My dad told me he is having cooling issues with the Radiator in his 55 Studebaker . It is a Coupe with 53/4 front sheetmetal. We are running an old(pre 64) replacement radiator out of my uncles old 6 cylinder Champion, that was recored, which appers to be the same as all the v/8 radiators I used to have. What alternatives have you guys with these cars found? It runs fine except in the summer months in Fresno.
I have had luck running the stock v8 radiators. They need to be in good shape, with a shroud or a rear mounted electric fan. Normally this has been with 350hp or less.
____________________________ I found these pics of my brother's 53 in the mock up stage. It will have a 383 sbc with about 400 hp. It appears he is using new aluminum cross flow with a heavy duty puller electric fan and full shroud. He is one to plan everything carefully so I'm sure he sized it accordingly. Sorry, no info on radiator make/model. For my part, I've never had any luck running original equipment radiators when using modified engines with a lot more horsepower (heat) than the car's cooling system was designed to handle. I tried recoring my 36 Chevy radiator and using original tanks but it was $250 wasted.
It's definitely an airflow issue...having the same problem w/my Plymouth. Shroud on engine side w/electric puller or even mechanical fan should be easiest. My problem is absolutely no room on engine side, so I'm looking at trying to move my radiator forward of the radiator mounting structure (shit, what's that called?) Having a brain fart there...is he running a mechanical fan now? He could try a large pusher fan in front of the radiator with a thermostat type switch.
I'm putting a Mustang 2 spd. fan inside the stock Champian shroud along with a Radiator Lady, Radiator into my 54, 2dr wagon. http://www.theradiatorlady.com/ While the core is a little narrower (simillar in height) thAn the stock core, it's a two row aluminum. They guarentee it'll be fine. Granted, I'll be running a slightly warmed over 259 Stude engine, not a hot rod 350.BUT, the Radiator Lady also has a 3 row core they can make fit your Stude. Normally, the Stude radiator were a 2 row for the I-6 and a 3 row for the V-8's. And yes, they were all the same outer dimensions (height vs. width). Mike
I had a 55 Commander Coupe with a 53 front clip and ran into the same issues. It ran fine with the 55 nose, but gave me problems after the 53 front went on. I was running a custom cross flow radiator with mechanical fan and shroud. When I put the elect fan on it really helped, but still warmed up in the summer if you were going slow. This was in Ft Worth and summer temps were 90+
Thanks guys, I'm reading all of your tips. It has 3 cores, and the stock shroud, with a 57 Chevy stock 4 blade fan, spaced just inside the lip. What would the likely hood of the upper hose being higher than the radiator cap have on this. Just the hose, not the thermostat housing.
I ended up with a rad cap in line on the upper hose and none on the radiator for clearance. it also helped to bleed the air out of the system. Or maybe it was one of those Thermostat housings with the cap in it, anyway it was not on the radiator for both of the reasons above.
The problem is the airflow and using a older re-cored rad. A 6 cyl. motor is meant to be cooled by a radiator designed to cool a 6 cyl. HP. If you use a 6 cyl. rad to try to cool a V-8, then you will most likely have an overheating problem. Using an aluminum rad which has wider tubes inside with a good puller electric fan may help solve the problem.
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