[Lumps!] v8 radiator help

hi.

thanks for all the excellent advice btw, I have a 72 s1 that already has a
Chevy 350.

I decided to yank the radiator and get it cleaned while waiting for my cyl
heads to come back, this probably was a good decision based on what is
oozing out of it. It looks like the original radiator with some other fan
shroud.

in looking for the transmission lines, I noticed a short pipe underneath
that look like a cooler, the transmission lines go through this to cool the
trans fluid. is this standard ? seems awfully small for the job.

can one get this cleaned or flushed out ?

also the AC condenser ? evaporator ? the thing with fins in front of the
radiator, sort of looks intact, but on one side it looks like something
sprang an oil leak on it, or it sprang a leak. does this automatically mean
I should pull it ? I have no idea if the AC works or not. or if it’s
charged.

thanks.

Ted Stowe

In a message dated 99/04/25 21:36:09 PM Central Daylight Time,
StowT@perkinscoie.com writes:

<< thanks for all the excellent advice btw, I have a 72 s1 that already has a
Chevy 350.

I decided to yank the radiator and get it cleaned while waiting for my cyl
heads to come back, this probably was a good decision based on what is
oozing out of it. It looks like the original radiator with some other fan
shroud.

This is probably a good idea, although you don’t describe WHAT is oozing out.
Is the material (probably) rather thick, dark brown to black, congealing
into a sticky blob? If so, it is probably Barr’s Leaks, quite often used to
seal Jaguar cooling systems (the jaguar repair manual even says to add this
stuff!). If this description doesn’t match what you’ve got, then I don’t now
what it is, off hand. But anything other than clean water and antifreeze do
NOT belong in a cooling system, so get it thoroughly flushed, rodded if
necessary. BTW, if your radiator is indeed the original XJ6 model, it will
be (at best) marginal for cooling a V-8. If your engine is built to be
pretty healthy (say 300 HP or more), you will likely experience problems,
especially cruising around town with the AC on. You may want to look into
replacing it with a higher capacity unit. Our XJ-S (w/300 HP 350) has such a
radiator. It was included in the John’s Cars kit we used to lump our prize,
and it still gets hotter than I like when cruising from stoplight to
stoplight. We are planning on installing twin electric fans (SheCat has TPI,
so a mechanical fan is out) soon, so this should help with the slow speed
cooling.

in looking for the transmission lines, I noticed a short pipe underneath
that look like a cooler, the transmission lines go through this to cool the
trans fluid. is this standard ? seems awfully small for the job.

Am I understanding your description properly? Is this simply a length of
plain tubing UNDER the radiator? No fins to increase the heat exchanging
surface area? If so, it sounds like some cheapskate tried to make a
rudimentary trans cooler and bypassed the original trans cooler built into
one of the original radiator tanks (if your car was built with auto trans).

can one get this cleaned or flushed out ?

Yes, it can be flushed out, but if this is just a piece of tubing, I would
disconnect it and throw it away, then install a good after-market
transmission cooler. There are many good ones available, get one rated for
over 8000 Lbs GVW. The add on trans coolers are intended to work in
conjunction with the OE cooler built in to the radiator, if you are going to
use the add on by itself, I would arbitrarily double the max GVW rating of
the cooler over what your car weighs. Keeping the transmission cool is more
important overall than pinching pennies on a heat exchanger to do this job.
Heat is the biggest source of damage to automatic transmissions.

also the AC condenser ? evaporator ? the thing with fins in front of the
radiator, sort of looks intact, but on one side it looks like something
sprang an oil leak on it, or it sprang a leak. does this automatically mean
I should pull it ? I have no idea if the AC works or not. or if it’s
charged.

On one side - would this be the side where the pipes connect to the dryer and
suction line? If so, then the seals (don’t know if you have O-ring seals or
just flare fittings) are shot and leaking. If this a large oily area, then
you probably don’t have any freon left in the system, thereby no interior
cooling. Once you get the engine back together, have the AC system checked,
preferably by a competent friend or yourself if you have knowledge of working
on AC systems. AC work is quite expensive these days (in the US, anyway) and
a good shop who won’t screw you isn’t easy to find.

thanks.

Ted Stowe

Good luck,

Colleen Melton
79 XJ-S TPI 350/T700 w/good cooling and cold AC