First post. thanks for the help in advance. I have 63 LeSabre with the 401 nailhead in it. Love the car, fresh buff, polish, and wax after coming out of storage in MN it looks great. Originally from New Mexico. Anyways I am having some over heating issues and I am pretty sure it is coming from the radiator. Original. I bought an aftermarket aluminum one online and found it fits great. only problem is the trans cooler fittings are the wrong size. to small for my fittings. Do I cut cooler lines and run rubber hoses to a different fitting or return it and have original clean or re-cored? Or do you have a better idea?
Go to your local hardware store and get the proper step up adapter fittings and you'll be back in business! No need to rig it or send the rad back,the adapter fittings should work great,just tell the harware guy what you're trying to do and he'll(or she'll) should be able to hook you up.GL Derek
I concur with above - local hardware or auto parts shop should have the necessary adapters. IF you decide to recore make sure they REPLACE the trans cooler insert - I went this way and 500 miles later a pinhole in the old cooler wrecked my rebuilt transmission by mixing the trans fluid with water; the friction plates all use water based glues.
Stick to an auto parts store - while a hardware store might have something that looks close, it might not specifically be for flared automotive line and have slightly different (pipe) threading. Places like NAPA generally have a bin in the back somewhere with just what you're looking for.
Welcome Steinerj56 !! put your name and town, state in your signature. We're on a first name basis. Knowing where you are can be helpful to hose trying to help. I would try NAPA , too. My local NAPA is great for finding fittings, nuts and bolts that fit.
Should be standard 5/16th line.....couldn't tell you about the aftermarket radiator though.....maybe 3/8 NPT?? I just went through this with my tranny cooler - very hard to find adapters with pipe thread on one side and standard thread on the other....
No luck yet. Going to stop at NAPA tomorrow and hopefully find what I need. If they unable to help me like Oreilly's, Home Depot, Menards... Would I be better off just getting an external transmission cooler, returning this radiator and repairing original or having a Griffin one built as they don't have one listed for a Le Sabre?
You might be able to have a radiator shop braze the correct female fittings on for you. The problem I had was with a B&M external tranny cooler. I wanted to run hard line to it, but the fittings were just open 1/2" pipe thread holes. I had to find a series of fittings to bring it down to 5/16th flare. I was able to find the right combination of fittings at a place that custom build hydraulic hoses. I'd start by understanding what size the radiator fittings actually are - you can pick up an assortment of stuff at home depot and see what screws in but be careful.. the wrong kind of thread will start and feel ok for the first couple turns, but then will tighten up and start wrecking the existing threads. if it's the correct thread, it'll turn at least 9-10 times with no effort.... no wrenches! Good luck.
Buy all the fittings needed ( 2 for the radiator, and 2 for the pipes ) and take them to your local smith that has a tig welder.. I done it myself every time i need fittings i cant get ( Denmark uses mm, not inch ) Houmark
steinerj56 I'd like a report on how that aluminum radiator is doing with the cooling issue. I live in Arizona and its been close to 100 every day this week. What brand did you buy? Shroud and electric fan(s)?? Did you get it hooked up and coolin'?!? Hunter
The trans. cooler lines on a DynaFlow are 3/8", NOT 5/16". The thread in the rad. cooler is flared & the original size is 7/16"x20. The fittings on the new rad. could be 5/16"x24 or 1/8" pipe thread. So you will need a 5/16"x24 by 7/16"x20 or a 1/8" pipe to 7/16"x20 adapter. Tom T.
I ran into a similar problem with my ranger truck,,,, the factory line fittings would not go deep enough to engage the threads on the rad,,,, what I did was cut the line, take the fittings off and cut and dress the excess collar off the lead end of the fittings and then put them back on the lines.... worked like a charm..... But,,, like the guys said,,, find you a mom and pop auto store with counter people that have white hair and let them advise you about the fittings.....:Brow:
