John Lee's V8 Radiator Upgrade for I6 Trucks (With Heater Repair)

[Sharps40]

Well, the cracked water neck at the end of the job stopped the Small 6 to Big 8 radiator swap till tomorrow, but all is well and till it sprung a leak, the heater came alive and melted the sneakers off GoodWife Sharps. Follow along, I'll post up the final finish tomorrow eve if the water neck arrives.

The old, small radiator in there, 2 rows and original Harrison. 1.75" bottom hose, 1.5" top hose diameters.



No drain plug so old school, messy, hard way.



These old red heater hoses are very soft and squishy.



Once drained, remove the 6 cylinder radiator top mount and save it for a 100 point restorer.



Big 3 core V8 radiator on the left...new and out of Ol John Lee. Wee lil I6 radiator on the right, old, not leaking but old and it came out of John Lee Jr.



Next get inside the radiator support and unbolt the giant airdams for the wee lil I6 radiator.



Wee lil airdams for the big giant V8 Radiator on the left...big giant airdams for the wee lil I6 radiator on the right.



Wee lil I6 radiator mounts for the I6 in the front. There not in the way and since they are rivited on, they stay there.

[Sharps40]

Scraping and cleaning the thermostat lower water neck elbow thingie...



Hot and cold idiot lights don't work, wires are good, bulbs good so I'll change out the cracked sending unit.



I'm goin HEI so I won't need extra wires off the starter for the coil so I separated the water sender wires from the ignition wires and taped up the sender wires. Its supposed to be a cloth cover but electrical tape is good enough...thats whats everywhere else from the Baltimore Plant and this ain't no 100 point restoration.



New sender has a tittie on the prong, needs squished just a bit w/plyers to install the sender socket.



Before removing the heater core, backflush it in both directions about 15 times. I got a lot of brown gunk out...should flow better later. (Mercy - It didn't pop the core when I back flushed!)



Took the lid off the heater box...ooops....another reason for no heat!



Cleaned the mess and saw the core is not clamped into the box....I'll fix that with spares from Ol John Lee's heater box.



Hmmm, thats how the trash got in there...Jr has no screen in his duct like Ol John Lee did from the factory. In fact, Jrs. knock outs for the screws are not even knocked out. So, I knocked Jr around and screwed him up with Ol John Lee's inlet screen to keep out trash.

[Sharps40]

Flushed the inside of the core, now flushing the outside too.



The core and inlet screen mounted in John Lee Jrs box.



A bit of fire wall cleaning with Awesome and a hose



All back together and mounted.



Installing the V8 radiator lower mounts, DS is notched for the trans cooler fitting if I ever need to hook up a trans to the rad



Flushing Ol John Lees Big Ol V8 Radiator.



Installing Ol John Lees wee lil radiator airdams in John Lee Jr



Sliding the big V8 Radiator in between the wee lil airdams and held it down with Ol John Lee's V8 Radiator top clamp. Reused the V8 radiator upper and lower rubbers as they are wider to fit the wider V8 radiator lower mounts and top clamp.

[Sharps40]

Remember the I6 has 1.75" outlets for the lower hose and 1.5" outlets for the top hose. The V8 is 1.75" top and bottom. I purchased a new lower hose, moulded, for the I6, it adapts from the 230 I6 to the V8 radiator perfectly (Redi Rad 3 core V8 radiator from Advance Auto, same as Murray V8 Radiator from Orellies) These are the hoses I selected. The top hose is 1.75 on one end for the big V8 Radiator and 1.5 on the other end for the Wee Lil I6 water neck.



I asked for 4 ft each of 3/4 and 5/8s heater hose, I got seven feet each for the 4 ft price, I think Counter Gal likes me! Maybe its the truck?



Neat-o, key on and the temp idiot lights work fine now!



Put the hose in the inlet of the radiator, start the engine and let it warm up and pump all the old antifreeze out the new upper hose. Occasionally shut off the water or it never heats up and flushes the old stuff out. I flushed it running, altenating topping off the Big Giant Gargantuan (compaired to the Wee lil I6) Radiator about 7 times over 30 or so minutes, till the water from the water pump ran totally clear.





After this I buttoned it up and started it up with coolant and tested the heater, it nearly fryed my hand on defrost...damnably hot, just like a new truck. Then I went back out front to snap a finish pic, and psssssssttttttt-squirt, a pinhole in the thermostat cap and it then opened to a crack and SQUIRRRRRT....I figured well, order it from Orellies and finish this job and this thread tomorrow night. But, neat thing is, Orellies has a lot of goodies for these oldies.

[Sharps40]

Well, still waiting for a factory replacment water spout for John Lee Jr...maybe Wed or Thurs. So, as much as it hurts, I wanna know if the V8 Radiator swap was successful....so a Mr. Gasket swivel water neck. Yep, I know its as Gross as a Sweat Hog makin Boiled Peanuts in her armpits...but, it works and it'll stay there for a while..at least till winter thermo change to 195F. (Factory waterneck, spare thermo, gasket and bolts go in the under seat road kit,,,you got a road kit in your oldie don't ya?)

Here it is, o-ring lightly greased and sittin ready to bolt to the water elbow thingie that holds the 180F thermo. Oh yeah, threaded bolts fit right up but ya need a big allen wrench for them...threw that allen wrench in the road kit too.



Bolted down, the swivel is a neat feature, hope the damn thing stays sealed though...No goo and it hurt me not to use a big gob of blu goo, me and goo are old old friends.



With the hose on and running, waitin for the therm to burp the air bubble into the radiator so I can go for a ride and really burp the air out into the overflow tank. It don't look too aweful bad hooked up...not as bad as say, oh, Secretary of State in a Belly Dancin get up?



Back from a hard run, no leaks anywhere even at the gaudy Mr. Gasket water spout...hmmm, wonder if it has stayin power and won't fail me like generic drugs.



Big Giant V8 radiator makes a nice look in the bay with that engine goin straight out the middle of the core.



After a quick rinse to knock off most of the lime green NC pollen we have this time of year....



Ready for the official radiator test run to work tomorrow,,,,iffin it fails, I get to stay home from work and play with my truck! But I'm secretly hopen that Gaudy Water Spout is at least as reliable as an experienced sportin gal - hard working that is...we'll see.

[Sharps40]

Acid test run this morning to work and completing the test this afternoon with the 38 mile ride home. I checked early, no leaks overnight and the radiator drew just over a quart of coolant out of the resevour...so, the burping has started.

Made the 38 mile run to work at 55 mph and everything seems quite fine. The gaudy gal water spout on the front of the engine ain't leaking. And, checking on shut down at the office parking lot I noted coolant had puked back out into the resevour tank. Expectation is the air bubbles are about gone so I'll top it off in the resevour before the ride home today, watch it all for another day or three and it should be just fine.

As for the heat...no reason to even turn the fan on now, plenty of air flow off the cowl even at city traffic speeds. With the window half way down to vent the cigar smoke and listen to the growly new exhaust, the heater does quite a job of makein my feet sweat! Short of a core failure, (which I don't expect, the core looks just fine/no corrosion) I doubt I'll have any more heat/cool issues for a while. Though I plan to pull the center cowl vent and back it up with some black screen to let air in but keep gargbage out.