The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Radiator issues with a 327

I have a healthy 327 that I am putting in my 1950 pickup but have cooling issues. I have been told two differnet stories about if a stock radiator will work. Does anybody know if I can run a stock radiator or do I need to upgrade to a aluminium radiator.

I put a 350 in my 51, and the stock radiator would NOT keep the engine cool at highway speeds. I put in an aluminum radiator, and it works great. The other problem is the fan; my V8 sits too low for a regular fan, so I had to put an electric fan in. It takes a big fan to keep a V8 cool. I have a Perma Cool fan that moves 2950 cfm of air, and on hot days sitting in traffic it still will slowly heat up from 180 to 200 degrees. I think it willtake 2 fans moving over 4,000 cfm to keep it steady, especially if I put in air conditioning.

brianhill,

I also had a AD pickup with a 350 in it...turbocharged to boot. I had a stock radiator that had been boiled/cleaned by a shop, and I had no over heating issues. I used a weird 5 blade flex-fan with no shroud.

Stuart

I have a 327 in my '40. Stock rad that was flushed and refurbished, plus electric pusher fan mounted to front of rad - works fine.

I have a stock radiator in a 48 1 1/2 ton. It has never overheated even pulling a big load down the hiway. You just need to make sure it's in good shape,
Scott

What pressure caps are you guys using?

BrianHill, What alot of guys have done is buy an electric unit out of a Lincoln Mark 8 OR a Ford Taurus (87-9x?) and then purchase a DC controller unit. You can program the unit to come on and go off between certain set-points, the rest of the time it's not running unless the sensor hits that set point. I think the website was dccontrols.com , I could be wrong on that...
Good luck wiht it
Dano

We have done alot of AD V8 conversions through the years and here is my experience: 3 3/4 bore(265 & almost 305)--no problem, 3 7/8 bore(283)--no problem up through 0.060 overbore, 4" bore(302,327,350)--no problem with stock bore and no a/c. This is with a radiator that is for sure in good shape. If one gets outside these parameters it can lead to heating problems and that means electric fan(s) or dual 1" tube aluminum radiator. Do not pay the street rod prices for the radiators, go to a circle track supplier, they now are stocking verticle flow radiators along with the crossflow for less than $200. You have to make your own mount but I can do that for a 250 to 350 bucks saving.

I am running a 350 with no AC (at the moment) and am using a four row desert cooler radiator available through Classic Parts. Has a tranny cooler included. The price difference of this radiator versus the price I had to recore my stock unit was about $50.

I'm running a 283 with the automatic (700R4) in The Ox, it has a stock 39 radiator, and a cut down stock 4 blade fan and a shroud... the only time i had cooling issues was in a LONG slow parade, in the desert (90+ degrees).. I've been running it for over 5 years now...