Okay, so here's my question. I bought a new radiator for my car today becuase I busted my old one. It was an original ford radiator, but had been changed back in the early 70's when my uncle wrecked it. It is smaller in width that the replacement that I got from the auto parts. The replacement will work, but my question is, was the ford one that was in the car out of a 6cyl and the replacment for a v-8, or whats the difference? My car is a 289.

 

dual and triple cores I believe, I put a triple core in my 66.. a little deeper but does alot better job cooling over the previous dual core "thinner" one i had before...

 

The original rads were 2 core for both the I6 and the 289. I replaced mine with a 4 core and it slipped right in. I have 1 1/2 inches between the rad and the fan, and the new shroud fits perfectly. My spacer on the fan is about 2 inches long, so if I had not been lucky, I could have changed the spacer to a shorter one.

 

It's not thicker, as in the number of cores, it is wider as in the actual dimensions of the radiator. Lets see If I can describe what I'm saying. the top part, with the radiator cap on it, is longer than the one that was in the car.

 

Still slides right in though.

 

Yeah, it works and the wider the better because of cooling power, but I was just curious.