My car is a '56 Fairlane Club Sedan with 312 Y Block that's bored 0.040 over and running a mild "street" cam and Mummert intake with a C4 auto trans.  I am currently running the stock radiator, but it's struggling a bit in hot weather with the a/c I added last year.  I'm looking around to see if there's an after-market radiator that would be more efficient than my original.  If it requires some fabrication to mount, that's no problem, but if possible I would like to stick with the original appearance as much as possible, which rules out cross-flow radiators.  Has anyone already been through this with an aftermarket radiator and is happy with the cooling results?  Many thanks for any suggestions.  Ron...

The car water pump pulley is huge, about 7 1/4" diameter, which results in a slow coolant flow and fan speed.  If you install a smaller pulley, the pump, and fan speed will increase and that by itself may fix the problem.
The mounting pattern on the pulley is very common and you should have no problem finding something used or new.  Since no aftermarket pulleys are made for a Y, you might need some spacers to get the belt lined up properly.



Lawrenceville, GA

The TBird suppliers have a smaller pulley.  I don't know if the depth is the same for a sedan but you could ask them about the depth.

How many blade fan do you have?  A five or six blade fan may help.

As far as a radiator is concerned, U. S. Radiator or Walker Radiator may have something with more cooling capacity.  A shroud may also help if you don't already have one.


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Thanks for all that input.  I'm running a new electric "puller" fan with thermostat that improved performance considerably, but I'm still experiencing a heating problem on hot days with the a/c on.  The idea of a smaller diameter pulley sounds interesting and I'll look into that. I heard or read somewhere that someone is producing aluminum radiators for these cars that has the same appearance in shape and design as the original radiator, and that after painting the tanks and brackets black, it looks very nearly the same as an OE radiator.  I haven't been able to find them yet, but will keep noodling it.  Thanks, Ron

If the cooling is a problem in traffic, or stopped, the pulley and a shroud will do it. If it's at highway speed, it could be different. I've run both a "Dessert Cooler" and a "BeCool" in my bird. For me, the big difference in traffic is the shroud. I don't know what, if any, the pass car used, but a good shroud really helps in traffic. They sometimes hurt on the highway, if the air can't move thru, and an electric fan can make it worse.

With the BeCool aluminum radiator, A/C on, at 90, the fan runs a 2 minute cycle stopped in traffic, shuts off, and runs 90-120 seconds later. Big electric fan, and shroud.

Greenbird56 has posted a number of times about the Hayden clutch, cut down fan, etc. He's in Tucson, where I am right now, and it was 83 today. It's 110 in the summer, so he'd know. Might try a search for that.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Had the same problem, 6 blade fan, replaced 3 core rad with one having more fins, plugged bypass with 1/8"hole, etc. nothing helped. Installed smaller pulley from a 302 Ford....problem solved. Put on a 4 blade fan still perfect. Good Luck

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

I had similar issue on my '55, but it does not have A/C.  Temps would rise on hot days and especially if stopping for more than a minute or so.  Switched to an aluminum radiator and to a 6 blade fan and the problem is much reduced.  Since you have the electric fan you have already addressed part of it.  I had already put the reducer in the bypass hose with no improvement.

why not recore existing rad,then make sure all the shrouding is replaced,like the rubber between rad and upper rad aria,fan shroud is a must,with 2/3s of the fan in the shroud.I do not think spinning the water pump faster will accomplish aney thing.water going threw the cores quicker serves no good, main criteria is all the air posible goes threw the cores. limiting bypass is a fallacy,and will cause cavitation .tbirds have a less efficient water pump due to the spacer. all other applications have no need to increase wpump speed.if running air cond. on a 55 0r 56 car i would suggest a recore with the extra cooling needs. googal how cooling systems work and you can then make a informed decision. there  is a lot of witch craft out there. my info comes from teck school and courses from caterpillar. whew had there share of cooling isues.

we had our hotest summer last year,had no isues with my 57 ranchero,which the rad is far from perfect,but shrouding is like new. good luck

Meteor... I'll go along with everything you said but it just didn't work for me. We had a 55 and a 56 new and never had a heat problem. But waiting at a 2-4 minute stop light in mine the guage would go to 200+ it was nerve racking. Putting in nuetral and razing the idle was the only way to help. After discussing this with Greenbird on this site he told me to start the car with the rad cap off and watch water flow after reached temp. There was never, ever movement of water at idle. A slight raise in idle, like 200 rpm, and water moved. I'm an in town driver and rarely go on a hyway or freeway. I did the smaller pulley it worked. I believe Ted came on later in the thread and said Ford had 6 or 7 different diameter pulleys and I believe it. A Minnesota car could have had a different one than an AC equipped car in Arizona. I feel I wasted money on a radiator that had more fins for extra cooling that just prolonged the heat up. And for the restricted hole in the bypass it only makes sense. Even with an open thermostat a 7/16" hole recirculates a lot of already hot water.
Every thing you stated is true and I agree with and I even found the upper rad mount to hood seal to force more air threw the rad but it just didn't help mine... Some also blame the s--tty gasoline and could have something to do with it too......

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Every thing you need to know to" KEEP YOUR COOL"
This contains FACT as opposed to educated guesses.http://teae.org/cooling-the-sunbeam-tiger-tiger-tom-chuck-king/
Pete