Re: 55 radiator ? & more

Posted by HH56 On 2017/11/9 20:38:50

The sheetmetal piece on top where the hood latch components mount is called the upper or top radiator splasher and is the same for all 55-6 cars except the 55 Caribbean. The screws and speednuts that fasten it to the grill potmetal and other sheetmetal have an odd thread size which doesn't appear to be easily found today. If your screws are missing you will need to get both pieces in matching commercially available sizes.

On the radiator, I think used is going to be hit or miss. There is just no way I know of to tell if a used radiator is good or has an impending leak waiting for a bit of pressure to pop it open. About the only thing you could do is take a chance and then have a radiator shop check it out.

I would suggest you measure the width of the mounting holes on your cradle. There should be 3 holes on the engine side of each upright so you should be able to get a decent measurement to compare with those radiators available. I believe the width on the 51-4 radiators is about the same so measuring your cradle is the first step.

The V8 radiators have the top tank water inlet in the center. When properly oriented as if in the car, the overflow tube will be on the engine side of the radiator which puts the fill cap toward the drivers side. The outlet on the bottom tank is also offset toward the drivers side almost directly under the fill cap. IIRC, the 51-4 radiators are almost the same size but the bottom outlet is on the passenger side.

Ultramatic cars had the radiator outlet feeding straight into the bottom inlet on the trans fluid cooler. Since your cooler is missing you could opt for an aftermarket trans cooler mounted somewhere in front of the radiator by extending the tubing with trans fluid rated rubber hoses. You could then use a double curved radiator hose as if the car had a manual trans to run the radiator outlet directly into the water pump manifold. The upper hose in this photo from Max's site is the manual trans bottom side hose and shows approximately what the needed hose would look like.