Hello! I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but after letting Luisa run for a bit (supervised, but only loosely), I returned to find all my coolant on the ground and her very hot. It turns out that, with the warmer weather, and after sitting for years before hand, that I am now missing a small area of fins in the upper corner of her radiator. Does anyone know if the radiator on these bigger trucks was any different than those on the smaller trucks? I'm having trouble finding anything that will fit check anything higher than a 1 ton truck. You can see the damage in the rightt half of the second picture. Thanks in advanced!
Last edited by Millenimech; Mon May 08 2023 03:43 PM. Reason: Added pictures
Housekeeping (Moderator) Making a Stovebolt Bed & Paint and Body Shop Forums
If the tubes on the radiator have been pinched off (was a somewhat common repair for a leaking tube way back when) and the open tubes are restricted by corrosion and crud, then the flow thru the radiator may be too restricted and the coolant pumped to the top of the radiator won't be able to get down thru the core and back to the engine. I'd recommend pulling the radiator and getting it looked at by a shop (although radiator shops are getting harder to find.) I've had radiators "rodded out" (literally removing one tank and sticking a rod thru the tubes to clean the crud out) to fix them.
Kevin Newest Project - 51 Chevy 3100 work truck. Photos [flickr.com] #2 - '29 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. First car '29 Ford Special Coupe Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Millenimech Try the radiator shop,I think Carter's have radiators but they are expensive. If you could stand an aluminum one suppose you could do that. In the olden days,as Kevin says ,they'd use a briggs and stratton re-coil starter spring to "rod em out". My two big 6400 original radiators are still OK at 75 and 72 yrs. old.
We have a radiator shop near me, I'll see what they can do. It looks like a plug of some kind came out in that corner, hopefully they can do something with it. I'll keep you all posted when I can make it happen. Thanks!
