Stock radiator with 454

great post im looking for a different radiator for my 58 and well i learnde allot eventough im not running a 454 in still great stuff.

 

Cross flow radiator out of a 1990ish 1/2 ton truck, get the 2 row aluminum rad. Build a fan shroud for your electric fan(s) that covers the whole core. make sure you are using 1 3/4" lower (smooth) rubber radiator hose. Recovery style catch can and radiator cap.

 

I don't see where you have had the radiator taken apart and cleaned out. A 56 year old radiator probably needs to have that done, and, like others have mentioned, you really need a shroud. IF you have an A/C condenser, and you're not using it, that should probably be removed. I really like '58 Caddys, they are my favorite year.
I see this thread is a little old, hope it's all worked out now.

 

Look at this set up from my 63 BelAir. Its a 2006 Camry dual electric fan set up you can get from a local junkyard much cheaper then anything you can get from Summit. It looks like it was made for a Chevrolet radiator. Cools my EFI 355 with A/C.
Gary

 

When I first got my '47 with the 392 hemi - it would idle ALL DAY without over heating no fan shroud, but when you went on the freeway it'd slowly but surely build heat no end in sight. My take was that the radiator was undersized and couldn't cool 300hp, but could cool the idling 50hp. So I added a big fat daddy aluminum radiator...now it ran as cool as a cu***ber on the freeway but would overheat if left to idle for very long - 10 minute max. Problem: the NEW radiator mounted one inch further back from the fan than did the previous one. With the FAN mounted CLOSE it didn't need a shroud, but now mounted where it should be it does need a shroud. So I modified the factory shroud (it never did fit the hemi right so I never mounted it before) and so far so good - it idles and so far has stayed below 165F. Wasn't terribly hot today (first test) so we'll see what happens in the REALLY hot months. Bottom line - EVERYTHING must work together. If that thing runs HOT on the freeway now - no amount of "tricks" is gonna fix it. Somethings wrong - too small - plugged - something. Once you get it RIGHT on the freeway THEN you can trouble shoot the idle situation IMHO.

 

As you can tell from the responses there are lots of things to check befoe trying to put a bigger fan on but if all else fails and you still feel you need a better fan and you're feeling flush check out the Sidewinder fan Matson Radiator makes. The fan motor is on the outside edge and you can put it anywhere on the cir***ference. Fan is belt driven so very thin at the middle.

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