The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1971 C50 Radiator

I have pretty rotten radiator on my 71 C50 with a 350 engine. Does anybody know of anything cheaper that I can buy than the $600+ 230540 that I find on Vander Haags or ebay? Maybe a universal that someone has used that worked? Thanks

I'm assuming there are no radiator shop in your part of the country anymore either.

I’m currently away from my parts books but when I can get back to them I would be glad to look up and see what other trucks shared your radiator. Could give you options on donor vehicles to look for.

Other Bolters may be able to offer info before I can get to the question later tonight.

For that kind of money you could have yours completely recored.

Here is a lower priced alternative, not including shipping costs that I found searching this morning: Northern Radiator and Cooling 230540 that my be a possibility???

A search through GMpartswiki shows the non-Heavy Duty radiator GM# 3010554 was used in 1967-72 big trucks including C40s, C50s, C60s and even several tilt cab models of the same vintage. It was used in several different V8 and I6 equipped trucks as the basic non-heavy duty radiator. You could use that info to see if any donor vehicles may be in your area that may still have a suitable radiator.

Perhps some fellow Big Bolt owners may have insight on an alternative radiator? Good luck!

deadbeat, depending on the use of the truck, you may be able to make use of less cooling ability. Measure the radiator and mounting locations and search for aftermarket units. Summit racing has some listed by dimensions just to give you an idea of sizes and prices.

Thanks for all the replies, I took mine to shop and they said it would cost over 700 just to re core it and they said it was not worth patching. When I go pick it up I'll measure it and see if I can find a generic one or just bit the bullet and buy the one in the link above. With shipping it is about 530 but at least my motor won't overheat.

Even though this shop said its not worth fixing, don't throw it away.

I did a bit more web searching this morning. Found another place in Souix City Nebraska that has a bunch of the right year group/model trucks being parted out. Don't rule out those tilt cab truck as the parts books indicated most use the same radiator. No idea if they may have a usable radiator, but maybe worth the time to call them and see. Best of luck and let us know what you find.

On the off chance it may be helpful, you might check out this C50 in Sourthbend, IN. Ad says selling whole or parting out.

Thanks again for all the help, I"ll probably try to patch this one enough myself to get my truck back together. I question my sanity on why I thought it was a good idea to take it apart and re-do the body on it. I can't find decent body parts around here and have spent a ton of time fabricating new ones.

Let us know how the repairs turn out. On your note about finding decent parts for your truck, have you tried searching through Facebook Marketplace ads in your vicinity??? I did a little searching using your local zip code to do a search and came up with more than a few C40/C50/C60 trucks that could be donors within a couple hundred miles of you. Got any pics of your truck to share???

Pix ..

First pic was after I changed the hood, fender, and door out from a donor. Last one is about what it looks like now, except I have the fenders in primer.

Pics are much appreciated and the truck looks good! Glad you have such a big shop space to work on it! As your truck is definitely a "Big Bolt", if you are ok with it, I moved your thread over to the Big Bolts forum for further conversation as you will get more/better replies there.

My '65 C60 has a 500cid Cadillac V8-larger than anything GM put in there from the factory-and even with the four core radiator that I had made for it back in the '90s, it was barely adequate in cooling. So a few years back when I refreshed the top end of the engine, I found an aluminum radiator on eBay, new, $350 with shipping. It fits a bunch of different International Harvester tractors, and it's over four inches thick. My bus now holds about 9 gallons of coolant, and I can idle it for an hour before it even gets over 190 degrees. That's with no cooling fan whatsoever. Due to the other work I'm doing on it, and the old unsafe wheels I'm busy deprecating, I haven't had it more than around the neighborhood with the new cooling system. But it was still cheaper than having the original one rebuilt for $700. I did have to make some metal brackets, but it wasn't too difficult and they even look pretty good.

As has also been said above, measure the dimensions of yours.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235485914502?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:1r3JKViiwSmqMYpb2IJV8uw65&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=235485914502&targetid=4580702894586634&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=418640321&mkgroupid=1233652283797640&rlsatarget=pla-4580702894586634&abcId=9300602&merchantid=51291

This is like mine, except mine had five rows of cores. The width was perfect and even with the tall cap, I could still close my hood with room to spare.

Tronman- I would be very interested if you can look back at your ebay account and find the link for the radiator you purchased. I looked quick but couldn't find a 5 core except for one made for a scout SUV.

I did look back, and the link for mine didn't work anymore. These eBay sellers do come and go, however I imagine that even the four core one I shared would still cool a lot better than the OEM brass one. More and thicker cores, more fins per inch, plus aluminum dissipates heat better than brass. 71611C1 is the part number, you can use that to search eBay and other sites to find what you're looking for. Maybe I should do a new thread with how I adapted and installed mine.