New Radiator?

[suki243]

How do you know when you need a new radiator? I believe mine is original, and it is pretty beat up, there a ton of bugs, dents in it in the front, and recently it was out for ab out 2 months and after a quick drive down to the gas station it puked a bit. I want the car to be reliable, I don't want to be driving around and then having steam coming out the front and ppl just staring and saying oh well there goes another old car breaking down. You know?

I dropped the car off to get the interior painted so I can't monitor the temps and tell you, I have the original temp gauge too so i can't tell you how hot it is, its in the middle most of the time and rarely moves.

 

[Big_B]

In my experience you only need to replace it if it is leaking, your car is running too hot because it is too corroded or because of upgrades, or you just don't like how it looks.

Did it puke out of the overflow? Put a small hose on there and get an overflow can. My stock rad usually pukes a little during the summer.

 

[suki243]

Ya it puked into the overflow tube, what happens is, that it pukes, steam comes out, and it even spills to the floor. and a hissing sound follows. I believe it also needs to be surfaced.

 

[Rusty67]

How big is the radiator ? Is it a 2 or 3 core copper radiator ? If it is a 2 core I would replace it no matter what. a 3 core should be ok for your build. A 4 core would be nice or a 2 core aluminum (aluminum cores are 1" and copper cores are 1/2").

 

[suki243]

I'm not sure, how do I check, all i know is that it is more than likely the stock radiator that came with the 289

 

[Rusty67]

Open the radiator cap and count how many holes there are for fluid to go down from front to back.

 

[suki243]

it is a 3 core. Just recently I was driving it back from the painter, and when I came home i looked under the hood and there was some type of fluid spilled and dried on my freshly painted air cleaner, and my valve covers.... Here is a low quality pic.

View attachment 369156

My dad says its radiator fluid, problem is that the spill tube is on the other side of the radiator.
The fluid in question is the one on the air cleaner, its greenish/yellowish, and the one on the valve cover on the left hand side of the pic, behind that red heater hose. Not sure how that fluid became black! but its not coming off the air cleaner.
My dad isn't a gear head though, so he may be wrong, the radiator has some damage to it, that my dad pointed out, I'll post pics of those later.

 

[suki243]

anyone?

 

[Rusty67]

You never did post the pics of the radiator.

I would take a look at your coolant lines for the heater and see if there is maybe a pinhole leek in one of them. They may only leek/squirt when there is a lot of pressure going through them but eventually they will get worse and burst open on you like another recent thread.

 

[suki243]

Sorry about the delay in the post... Everytime i'd go home i couldn't find the camera, but I finally found it! Here it is:

Front

View attachment 365546

View attachment 365548

Back

View attachment 365550

 

[66Runt]

.

 

[suki243]

is it worth recoring and/or fixing it or is it better to buy a new one? if a new one 3 core or 4 core? any good brands?

 

[CraigMBA]

Buy a new one.

There is no reason to recore a radiator anymore.

 

[Soaring1]

Brand is not an issue with copper core rads. Just get a 4 row radiator from any Mustang vendor. Now, if you are going aluminum, that is another story. At any rate, you need a new radiator.

 

[66Runt]

.

 

[Soaring1]

Yeah, I believe recoring is cheaper than a new rad, and rodding is the last resort for most cores, but a new one will last a lifetime, and so that is the route I would go. It's just a gut feeling and experienced judgement call.

 

[MitchGT]

If it's not actually running hot (judging by your gauges), just get an overflow tank. The plastic ones are cheap, and would work great. They also make stainless steel ones that are pretty spiffy, if you care about the look of the engine bay. A little expansion of the coolant is normal, and the engine will suck it back in when it cools.

 

[Big_B]

If it's not actually running hot (judging by your gauges), just get an overflow tank. The plastic ones are cheap, and would work great. They also make stainless steel ones that are pretty spiffy, if you care about the look of the engine bay. A little expansion of the coolant is normal, and the engine will suck it back in when it cools.

As a standard addition to cooling setup I would agree, however in this case the pics show significant damage and it appears to be leaking. An overflow tank won't help that .

 

[Soaring1]

As a standard addition to cooling setup I would agree, however in this case the pics show significant damage and it appears to be leaking. An overflow tank won't help that .

Agreed, the damage is beyond repair, and the leaking won't go away without a rad replacement.

 

[suki243]

ya i would've gotten an overflow tank if the fluid wasn't on hte other side of the engine... but after i took those pics i could tell where the fluid was coming from, it was that last gash on the back... same color fluid was on the valve covers and ruined my air cleaner paint job