Have a convertible with factory AC but has a down flow radiator in it currently with no fan shroud. I am not completely sure what the proper setup would be for this car but from what I have read and seen it should be a cross flow radiator with a top plate, radiator would have the filler and lower hose on the passenger side, top hose driver side. Intentions are to replace the whole setup with the right cooling system, lines, radiator, top plate and shroud. If anyone can shed a little light on this please reply. Will need parts regardless of the setup so please include pix if possible. Thanks, Eric
I’m not sure if the correct set up but I have an original radiator form a 65 300 4 bbl a/c car if interested. Could bring to bowling green
The radiator support is different depending on whether it had a cross flow or a downflow radiator. The difference is the lower support cradle piece, it's what connects the right side to the left side. 'Brian' posted a great explanation (see below). It does sound like the downflow was correct for the earlier built Skylarks (Sept 64-Jan 65). Check the date code on your cowl data plate, it's in the upper left corner.. something like '11A' would be first week of November, '01D' would be 4th week of January. I believe Brian has done the conversion to crossflow if you want to go that route. https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/65-skylark-radiator-support.266060/#post-2187943 >>> DeluxeBuick is correct. The core support on a 65 Skylark and 65 GS are the same if it has a crossflow radiator. The crossflow radiator design was not introduced until mid-way through the 65 production year when they introduced the GS (January of 65). 1965 Skylarks and Specials built before that had a downflow radiator in them that used a different core support. The bottom cradle is completely different, the top bar is stamped differently (holes different), and the hood latch/grille support is completely different. The thicker core in the GS radiator is accomodated by a wider top plate that holds the radiator to the core support. The lower rubber mounts actually fit in a stamped section in the lower cradle, whereas the regular skylark crossflow radiator has separate mounts that screw into the lower cradle and hold the smaller radiator. The fan shrouds between downflow and crossflow are completely different as well on the regular skylark. Never was a GS downflow, so no GS downflow radiator or fan shroud exists. 64 Core support is of course downflow only, and differs slightly from the early 65 downflow core supports--mainly in the headlight mounting area. <<<
Thanks for the replies and I apologize for my delayed response, I am not getting notifications. @Note 1970 I am in the Los Angeles area so I don't think it would be worth the shipping, will probably source one locally once we decide what is what. @wkillgs, this information is really helpful and is helping to point us in the right direction. We looked at the setup after I read your message and checked the cowl, date code is 08E so 5th week in August. I have suspected all along that this radiator was wrong because we rebuilt the transmission and I noticed that the cooling lines were bent very poorly. So apparently the previous owner just used the original lines and bent them to connect to the downflow radiator. I will be looking for pictures to compare the hood latch and grill support as well but I am pretty sure this car should have a non GS crossflow radiator. I took a couple of pictures and will attach here. They show the view from the top with the current radiator installed. You can see the lower mounts sticking out as well as a closeup of one. I haven't taken the radiator out to look underneath but the mounts appear to be screwed in from below. The mounts are about 18" apart center to center and the tabs for the shroud are approximately 3/4 wide. So if all is correct and we do need a crossflow radiator I am thinking that this may be it, high efficiency and 3 core. https://usradiator.com/product/buick-skylark-1964-66-v8-300-radiator will have to call to check dimensions unless this information is available in the forum. I tried searching for related threads before posting but couldn't find anything specific. Things I will need for sure are, top plate, shroud and trans lines. I can probably get the lines from Inline Tube but doubtful about the shroud and plate.
08E build date is most likely at the very end of the 1965 build year.... I've seen 08C and 08D as well. It's possible your whole front support was replaced with the earlier downflow type. Can you get some pictures of the lower cradle and hood latch support? I sent Brian a message to take a look at this thread, he knows the 65's better than I do. Trunk Monkey and Loren (la 65 gs) are other members that have been through this situation. There is a message board at 65gs.com if you want to join us there: http://www.65gs.com/board/ A V8 Buick board tip: you can 'watch' a thread and receive notifications when it is updated. Go to your first post, just above it to the right you see 'Watch Thread'. Click it and select e-mail notifications.
