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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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It will be summer in Florida soon. My 55 TBird doesn't run hot unless I get caught in traffic. As soon as the car moves it cools back down to 170-180. I have an older stock radiator, a 170 degree thermostat and a multi blade stainless fan. I'm thinking about installing an aluminum radiator and electric fan combo to help with summer driving. Will this make a difference?
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By Gene Purser - 7 Years Ago
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Better cooling while moving indicates a lack of air flow. Maybe just a high quality electric fan on your radiator will solve your problems. I use a Cooling Component fan/shroud on my flathead-powered '38. It turns on at 195 degrees and immediately begins to cool down, no matter how hot it is outside.
My '55 Fairlane acts like yours. It has stock radiator tanks with a new 3-row core (copper/brass). I'll probably put a Cooling Component fan on it, too. I'll be following your thread to see what you do and the results.
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By Joe-JDC - 7 Years Ago
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See Ted Eaton's post in the Aftermarket Cylinder Heads & other new parts about the new spacers for the '55-57 Thunderbirds. I just purchased one, and it looks like it will solve the water flow issue at low engine speeds. Might not need the new radiator and electric fan. I am trying to get rid of my fan and wiring to clean up the engine compartment. Joe-JDC
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By miker - 7 Years Ago
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Here’s a link to an older thread, and it contains a link with more info. Several different solutions. If the stainless fan you’ve got is what I’m guessing, it’s part of the problem.
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic131114.aspx
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By charliemccraney - 7 Years Ago
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Over heating at idle indicates a coolant and / or airflow problem. Seeing as it is a bird, it is probably a coolant flow problem. No one has actually tested one of the spacers that Joe mentions but if it works as advertised, it is exactly what you need.
http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic135031.aspx
Other solutions are to eliminate the pump spacer and then space out the fan. A smaller diameter pulley may also help. That will speed up the pump and fan.
You can observe coolant flow by getting the engine up to temp with the radiator cap off and observing coolant flow. If it is only a trickle or nothing at all, then coolant flow is definitely contributing to the problem.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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Here's a photo of the fan setup in my 55 TBird. It was this way when I bought it. I hate this fan. My car has a manual transmission and it sounds like a windmill when I run through the gears. As you can see I have the heater disconnected. The thermostat in this car is a new 170 degree with the large opening that I bought from NPD. The car runs right at 170 degrees running down the highway. When I get into heavy traffic the temperature starts to creep up. So far no big problems, but I'm worried about this summer. We have long lines at some of the car shows which could be a problem for me.
The radiator looks stock to me. It doesn't leak. I replaced the radiator cap with a new unit. It doesn't overflow when I park it in the garage. I run 50/50 antifreeze and water. I am willing to do whatever it takes to improve this issue. I can have the radiator core rebuilt or buy a new aluminum radiator. I don't have a problem with an electric fan as long as it's not too noisy. What do you think?
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By GREENBIRD56 - 7 Years Ago
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I can't remember if the Florida 'bird is a stick or an automatic? When I ran my car (with the factory cooling set-up) with the radiator cap off and the auto-trans in drive held by the brake - the low idle performance of the water pump was practically NIL. You couldn't see any movement of the fluid in the upper tank, even when I knew the thermostat was wide open. Simply switching to a smaller diameter fan pulley will work wonders for this situation. Getting rid of the factory T-bird spacer and then moving everything ahead, back to the proper fan / shroud / radiator spacing would also help a lot.
I ended up with a seven blade fan on mine - but I also fitted a Hayden clutch to cut the fan speed when it wasn't required.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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This car has a manual transmission with O/D. I'll check the coolant flow at idle the first chance I get. Where can I buy a smaller diameter fan pulley? What do I ask for? How much space do I want between the fan and the radiator. Sorry for all the questions.
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 7 Years Ago
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What's with the radiator upper hose moved to the left side? I can see where the original fitting was removed and the hole filled in. Maybe done for an air conditioning compressor installation? If there isn't some kind of baffling inside the top tank, the water may be only circulating on the left part of the radiator.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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I never noticed that before. The car came to me that way. I see from photos of other TBirds that the hose should be on the right. Anyone have a clue why this would have been changed? Any reason I shouldn't install an aluminum radiator?
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By GREENBIRD56 - 7 Years Ago
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There are several ways to come up with a smaller pulley - and I sure I haven't explored them all...
(1) A deep offset 289 single groove with a spacer behind it to get the proper groove alignment - I put a one inch thick turned aluminum disc behind this one.
(2) A 302 double groove pulley with one groove machined off....
(3) A CVF brand 289 aluminum pulley - that I had re-machined to leave a single groove spaced like the original T-bird part.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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I took a closer look at this TBird. The radiator top water neck has in fact been moved to the driver's side. I started the car and warmed up the engine. When I removed the radiator cap and revved the engine, I could see no movement in the coolant. I suspect the fluid flow is top to bottom and the radiator isn't doing much cooling. If that's true it's hard to believe it doesn't overheat when moving. It looks like I need a new radiator. The only question is if I should install an aluminum radiator or stay with a stock style unit?
