MTFCA Forum

I got my touring running!!!! What do I do with junk in the radiator tubes in the engine? I posted about my car I recently got in the thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15073&p=114334&hili ... ng#p114285. Any suggestions?

Steve Jelf has some videos of the efforts he went through to clean his radiator and cooling system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnOZ2MZt5FY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ3nkPm87X0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSLn4KeT3do

There is a process called "rodding out" which does precisely what you want. They take the tanks off of the core and (guess what?) run steel rods through the tubes to get rid of the junk. A warning - if the car has an overheating issue, rodding out the core may be a waste of time (and money). If the radiator is old (as in original or has been replaced a long time ago), the fins may have become thermally detached from the tubes. If this is the case, your options are to replace the core, or to replace the radiator. Either will be expensive.
My question to you would be: Is the present radiator a round tube or a flat tube unit? Obviously if it's a round tube radiator, the vertical tubes will be round, if it's a flat-tube unit, the tubes will be narrow and deep. If you have the original round-tube radiator, my recommendation would be to replace it with a modern flat-tube. Nobody but another T owner will ever notice. If you plan to do a complete restoration and show the car, then I would install a round-tube; the show judges will notice. Frankly, if that '26 were mine, I would leave the radiator until you are close to the finish line, it will eat a chunk of money that would allow a lot of progress in other areas.
I replaced my overheating but not leaking round tube with a new Berg's flat tube, and even here in 90 degree plus Florida sun my '27 does not overheat or even get hot.

If your radiator is an original or and old recore you can spend time and money and still have a radiator that gets hot and boils over. It might get a little better after a clean up but it still won’t be like it should be. You can fill the radiator to the level of the core and that may help some but it’s still will get hot.
A T that won’t boil over and you can drive with out much worry of gurgling and steaming is a real pleasure. You may get lucky repairing yours short of a least a recore but be prepared if you don’t.

With that said a recore is around 600.00 and a new Bergs is around 900.00 but your T will love you for it and you will too!

Not trying to be negative but just realistic about trying to repair an old radiator that’s close to being 90+ years old. They do eventually wear out.