Aluminum Rad ????

I have a small block in my 64 chevy van, and on a hot day in city traffic i have overheating problems. Never used an aluminum rad before and am wondering if they do as good a job as the manufacturers say, if so it would probably solve my problem. Any advice appreciated

 

I have used GRIFFIN aluminum radiators in alot of different cars and all do bring operating temps down even with ac some.on your van not much air gets to the radiator anyway so maybe along with aluminum radiator an electric fan system might be the way to go.also replace the thermostat when you do the swap.If you have original radiator it might just need rodded and cleaned out.

 

thanks, i already have the electric fan on there,i a, using the original rad, but it needs to be re done, so i am just wondering if aluminum is gonna make much of a difference

 

FORGOT ,you said you had a smallblock in the van,if you are still running the 6-cylinder radiator you definitly get to change to a larger capacity one.

 

I thought it was so cool up there that you didn't have to run radiators??? I don't think aluminum radiators are worth the price, unless you have to have a custom rad made for some big block application. Just get a new core put in yours, or replace it with a liek radiator and it should cool fine. If it doesn't then you have either an air flow problem, or a water flow problem, either can be addressed.

 

yep, still running the 6 cylinder rad, it is hard to find something to fit so i am thinking a 3 core aluminum will help.

 

with the 6-cylinder radiator,the coolant or water is just moving to fast to be cooled,more capacity, problem gone,good luck man.

 

I have used alum radiator in several of my old cars and they work good. AFCO has good prices and have not heard of any real quality problems.

However, it seems your main issue is getting airflow through the radiator. Certainly a new radiator is more efficent than old one. But if you are cooling OK on the road, but heat up in traffic, the issue is airflow at low speeds - not radiator capacity. A bigger radiator capacity will help though, at low speeds as well as road speeds.