VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Operating Temp

I just finished installing a new radiator core from the FS. The core is looks great I'm glad I didn't use a modern core.

The problem is that while it no longer over heats or boils over the gauge still reads hotter than I thought it would. During normal driving it reads at about the mark where Alcohol boils. If I let it idle for a long time it creeps up past the normal range about half way to hot. I checked the coolant temp with a thermometer and it reads 180 degrees at idle, and about 140 after driving before it heats up.

This is a marked improvement over the old radiator, but I wasn't sure if I still may have a problem.

Any thoughts? :confused:

Jim

You don't have a problem!!! Most dudes would kill to have a car run that cool. Your new radiator is doing a great job so leave things alone.

Thanks Skip. The new core is Super. The radiator shop I took it to couldn't belive how heavy it was.

Thanks for the help.

Yes, that is a very high quality radiator and it looks like the original honeycomb too! It is well worth spending the money to get a quality radiator like that and one that will do the job. Also, the new honeycomb radiators are far superior to the original radiator core as well, and I don't know why anyone would want to use a 74 year old radiator when they are going to use the car as a driver.

I had the same kind of concern a few years ago when I put in the new "Billy Possum" oil pump to replace my old original one. The pressure gauge sometimes pushed hard to the right, and I worried out loud to a friend if that might be a problem of too much pressure.