I've never had a problem with over heating in the three summers that I've had my stock '50 truck on the road. One of the first things on the list was a good clean cooling system. Block and head well flushed actually they were chemically dipped in a hot tank, had the radiators gone over by a competent local radiator shop. A new pump, (not rebuilt) new hoses with the wire supports on place, new 180°stat. In fact, she’s a beauty when it comes to staying cool. I’ve sat in heavy dead stopped traffic in the hottest Midwest weather and the needle just came up a tad.
But that doesn't mean that I'm not interested in getting the maximum cooling that the stock system is capable of. The vast majority of the new vehicles wear a cooling shroud and it only makes sense that a shroud would give you much better cooling at low speeds. These were stock on the big haulers back in the day and I don’t doubt that they were installed on a lot of the Advance Design light duty trucks after delivery where the vehicle was restricted to low speed travel, such as heavy city stop and go use.
It’s just common sense that air flowing across 100% of the core is a better deal than the 67% that gets pulled across by an 18” fan blade.
A good clean well maintained cooling system is essential to keeping the needle at the 180° mark but it sure wouldn’t hurt to have a little extra when you’re stuck in traffic in downtown Metropolis on a 110° summer afternoon.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
