So the radiator in the Merc blew up the other day, needless to say I am pissed. Finally got it running great, trans is shifting nice, ready to work out the rest of the bugs and get it on the road and the rad starts seeping real bad, then finally steams all over the place and blows coolant all over. I've been looking around, but my eyes hurt and I figured I'd post here anyway. Car is a 52 Merc Monterey with a Chevy 350 with a trans cooler separate from the rad. Anyone know off hand a rad from another car that will drop in without much of a pain in the ass? Top to bottom is about 24 inches, side to side is 21 inches. Inlet on drivers side top and outlet on pass side bottom. I found a few universals, but they are cross flows instead of downflows like the car has now. This won't be a problem, right? Thanks in advance.
Can you just use the original Merc flathead radiator and block off the inlet and outlet not used? My 53 seems to have a pretty good sized radiator for the original flathead.
I've used 60s dodge pickup radiators in hotords...ford pickup radiators are good too but watch the height. I used an aftermarket 55-59 chevy pickup radiator in my old 50 chevy delivery..had to trim the bottom of the core support because the radiator was too tall...worked like a charm
It's not the original radiator according to that info you have. In my chevy I pulled out the original for the I-6 and send it to the radiator shop. They cleaned it out and added an extra row for $300.It works great for the 350/400 set up.
Yeah, it's definitely not the orig radiator, this thing came with a flathead. I was digging around in the garage today and found a good looking 4 core laying against the wall behind the 50 Merc that looks real close in size, so I'm going to try that out tomorrow. Also found one on Summit that's roughly the same size for $144, so I'm going to shoot for that. Seems 70's Mopar radiators are pretty close too and have the inlet on the driver's side also.
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