Thanks again, I will get some pictures and post them asap. I checked my notification preferences and everything looks right, I am watching this thread with email notifications, I turned it all off and back on again so hopefully that fixes it, otherwise I will just check once or twice a day. I will also join the other forum this evening.
Your car has a crossflow radiator support. The radiator looks to be from a 64 or 65 V6 car and someone drilled some holes to use the V6 radiator lower mounts and top mount. If they have been removed, you will need to find the correct V8 crossflow lower mounts and top plate. Top plate is same for 2 or 3 row crossflow rad, but different if you get a 4 row radiator. 65GS cars had an even larger rad that will not connect to the 300 engine since hose connections are on opposite sides. You also need a 300/340V8 fan shroud for crossflow. Downflow shroud is completely different. Easy way to spot--crossflow is black plastic, downflow is dark gray fiberglass.
Thanks, more great information. I have more pictures to upload now. I have seen so many different pictures of radiator configuration. Would the correct cross flow radiator for this car have the top hose connection on the driver side and the lower hose on the passenger? And the filler cap would also be on the passenger side?
As I took a closer look at the hood latch I noticed it is only connected to the grill at the top location lower grill and lower cross member screws are missing. There is a large gap at the lower grill hole to the hood latch bracket and the lower hole of the bracket doesn't line up with the hole on the cross member, so I guess something is also incorrect for this car, possibly the hood latch assembly itself?
Found this on eBay and it looks like may be the right latch. I can see the two top holes for the grill are in line with each other and should fill the gap for the lower grill attachment hole. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4035563104...624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
After seeing your latest pics and the firewall tag, your car has a downflow radiator support. The hood latch support on Ebay is the correct one for downflow. Your firewall tag confirms it is an early built 65 (August 1964 build date), and confirms it was built as a V8 car. Someone has just swapped in a V6 radiator. Bottom line, you need to find a downflow V8 radiator and fan shroud. Your car has A/C, so it came with 3-row radiator. I actually have an original 65 downflow 3-row radiator and top mtg bracket, but it will need a recore.
Thanks for your help Brian! There were 65's built in August 1965 08C and 08D. The body number of 4620 suggests his 08E is a late 1965 build, not an early 65 built in August 1964. If this is a downflow rad support (I'll leave that to you, I can't ID them), it was swapped in to replace the original. I believe to make the car 'correct' it may need a crossflow rad support put back in. Thoughts?
This leads to a couple of other questions. Do you all know what hood latch and bracket I currently have? It definitely doesn't seem like it would be correct for any Skylark given how far away the lower grill attachment point is. Also, does anyone know what the measurement is on a cross flow shroud for the distance between the two holes on the bottom that line up with the tabs on the brackets?
When Buick switched to the crossflow rad support and hood latch support, they used a longer stud and a spacer between the support and grille. Spacer is about 1/2" long.
Interesting, thanks for the info, so the bracket points to the car having a cross flow originally. How can you tell the difference between the cross flow and down flow supports? Maybe the original one rusted out and the owner replaced it with what he could find.
We took out the radiator today and discovered a new problem, the radiator support had broken in the past and the previous owner once again went on the cheap to fix it, I have attached more pictures. Based on the history of the problems we have found with this car it is obvious that the previous owner did as little as possible to keep this car running, from the brakes to the transmission it has been a mess. I highly doubt this person took the radiator support out of the car and I suspect this one is original. Apparently he tried to weld the support back together while it was still in the car and it's barely attached. So this leads back to the root of our problem, what does a cross flow radiator support for a 65 look like? Will one from a 66 or 67 work as a replacement? The support is coming out one way or the other and we are either going to repair it correctly or replace it with the correct one. We just need to nail down some pictures of the correct support, lower brackets, shroud and top plate so we know what to fix/buy. Thanks again for the help past and future.