I have a couple of questions. Does the fan shroud do anything except keep your hands out of the fan? The fan blades are at least 4-5 inches from the radiator and the shroud has all kinds of holes around it. It couldn't be pulling much air through the radiator like that. I would like to ditch the stainless fan and go with a clutch fan or electric fans alone. Is this advisable? I see lots of inexpensive aluminum radiators on EBay for around $200.00. Are these units Ok or do I need something more expensive? Thanks for the help!
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By charliemccraney - 7 Years Ago
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A fan shroud does help with air flow through the core. Ideally, you do want no gaps or holes. What you have looks to be as designed and is a lot better than nothing.
If it cools at speed, then I don't think your radiator is the problem. You have a coolant and / or airflow problem at idle. Given that you have observed no coolant flow, this is probably the issue. It doesn't matter how good the radiator is if coolant isn't being pushed through.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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Sounds good. I'm considering pulling out the stock fan, shroud and radiator and installing an aluminum radiator with an electric fan. It won't look stock, but I'll keep all the original parts and it will get rid of that terrible fan noise. We'll see.
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By KULTULZ - 7 Years Ago
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Two things...er... three.
1) The radiator upper tank is incorrect in the placement of the upper hose. This will not allow coolant cross-flow across the core. The LH side core is doing most of the cooling.
2) The fan is placed too deep within the shroud. The blades (back side) need to be @ 1/4" out of the shroud.
Is the FLEX-FAN 18"
3) If using a later wide mouth thermostat, make sure it does not hit the heater control valve behind it preventing it from opening fully.
Start with the basics before going to bigger bucks. Number matching doesn't matter, you just want a clean driver?
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By miker - 7 Years Ago
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It’s hard to tell from pictures, but that’s probably the fan I’ve had no luck with. They make more noise than airflow. It also, as mentioned, isn’t properly located in the shroud. Also mentioned, the shroud needs to be sealed off.
That radiator needs to be restored or replaced. I’ve had good luck with aluminum, but I’ve always used BeCool radiators with their shroud and electric fan. They are very proud of the units, just look at the price list.
As Kultulz says, do the basics first. Just throwing in an aluminum radiator with a stick-on fan probably isn’t going to do it if something else is wrong.
Read Greenbird’s stuff closely. When I was in Tucson last July, it was just off a high of 117. The local swimming pool, with no heat, was 91 degrees. Rich people down here use heat pumps on the pool and cool them in the summer. So he knows about heat, water flow, bypass volumes, etc. not to discount others opinions.
I ended up where I am because the blower on the bird didn’t allow anything but an electric fan. On a stock application the clutch drives worked very well out of the factory. On electric fans, go look at Spal. A lot of money, but I think Ferrari still uses them. Or an oem one from a junkyard. I’ve had 3 aftermarket electric fans that weren’t any better than that stainless one.
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By DryLakesRacer - 7 Years Ago
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Greenbirds has it right. This has been discussed at length on this site. Even thou it wasn't on a T-Bird I had the same problem. After I changed the water pump pulley with a Mustag 302 I could remove the 5-6 blade fan went back to the stock 4. I bought the pulley from Summit along with a spacer kit. It was chrome and I painted it satin black. The original pulley was over 7" the 302 was a little over 5". Been great for over 5 yrs.
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By paul2748 - 7 Years Ago
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.If you are a member of CTCI, the latest Early Bird magazine has an article about better flow through the timing cover and spacer.
The shroud in the stock configuration is little more than a guard because of the design of the lower piece. CASCO has a full shroud that replaces the bottom part.. Ideally, the fan should be about half way into the shroud opening for best performance. CASCO also has a smaller water pump pulley for better flow.
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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Thanks for all the great information. Good stuff!
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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I installed the new aluminum radiator and electric fan in my 55 TBird today. What a difference!! The car runs 170 degrees no matter what. I'm pretty sure I could let it idle for an hour and the temp gauge wouldn't budge. The radiator is a Champion CC5557 3 core Pro Series. It came with a matching electric fan. Total cost with of the radiator, electric fan and relay kit, a little more than $300. I removed the old radiator and fan. Left the original pulley. The radiator came polished and looks to be good quality. You can barely hear the fan with the engine running. If you weren't listening for it, you would never know it's on. Ditching the old stainless windmill fan got rid of all the wrong noises. All I can hear now is the sweet sound of the Y block rumbling under the hood. Wish I had this car back in high school!
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By Rono - 7 Years Ago
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Looks GREAT and more importantly, it's working well! Sounds like your installation went really smooth. I used a Cooling Components 16" fan and shroud on a Ron Davis Aluminum Radiator, but I had to cut off about 14" of the water pump snout for clearance. It's all good though...working well.
Rono
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By miker - 7 Years Ago
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Sounds like you’ve got the problem beat, and thanks for letting us know. That’s a good looking radiator from the looks of the welds. Enjoy the ride.
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By Lou - 7 Years Ago
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You have not said there is anything wrong with your present radiator so why spend a lot of money just to stay in the same place.? The electric fan sounds like a much better move..
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By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
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Originality means a lot to some owners. All I want from this car is a nice driver that won't leave me on the side of the road. I won't cut the car and am keeping all the original parts for future owners. I have quite a pile. Thanks for the help. You guys are great,
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