C60 Cooling

[4030JD]

A neighbor was selling his land and offered me his 1968 C60 with a 366 big block. The radiator had started leaking and he parked it. Then it sat for 10-15 years. My plan was to chop the cab off and make a dump trailer out of it. Once I looked at it, I didn’t have the heart to go through with it. So now I am working on making it run again. Rather than spend a fortune on a new radiator, I bought one for $50 from someone. The guy said he was going to put it in a suburban with a 454. It is quite a bit smaller than what was in my truck. I can fabricate the brackets to hold it in place easy enough. What I am wondering is, will it provide enough cooling for that motor? I was thinking of putting dual electric fans on it to maximize the air flow and reduce the power needed by the old fan. If nothing else, I can at least use it temporarily to get the other bugs worked out and hopefully find a larger radiator. At this point, I can’t justify spending $500 on the right one. I appreciate any thoughts and opinions.

 

[pcrh]

Hi:

There is 4 things to consider regards to cooling. Volume (size) capacity, number of fins, flow restrictions, and speed of flow. Increasing the number of fins increases the cooling capacity of the rad (dual fans also help). Volume capacity helps to store heat. Flow and speed control the ability to cool. A used rad may have restrictions in the rad. There is no way to tell without opening the rad. You can count the fins and compare to the old rad. If the same count per inch then volume, restrictions, and speed will determine if there is enough cooling.

 

[4030JD]

Thanks for the input. The radiator appears to be unused and clean as can be. (He said it was taking up space in his garage.). It does have a mfg tag on it, but I have not had a chance to search the number. It will likely help answer some of those questions.

 

[TerryfromSWIowa]

Size of tubes and how many rows on either radiator? The 3 row for a 454 might work for light work but if pulling hard loaded might come up short on cooling. Are both horizontal or vertical tubes?

 

[504]

A neighbor was selling his land and offered me his 1968 C60 with a 366 big block. The radiator had started leaking and he parked it. Then it sat for 10-15 years. My plan was to chop the cab off and make a dump trailer out of it. Once I looked at it, I didn’t have the heart to go through with it. So now I am working on making it run again. Rather than spend a fortune on a new radiator, I bought one for $50 from someone. The guy said he was going to put it in a suburban with a 454. It is quite a bit smaller than what was in my truck. I can fabricate the brackets to hold it in place easy enough. What I am wondering is, will it provide enough cooling for that motor? I was thinking of putting dual electric fans on it to maximize the air flow and reduce the power needed by the old fan. If nothing else, I can at least use it temporarily to get the other bugs worked out and hopefully find a larger radiator. At this point, I can’t justify spending $500 on the right one. I appreciate any thoughts and opinions.

I think it will be fine as long as you don`t try to load and run it wide open, you might want to block any open places where your new radiator doesn't cove the opening in the core support,the air must flow through the radiator not around it. nice find ,the cab can be worth quite a bit for a pick up rebuild.