Cold Case Radiator Top Plate

[Ken Bak]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased a cold case radiator for my 1986 Buick T-Type. While installing it I found the top plate does not fit correctly. I will have metal on metal contact between the top plate and the radiator. See my photos. I know I need to trim the metal near the hood spring, but the top plate itself is making contact with the radiator. I like the radiator and don't want to return it. I see in searching this site that other people have installed the cold case radiator. What are you guys doing to make the top plate fit properly?

Thanks for your help,
Ken

 

[pacecarta]

that doesnt look like it will fit
if i had to put that in i'd cut into the top rail at the ends by the tanks and fold it in , id also fold that edge down on the rad support by the latch

 

[Pronto]

That's a crappy fit. Hope it works well after you cut everything up.

 

[Ken Bak]

I think you're right about folding instead of cutting, but I hate to do that also. It was noted on the cold case web site that the piece next to the latch needed to be cut, but it didn't say anything about the top plate. It looks like a top quality radiator, but the fit of the top plate sucks. I thought that maybe I can change to a different top plate, and my issue would be solved, but it almost looks like I need to fabricate the top plate myself. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.

 

[1KWIKSIX]

Sorry to see the hassles. Can you trim / remove rubber off the upper and lower radiator mounting rubber cushions? It might just lower the radiator enough to gain the clearance you need.
Glad I went with the Alradco unit. Which I might add was still a bit tricky getting the top plate installed, but no where near what the ColdCase Radiator does.

 

[LIVE4RDO]

Maybe Nick Micale or Dennis can help out? They tested these radiators.

 

[Ken Bak]

Good thought. Maybe if the lower cushions were thinner and the upper cushions were thicker.

I'm not sure if I can make the lower ones thinner or not. I'll have to take a good look at that.

Making the upper ones thinner will only make the situation worse, but making the upper ones thicker may give me the clearance I need. I don't know why I didn't think of that? I'm going to take another look and do some measuring.

 

[Nick Micale]

Trim the upper rubbers to fit around the radiator and cut the core support per the instructions.

 

[1952ray]

Trim the upper rubbers to fit around the radiator and cut the core support per the instructions.

What Nick said. Glad your back Nick

 

[Gary Durden]

Are you following the install instruction as Nick has indicated.

 

[jbrouse]

I had the same issue with mine. I trimmed the metal by the latch and the top plate just fits. It’s angled up a bit but you can’t tell unless you really know what you’re looking at. It would be nice if Cold Case mentioned the fit issues or even better, make a product that really fits. I also had an issue with the oil cooler fittings leaking like a sieve. Fortunately Cold Case is 10 minutes from me and I could go bitch at them in person, lol

 

[hflwyo]

Yeah I was hoping the cold case radiator was a little more drop in also.

 

[Ken Bak]

Ok, it's been a while, but I wanted to follow up and post what I ended up doing with the installation of my Cold Case radiator.

I had already elongated the rubber cushions for the wider radiator, and that was done before I did the original post.

The instructions said to trim the radiator support metal near the hood latch, but I decided to bend it down instead. I did that for two reasons. First, the support wouldn't lose any strength, and second, I could always bend it back to the original position in the future if I wanted to.

I realized that all I really needed was thicker top rubber cushions, which would lift the top plate off the radiator, and eliminate the metal on metal contact. I searched the internet, but I couldn't find the cushions I needed. So I decided to make two spacers to go between the cushions and top plate. Below are some pictures.



The spacer is 6160 aluminum. I used (2) 6-32 BHSCS to fasten it to the top plate and give it a clean look. It's not easy to see, but I counter bored the cushion mounting hole so the rubber retaining post on the cushion attached to the spacer just like it did to the top plate. Because the cushion was no longer held very good by the top plate, I decided to make sides out of 22 gauge sheet metal to keep it in place.

After I made the spacers, the metal on metal contact was eliminated. However, the top plate mounted at a bit of an angle, and the cushions didn't sit flat on top of the radiator. So I decided to make (5) spacers for the top plate mounting bolts, which are the same thickness as the cushion spacers. I also made them out of 6160 aluminum. After installing, the top plate fit perfect. Unless you're looking for it, you would never notice. It's not original, but neither is the radiator.



More to follow ...

 

[Ken Bak]

I also had two other issues with the fit of the Cold Case radiator. One was the upper transmission cooling line 90° fitting interfered with the aluminum plate bracket which the air conditioner lines mount to. I had to cut a hole in the aluminum plate to give the fitting clearance. After I cut the hole, the fitting came close to the air conditioner condenser, but had enough clearance. I decided to play it safe and mounted a piece of 3/32 thick rubber behind the aluminum plate, just in case something moves. If it does, I have rubber between the fitting and the condenser.

 

[Ken Bak]

The last issue I had with mounting the radiator was mounting the original fan. Because of the thicker core of the Cold Case radiator, the fan mounting bolts would screw into the core of the radiator. The two bottom bolts were not a big problem because I was able to re-position the mounting bracket and use shorter bolts. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the bottom bolts.

The two top bolts were more of a challenge, but I came up with a fix. I made two spacers with M6 tapped holes for the fan mounting bolts, and I mounted the spacers to the top plate with 10-32 BHSCS. The strength of (2) 10-32 BHSCS equals (1) M6 bolt. The spacer is 3/16 thick and has the (3) tapped holes for mounting, (1) M6 and (2) 10-32. I had to drill (4) clearance holes in the top plate for the 10-32 BHSCS. (2) for each spacer. I used blue Lok-Tite on the 10-32 BHSCS. After installing the spacers, I used shorter fan mounting bolts which screwed directly into the spacer. Pictures are below.



It took some time to mount the Cold Case radiator, but I think it's a quality radiator and worth it. I didn't want to install a plastic radiator from China. I'm sure other people would have done this differently, but I wanted to share what I did as an option, and let everyone know what they may run into when installing a Cold Case radiator.

 

[Reapersgbodys]

Sorry you had such a hard time getting yours installed, I ran into a couple snags when I installed mine also, but purchased 4 longer rubbers to fit the extra width, and had to trim the two top bolts, but other than that, it dropped right in, no bending or cutting anything.
my transmission lines didn't have a problem either.
Ive heard others have had to cut the core support by the hood latch, but I didn't have to.

 

[ShaunKris]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased a cold case radiator for my 1986 Buick T-Type. While installing it I found the top plate does not fit correctly. I will have metal on metal contact between the top plate and the radiator. See my photos. I know I need to trim the metal near the hood spring, but the top plate itself is making contact with the radiator. I like the radiator and don't want to return it. I see in searching this site that other people have installed the cold case radiator. What are you guys doing to make the top plate fit properly?

Thanks for your help,
Ken

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Did you get that figured out I just bought one for my 84

 

[grass doctor]

nice work
subscribed

 

[mikestertwo]

I just went through this with a customer's car. What a pain in the a$$. The radiator is taller and thicker plus the tanks were slightly further apart. Had to trim the top radiator support, trim the rubber mounts top and bottom, squeeze the top radiator support rails so they would fit under the top plate, mill a hole in the condenser lower line support bracket to clear the top transmission cooler line, trim the lower rubber guide tabs because they contacted the tanks, trimmed the lip on the hole for the drain valve for the same reason, and cut the lower fan mounting bolts because they ran into the radiator core. Other than that...a piece of cake!

 

[Forced86]

Dam.....I was looking to get one but looking like I may steer clear for now. Maybe they’ll rework them.