Just curious which radiator works better on our car design, crossflow or down flow, 2 or 3 row.
I believe the original were downflow but not sure how many rows or if that is determined by 8 or 6 cylinders or A/C cars.
I currently have a crossflow 2 row but thinking about trying a 3 row downflow to see if there is any improvements.
I believe I have an airflow issue since mine only reaches 200 degrees on hot days idling at red lights but cools back to 180 while driving. I installed a flex fan and shroud but still not happy with anything over 180. Any comments will be appreciated.
Due to the configuration of the 50s Ford cars, you can not put a decent sized crossflow radiator in these cars, unless you cut the opening in the radiator support. On my 59, I have an aluminum up & down radiator, with 2 wide tubes (1" wide each). It cools my 428 Cobra Jet engine with a 18" FlexALite stainless steel, belt driven flex fan very well, with a 160 thermostat, it runs about 170 degrees. If it get stuck in gridlock on a hot day, the temp gauge does slowly start to climb after 10 minutes or more, but drops back quickly once it starts moving again. Even so, in over 2 years of driving, even idling for 1/2 hour, it has never got warm enough to push out any coolant , or overheat.