1956 Radiator leak repair

[MJP]

We own a 1956 T-Bird that's been in my wife's family since it came off the line and is totally original. It has sprung a leak on the radiator on the side facing the engine, roughly in the middle. In the absence of any additional details, can someone tell me whether a radiator repair shop should be able to fix that leak? If the answer is no, that leads me to my next question. This particular radiator has a "cowling" attached to it that fits around the engine fan. I have not seen any such radiators for sale online. Are they out there somewhere?

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[biddle]

Your title should be a summary of what your post is about which is a leaking radiator. "1956 Thunderbird Radiator" could be anything.
Also, there is not need to include the make & model of your car since we are an exclusive Thunderbird site.

Title revised.

 

[Buck]

What ever you do, do NOT use any leak sealer! They will also coat the and potentially block flow in heater cores and smaller openings in block as well as potentially coat the cooling surfaces in the engine. Any radiator repair/rebuild shop can totally repair and/or recore the radiator. recoring is the better choice. It is usually not very expensive at least in my area.
You also might be able to find a new aluminum radiator which will do a better job of cooling. Also, after either new or rebuilt, you might want to consider putting in an electric fan because this model is noted for overheating. I put them in all my antique cars to prevent overheating especially in parades. I live in the mountains and going up hill for long distances on hot days can also cause over heating so an electric fan solves that problem. I found it best to install the fan as a pusher in front of the radiator. Pulling air is not as efficient as pushing air. I turn the electric fan on whenever I anticipate a potential overheating situation such as in traffic, parades or very hot days.

 

[Tom Alpers]

We own a 1956 T-Bird that's been in my wife's family since it came off the line and is totally original. It has sprung a leak on the radiator on the side facing the engine, roughly in the middle. In the absence of any additional details, can someone tell me whether a radiator repair shop should be able to fix that leak? If the answer is no, that leads me to my next question. This particular radiator has a "cowling" attached to it that fits around the engine fan. I have not seen any such radiators for sale online. Are they out there somewhere?

View attachment 34157

I'm sure it could be fixed but you can buy a new aluminum one that will cool better and it would almost certainly be less expensive. But some people want to stay all original and if so you can get the existing one fixed. That shroud can be easily removed, its just bolted on.. The radiator also can be easily removed for repair or replacement. If you have not been having problems with the car overheating you don't need to mess with anything else. If you have had issues, the first thing I would do while the radiator is off would be to replace the water pump with a high flow one, a couple places sell ones made for these cars. It's also a good time to put new radiator hoses on if they are getting old.

 

[Birdman of coatesvile]

I have 1955 replaced radiator with new 4 core black same as original and added smaller fan pulley,with fan package from Cisco in front of radiator with their water pump you can drive in heavy gridlock traffic. Hope this helps.

 

[My2ndFord]

I would be very leery of having it repaired. Fifty years ago, lots of competent shops, but far fewer, today. In general, a brass radiator is easy to repair, but at 70+ years it's more of a challenge and I suspect something rarely done, now.

 

[cochon]

The top tank of the radiator was factory-specific with stamped date codes (though I can't see them from your photo). You can save top tank by having the radiator repaired or recored (and if you really, Really, REALLY need to replace the _entire_ radiator, don't trash the factory original). But you will need to find an old-school radiator shop, or check with some of the TB-specific parts houses who may be able to get it done if you ship them yours.

The 'cowling' in your photo looks to be a factory-original fan shroud. There should also be a bottom portion that bolts to the bottom of the upper shroud (a bottom shroud isn't visible in your photo, but the attaching bolts still seem to be there); check the parts diagrams of your favorite TB parts supplier or check the 49-59 Ford parts books. It's not uncommon for the lower shroud to have been left off by repair people back in the day.

 

[Hwoodlive]

As others have said, you absolutely can have the old radiator repaired. I'm lucky in that I have a local shop that knows old cars, and earlier this year they fixed the leaking top seal on my old one. Often an old radiator--if it needs it--can be recored using the original upper and lower tanks, so that it still has the correct appearance. Electric fan as an auxiliary? Great idea too. I've tried the cheap imports ($35 bucks on Amazon), which do work, but if you really want to keep things cool, a similar-sized high-quality electric fan (Flex-A-Lite, for instance) can pull WAY more air. My basic no-frills '57 has the original-style engine-mounted fan and water pump, and with its repaired radiator, it runs pretty cool, even on triple digit days (the interior temperature is another issue altogether, of course!). As others mentioned, you seem to have the original factory fan shroud. It's just four bolts holding it to the radiator, and another four that hold the upper and lower shells together. Somebody suggested hanging on to the original radiator if you do decide to replace it... my question: what to do with the old one? I have a fully rebuilt '58 Lincoln radiator and can't seem get interest on it.

 

[doug7740]

I have the original radiator tanks on the radiator of my 1955 Thunderbird. The radiator tag shows the engineering number AH-8005-B; the manufacturer (MC) McCord Radiator Company; L54 is the date code; L is the 12th month of 1954.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[SkidJames]

When I got my 57 it had a small leak around the joint with the upper hose (it turned out that someone in the past had tried to lossen the seal between the hose and the pipe with something like a screwdriver and consequently bent the pipe's thin side wall). As other have said, there's not so many companies with the expertise to repair old brass rad's now but I cast my search a little wider and found one that dealt more with industrial and agricultural radiators and they were able sort it.
Unfortunately a couple of years later the core started to leak and after checking the options I decided to go down the route of getting an aluminium replacement (and also convert to waterless cooling). If you do decide to get an aluminium replacement the ones from the specialist TBird suppliers have the ribbing on the top like the original and also the correct mounting points for the shroud. They don't though have the stamped tag or the brackets at the either end of the top.
Here's the new rad being installed. I painted the sides black to match the shroud but I clear coated the top and bottom - not an original look I know but I'm not interested in entering any concours events.

 

[Hwoodlive]

When I got my 57 it had a small leak around the joint with the upper hose (it turned out that someone in the past had tried to lossen the seal between the hose and the pipe with something like a screwdriver and consequently bent the pipe's thin side wall). As other have said, there's not so many companies with the expertise to repair old brass rad's now but I cast my search a little wider and found one that dealt more with industrial and agricultural radiators and they were able sort it.
Unfortunately a couple of years later the core started to leak and after checking the options I decided to go down the route of getting an aluminium replacement (and also convert to waterless cooling). If you do decide to get an aluminium replacement the ones from the specialist TBird suppliers have the ribbing on the top like the original and also the correct mounting points for the shroud. They don't though have the stamped tag or the brackets at the either end of the top.
Here's the new rad being installed. I painted the sides black to match the shroud but I clear coated the top and bottom - not an original look I know but I'm not interested in entering any concours events.

Dang, that's pretty! It'll be (ahem) cool to see how well it works. I put an off-brand 4-row aluminum radiator in my '59 Galaxie and results are mixed... but I think it still has some gunk in the engine, so I'm not yet blaming it on the radiator.

 

[Tom Alpers]

Some testing results on these different radiators.... When I replaced my 4 row brass with a 2 row aluminum it dropped my peak temperature about 4 degrees... that was the peak with AC on stopped at a light in 110+ degree weather. Roughly went from peaking at 209 to 205.