done at a cost of $450 and now I am quoted $775 for the same job. The explanation is the cost of copper, or simply that there is only one supplier in PA for the honeycomb/original style core. I also have been offered "horizontal fin" industrial core, very heavy duty for $475 or modern "v-channel" or "v cell" core for a little less. The modern core proposed would have been about 25% thinner, but promised similar thermodynamics to the original thick core. No hard data to support or review for us technical folk.

I went with the industrial heavy duty horizontal fin core, as it has the same thickness and I like the sound of "heavy duty". I would be most curious to understand what others are finding re: the cost of this original honeycomb stuff. One added note, my original core is 3 1/4" inch and it seems the replacement stuff is only available 3".