George:
I'm coming into this discussion without having read why you need
a new radiator, so please ignore anything REALLY stupid that I say.
My daily driver '57 GMC with original 347" Pontiac V8 with a 160 degree
thermostat will stay below 180 degrees (as confirmed with an IR
thermometer gun) with the A/C on in Houston Tx rush hour traffic. A few
years back I had the top and bottom tanks removed and a new 3 row core
installed between them. Wasn't any magic, a local radiator shop did the
work for around $150. Only reason I run the 160 thermostat in the
summer is because the engine has about 120K miles on it and the oil
pressure drops a bit at 450 RPM idle in the summer. When I have a 180
thermostat (in the winter so the heater will work better) installed in
the summer the oil pressure drops to about 11 PSI after a long 70 MPH
run on the Interstate with the A/C on. With the 160 it only drops to
about 13 psi.
Anyway, the other reason this cools so well is I have a very good full
coverage shroud on the engine side of the radiator. My 5 blade fan has
no clutch, nor is it a flex fan. It sits half in and half out of the
shroud, with about 1/4" clearance from fan tip to shroud.
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