Reply to "COOLING SYSTEM"

I would like to know if Gary is selling you his "Phoenix" radiator. I bought that one many years ago, maybe 15. Anyway the top and bottom plates were made of steel and they were held together with steel banding. The steel bands rusted through after about 2 years and the top and especially the bottom plate rusted away wihin about 4 years. I thought the $600.00 radiator was toast, but I took it to my local radiator shop and he tested it and internally it was still good. I wound up having to take it to a metal fabricating shop who replaced both top and bottom plates out of 1/8" brass. The radiator shop soldered it all back together and used stainless steel bands to reinforce it. That was around 1996 and no problems since. I passed this info on to Gary, I don't know if he made any changes or not, don't think I would buy one if he hasn't. Definately would if he has.
Anyway, 2 years ago, I took it out again, this time to have the brackets turned around, so I could lay it forward, Back to the radiator shop, flushed and pressure tested it and again he said it was in excellent shape. I was almost hoping it would be time to replace it with an aluminum, but I didn't(couldn't justify the expense when mine was still in such good condition).

There is a guy in our local club who has had similar problems (constantly overheating)with an aluminum radiator from a different vendor. The same vendor had done a complete restoration on another club members car and that car had a third fan pushing from the front (no overheating problems) The guy with the overheating problem finally went back to his original stock radiator and the problem went away. Try contacting Tim at Clinglers@aol.com for more enlightenment on the problems he went through.

Good luck.