Antique & Classic Cars Blog

The V-8-in-a-Triumph-TR6 project has come a long way. The engine is in, all hooked up, getting fuel, getting oil pressure, she starts, she runs. But the radiator was a question mark–would the old Triumph heat-exchanger be big enough to cool the new lump? Running the 45-year-old aluminum V-8 for ten to fifteen minutes for the first time yielded the answer: Nope. So Saturday was wrecking yard day–off in search of a higher capacity cooler. French Lake Auto Parts is reasonably close and they have old stuff, so that was our destination. I brought careful measurements of the available space where the radiator needed to go so as not to come home with something that wouldn’t fit. My buddy Tom V. came along in search of a speedometer for his one-owner 1962 Buick Skylark.

U.S. Radiator has dimensions for a lot of common rads but they exclude the tanks on down-flow models. Looked like the radiator for the Buick 300 cubic inch V-8 (Skylark) from ‘64 & ‘65 might work and French Lake Auto Parts had one in inventory. But the tanks made it too tall. So out in the yard I found one for my engine, the 215 V-8, in the back seat of a ‘61 Buick Special. Dimensions were perfect for the TR6. It was dry and the fins weren’t too bent up, but was it watertight? They gave me a good deal, $30, in case it wasn’t. We took the speedometer from the same car, identical in shape and color to Tom’s original.

Back in Minneapolis, I dropped my part off at Carlberg Radiator for a pressure test. He called back to say the core is junk. Pinholed throughout. No new versions available. Options–recore that one or find another model that might fit. I’ve gone with the first option, which will cost a little more, but I know this one fits and it will be vintage. (The intended look here is that it was a factory experimental job when the TR was built in 1972.) A higher efficiency core should ensure that it will stay cool with a factory, belt-driven fan, likewise sourced from French Lake earlier in the project. Then it’ll be time to fabricate mounting hardware and secure hoses that can slip between and around obstructions and connect the engine and fixed-up radiator.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Car parts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.