VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1954 radiator

we have this 54 belair that we are trying to bring back to life in disassembley i noticed it had 52 k stampped in the left front top tank i assumed it had the wrong dated radiator since i have noticed several 54s had the same date on them did chevy not put 54 on the 54 radiator ?

Evidently the radiator was replaced with a used one from a 1952 at some time in the last 50+ years.Yours '54 should have a 54 plus the month code - which would agree with the other dated items on your car.
The radiators were basicly the same from 1949-54....but in 1952 the core was decreased in content due to the Korean war.Thats why the pressure cap was used on a 1952 stick (all Power Glides had pressure caps)....Then in 1953 and 1954 the better cooling core was used again to better cool the larger engines....so try to find a 1953 or 1954 core.Also the pressure cap was increased from 4 pounds to 7 pounds in 1954 so as to raise the boiling point of the coolant.
If you were to have purchased a new radiator core from a Chevrolet dealer in 1955 it would have been the better 1954 core and would be used for 1949-54 cars.Back then we never sold new cores unless the car was in an accident and the core was beyond repair.Other than that they lasted for the normal life of the car....unlike the cars of the '70's and '80's.

My 54 radiator has following numbers and the car is about all
original... Right front corner radiator first line R-02, second
line 54-B, the left side of radiator had number 312887
and the back side of the radiator top has same info with the
information location reversed from left to right.

Mel-the number is 3128877 and the B is for Feb.

From 1949-52 the number stamped on would be 3121538 which was the same number as the patr number in those years.In 1953-54 the number stamped was 3128877 and the part number in the book was 3130944....which reolaced the earlire patr number in 1955...confusing?

Due to the shortage of brass many 1951 cores had a steel top tank.These rotted out in the first year and there was a big recall to have them replaced.We had exchange up-dated radiators in stock so as not to tie up the customers car while the radiator was out having the top tank replaced.Many 1951's will have a wrong date (usually 1953) on the top tanks.

Gene, Was the same true for trucks? My '51 1/2 ton had 70,000 miles on it when I bought it 25 years ago and the radiator had a late 52 dated tank. It had been in the truck for a long time and I always wondered why it would have been replaced, since it was never wrecked. I had a hard time finding 51 dated radiator.

Bob

To be honest I don't remember if that pertained to trucks but it would have been very possible.At that time we sold about 100 cars to one truck so they were in the minority....and that was 55 years ago :o