65 GTO High Efficiency Radiator
 

Has anyone purchased one of these radiators from Ames? I purchased one for my one owner original 65 GTO. The first thing I noticed, the ears on the radiator cap were not aligned parallel with the radiator like my original radiator. Also, it had a lot of white residue inside. I also did not see any improvement in cooling. Am I doing something wrong?

As far as the cooling ... could be any one of half a dozen things causing problems instead of the radiator, so hard to tell.

High Efficiency radiator
 

I wish someone could offer some suggestions that I haven't tried yet. The heating problem occurs when driving on the freeway at a cruising RPM of about 3,000 at 75 deg air temp for about 20 miles or greater. I have done the following:

1. Installed SS spacer plates in the front cover.
2. Changed three different water pumps with different impeller configurations.
3. Re-gapped the spacer plate to the water pump impeller from .187 to .080-in.
4. Purchased a new fan clutch.
5. Installed a temperature gauge in the radiator outlet hose to monitor cooling across the radiator.
6. Added a fan shroud.
7. Flushed the cooling system with muriatic acid.
8. Flushed the cooling system with plain water and bursts of compressed air.
9. Changed from an anti-freeze to a water-wetter solution.
10. Made an adapter to solid mount the original aluminum 7-blade fan.
11. Checked the thermostat in hot water for proper opening temperature.
12. Tried putting two different size orifices at the radiator inlet, 3/8 and 1/2-in.
13. Checked the intake manifold temperature sending unit for proper output.

Uttergto ... I would suggest posting this in the heating and cooling section, you will get WAY more responses.

Had similar problem. Tried everything you tried. Solution was to reduce RPM. Installed AOD and problem completely disappeared. Never runs hot at highway speed any more. Take it for what it's worth. Good luck.

I had a cooling problem that I couldn't figure out. This was a motor that had been rebuilt prior to my ownership. The motor was clean and ran good. It wasn't until a frost plug started leaking that I found the problem. Once I removed the frost plug. I found that the block was full of rusty crud. Whoever rebuilt it, never replaced the frost plugs or cleaned the block.

What radiator did you purchase from Ames? They carry several brands and models.
Also, what is your water pump pulley to crank pulley ratio. You want to overdrive your WP pulley for better pressure.

Do you have the spring in the lower radiator hose to keep it from collapsing at high RPM?

Yes I have the spring in the lower hose.

I believe the radiator is from US Radiator. It has the original pulleys on the harmonic balancer and water pump.

The block was completely cleaned with the plugs out.

What is AOD?

Found a Heating and Cooling title, but could not open it.

Another thing I dislike about the radiator is the cap orientation, it is not parallel to the radiator like the original. I am going back to my original radiator, because I see no improvement in cooling.

Found a Heating and Cooling title, but could not open it.

Needs a good tune , timing & fuel will correct most hot runs.

A two row aluminum radiator with one inch or larger tubes will outperform a three or four row radiator by a wide margin. Your radiator is inadequate.

Don

High Efficiency radiator
 

The problem with this is this is a one-owner, numbers matching original 1965 GTO. An aluminum radiator with extra fans would look out of place.

You could paint it black. Additional fans should not be needed.

Don

High Efficiency radiator
 

I have already wasted about $700.00 on a radiator with a cap that is not oriented parallel to the radiator, supposedly for a 1965 GTO. I have questioned Ames Performance about this several times with no answer. Rather frustrating, I guess I didn't know what questions to ask before the purchase, but you would think the cap orientation is so obvious that it would be correct.