'63 radiator fittment question - ChevyTalk --The Social Network for ...

ARKAR 
Contributor
Posts: 406

Loc: Arkansas
Reg: 01-26-09

03-14-12 04:54 PM - Post#2202626    
    In response to 62impala409

You are correct on the barrel dept Keith. I am pretty sure though that Chevy only used 2 fan shrouds, long and short, for our cars no matter if 3 or 4 core radiators. If I am wrong here, please jump in.

Yes, I think that is right, but after I thought about this for a bit, I think there are some differences in the years. Verne Frantz informed me that the '64 shrouds were different than the '63 and earlier shrouds. They use a different bolt pattern. And I also think that the earlier shrouds might have been the same but they used spacers to fit the shrouds to the 4 core radiators. The 3 core just woudn't use the spacers. I'll explain it in a minute, first here's some pictures:

'64 409 shroud in my Dad's car

Looks like it's about 3.25 inches and it looks like a thicker(4 core) would fit in the same shroud. The 409 radiator in his car is a 3 core, as his car didn't have a.c.(couldn't with a 2x4 409, which was originally in this car - I still have the original engine. The engine in the car now is from a '63, which is where the '63 409 shroud that I have came from).

Here's a pic of the '64 SS(indentified by and thanks to Verne!!) small block shroud on the left and the '63 409 shroud on the right. Notice that the '63 409 shroud's brackets are shorter than the '64 small block's brackets. This is why I think that spacers were used as I'll explain in a minute.

The measurement on the '63 409 shroud is about 2&7/8 of an inch:

And on the '64 small block shroud, it's the same as the '64 409 shroud at 3.25 inches:

So I think that before 1964, they made the brackets of ALL the shrouds only deep enough to fit a 3 core radiator and used spacers to push the shroud further out if a 4 core was used. Only difference was if the barrel needed to be long(small block) or short(409).

But in '64 they started making ALL the perspective small block or 409 shrouds with deeper brackets to fit a 4 core radiator in them so that no spacers were needed. Only differences where, again, the barrel depth of the 409 or small block shrouds.

The reason I came to this conclusion is that I had planned on using the '63 409 shroud on my '64 with the big block in it. I had the 409 shroud from my Dad's car blasted and painted it long ago and had put it in my car temporarily. Then a few month ago, I got the '63 shroud out of the trunk of a '60 Chevy where it had been for many years and noticed that it wasn't going to work as the bolt patterns are different! That's when I posted about it and Verne informed me about the differences. He also identified my SS shroud(they have the special triangle brackets welded at the top of them - see the picture above). These shrouds were stole off the cars YEARS ago and Dad got them back a few weeks later from the boys that took them. I had no idea that one of them was my original shroud until Verne told me.

Anyway, at the time I was planning to use the '63 409 shroud on my '64 with the 402 big block, I noticed that Show Cars sold a "spacer kit" for '59-'63 shrouds. This is why I came to the conclusion that I did about the earlier shrouds. Not sure if I'm right, but I think it goes something like that. Here's a link to the spacer kit: http://www.show-cars.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key =3035

So, if you are going to a 4 core radiator, you might need to order that kit or use longer bolts and something to space the shroud out farther so that the thicker radiator will fit in your shroud.

Hope this helps!

Keith

Edited by ARKAR on 03-14-12 05:06 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.