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A little WARM!!

woodwiz

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Here in southern Arizona it is finally beginning to cool down mid 80's..AHHH! I believe that burp from the radiator yesterday was a big air bubble and so i refilled what was lost and went for a stop and go drive and got to my first stop in town and gauge said 180 ish and then the gauge just started moving around going upward in temps. t could not decide where it wanted to be. Pulled in the garage and while running put the laser light on the sending unit and the top hose fitting of the water pump and looked at the gauge. What did i see you ask...3 different readings: 1. the gauge-230* 2.Sending unit-180* 3. upper hose fitting on water pump-190*
I may do the rval of the radiator and give it an upside down internal soak and see what i see.
 

woodwiz

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This may be an original radiator with all the factory stamping,but either way at 50+yrs of service it might be time for retirement,but I will see if I can get a little more life out of it…wish me
 

Russ69Runner

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Don't know about your area but radiator shops are getting to be the thing of the past around my area. They just slap some kind of plastic one in the new cars these days. LOL. Asked around and was told that the chemicals to do radiators was so costly to get rid of is why they are not around now days. Bought a 26-inch three core off E bay. So that is what was in my car due to someone had put a 727 automatic in a four-speed car. It overshot the holes on the radiator support but found out what they did. Drilled some more holes to mount the larger one. Glad I bought a new one. After all they get tired also. Metal brakes down over years of use. :beep:
 

69hemibeep

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Looks to me your gauge is wrong, temp at the sending unit should be close to the temp on the gauge. With it running and warmed up take the temp of the radiator inlet and outlet to see how much the radiator is cooling.
 

V.R.D

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if you you go to harbor fright they have a multi-meter that has a temp probe put that in the rad cap opening and see the temp of the coolant .

last time i bought one it was 20 buck's
 

woodwiz

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There are some shops around town that will take them and put them in a bath for a soak and then if needed can rod it.
But I will take temps at inlet and outlet to see if there is a radical difference. I could take it and sorta flush it myself,don’t really want to use a caustic chemical on the property don’t have a good disposal situation.
I’ve seen on eBay radiators that appear to be spot on replacement radiator for the 70 RR. They are stated to be all aluminum and that 2-core cool better than 3 or 4 core due to the cores in the 2-core being larger and able to dissipate heat better,don’t know about that!
These motors do run hot and don’t like to sit in traffic…just trying to get the cooling as good as possible. I guess if you look at it one way: Better to get the cooling under control than a possible head gasket blow…which can get expensive compared to a radiator replacement.
 

V.R.D

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There are some shops around town that will take them and put them in a bath for a soak and then if needed can rod it.
But I will take temps at inlet and outlet to see if there is a radical difference. I could take it and sorta flush it myself,don’t really want to use a caustic chemical on the property don’t have a good disposal situation.
I’ve seen on eBay radiators that appear to be spot on replacement radiator for the 70 RR. They are stated to be all aluminum and that 2-core cool better than 3 or 4 core due to the cores in the 2-core being larger and able to dissipate heat better,don’t know about that!
These motors do run hot and don’t like to sit in traffic…just trying to get the cooling as good as possible. I guess if you look at it one way: Better to get the cooling under control than a possible head gasket blow…which can get expensive compared to a radiator replacement.
what is that old saying...... there is a sucker born every minute. don't cheep out you will regret it not all rad's are the same. i have a new champion 2 row rad that did not cool very well so buy a griffin or you will be hot under the collier :cursin: :cursin: :cursin:
 

woodwiz

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There are other options to the radiator issues…take out the old and do a soak and flush,buy a griffin,or maybe a radiator from Northern. I heard they were the next best to the high dollar Griffin’s $1k vs $600
We’ll see!
 

woodwiz

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I have here some temp readings with the engine at operating temp w/radiator cap off.
1.Dash gauge-220*
2.Lower hose@water pump-137*
3.Lower Rad.hose-130*
4.Upper rad.hose-172*
5.Sending unit-169*
6.Coolant temp@rad.cap-194*
Man! That’s a lot of different #’s
Hope the experts can make something out of all this!!!
Thanks for the help!!
 

V.R.D

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post 28 addresses this as you take a in radiator temp with a temp probe you will see real temp. a temp gun is surface only not antifreeze temp.
 

woodwiz

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Took that temp of course with the only cooling was the fan pulling air thru the radiator in the garage. At 194* it might drop a bit on a drive with airflow,but I can not remove the cap to check so all I have is the laser light readings.
 

69hemibeep

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Just using surface temp 35 degree drop at the radiator is OK. Still say it's your gauge. What temp would you be happy at?
 

woodwiz

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Seems I remember back in 1975 when I had the exact car that these Mopars ran on the warm side. Sitting in traffic or stop lights in Tucson it is going to get pretty warm. Running down the road the temp would be good in the 180-200* range.
The eventual radiator swap should be able to handle that range. Might pull my current radiator and give it some attention. Like you said 69hemibeep”the gauge is new but has a mind of its own. If it’s as inaccurate as most say the factory gauges are then showing 20-30*degree error is ok. That puts us at a real 200*
 

V.R.D

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this weekend went for a drive well stop and go do to road work 20 to 30 minutes got to 192 in 98 temp hear in Florida moving i ran 178. with the a/c on it runs 10 degree's more
 
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