Harrison Radiator Applications & Identification for A-Bodies

More headaches,
If James got a 1968 radiator out of a 71 Cutlass then it was replaced sometime during it's life, and would not be original to that car. Using date codes and part numbers is how we figure out if parts have been changed.

When going thru a car, "I always assume everything is wrong until checked, and then get pleasantly surprised when things are correct."

I have also seen "patterns of correctness" when purchasing a regular parts car from different areas.

I live in the NE, where they use a lot of salt and the bodies rot away. Parts cars from my area often have most of their original parts on the car. This is due to the fact that the bodies rotted away before the mechanical parts wore out. I have noticed that many of the California/SW/or Southern parts cars have this reversed. There the bodies stay intact longer so the vehicles have a longer life span, and all kinds of mechanicals get replaced.

Now I don't see this type of pattern with the specialty cars but did notice it in your typical "run of the mill" parts cars.
Something else to think about.

And now on to the Biggest Headache with all of this;

If you are going to make any type of meaningful chart out of this info, then you need to go to the Assembly Manuals, get a copy of each year radiator chart, and then go thru the revision blocks at the top right hand corner of the page and see what they were doing at the time. That is the only way you will be able to figure this out. This will let you know which radiators were dropped/added/ or revised during the production year.

For the 1970 AM, the latest copy I have of that page shows 12 different revisions
For the 1971 AM, the latest copy I have of that page shows 6 revisions

Now I grant you probably all of the revisions do not show changes to the radiators, but show changes to other parts of the drawing, but you would still need to go thru each one to see what was going on during the production year.

Over the years I have done a lot of research on these cars, but I have never had the time to do anything definitive about this subject.

What you will end up with is multiple charts, say "snapshots", where you can say what they were doing during a specific time period, and even then you will never catch where they substituted parts.

If one of you guys wants to go for it, then have at it.
Duane

 

Another thing to note here,
The production year started in August of the previous year and ended in July of that year; therefore a December/January car would be a mid production car and not an early car.
Duane

 

Heavy Duty cooling also got a different fan clutch and all the AC pulleys even if not equipped with AC as also Stage1. As I understand it stage 1 was not available with heavy Dufy cooling because it came with it already.

 

In 71 Heavy Duty cooling also came with A longer water pump.

 

I went through my collection of build sheets and pulled the following information. Just to confuse things more.

The two 1970 GS455 cars built in Fremont were 2 body numbers apart, both with AC, but they used different radiator codes. The SW code car did also have Heavy Duty Cooling.

My 68 GS400 Convertible came with an SE code radiator according to the build sheet, but the 68 assembly manual with the last revision of 4/3/68 says that radiator is for an L6. The correct code for a 400 should have been SS with AC or SF without. The SE does not appear to be a typo since the same code appeared on two other Wilmington build sheets.

 

...my understanding of what I had read in 2019 was that in '70, Buick had 2 GS "upsize" radiators, SJ and SW. Ordering Stage1 or GSX got you the first (SJ). If you also ordered A/C, you got the second (SW). If you didn't order Stage1 on a GS455, and you ordered A/C, you got the first (SJ). Buick made this confusing with terms "HD Radiator, HD Cooling, and Extra HD Cooling" when describing cooling upgrades. Plus, ordering a GS in '70 effectively used 3 different order forms, GS, GS455, and GSX. Ordering got a little clearer in '71 when GS became one form and options. Buick also added I3 option in '71 (Extra Heavy Duty Radiator) along with I7 (Heavy Duty Cooling), but again did a poor job of labelling and explaining them and their relationship to each other and I6 (A/C). I think persons tasked with describing cooling upgrades focused on radiator codes rather than levels of cooling needed to support options.

As Duane pointed out, subject is further complicated by GMAD vs Flint jurisdiction, substitutions, and incomplete revision audit trail. Plus, by ‘72 edition of Buick Master Parts Book, Radiator Group 1.219, entries that earlier had SJ or SW part #s now had SS part#, affecting any OEM replacements early on.

Ultimately, you need your "build sheet" to validate factory installed radiator, which may not be what was specified. For the rest of us, we should be able to come up with an acceptable "spec chart." I started on this back then for '70-'71, but couldn't find enough info to finish. This raises question based on available info, what should be scope of chart?

 

...is the SW one a Stage1, or did it have I7...

 

Both are 1970 Fremont cars so not Stage 1's. The SW does also have I7 Heavy Duty Cooling.

 

I am not going to try and explain anything Just posting some data that I have collected. That data is from GMAD built cars, not Flint.

The code on my 68 GS build sheet does not make any sense either since it calls out a 6 cyl engine radiator.

 

AC included HD cooling and a larger radiator. It also included all the other I7 items but according to the note on I7 on the order form, apparently not the "extra Heavy-duty radiator" hence the difference in the 2 Freemont GS 455 cars. I bet given it was a Freemont car that the the I7 car was destined for desert use & whoever ordered it (whether special ordered or for stock) carefully read the order form & wanted that radiator. Was I7 a different cost on an AC car vs. on a non-AC car? Seems like it should've been given the on an AC the only difference was the radiator itself and even then was only one step up whereas on a non-AC car I7 included everything and a radiator that was seemingly 2 steps up.

What are the actual differences between an SJ, SW, & SS radiator (maybe this was covered earlier). I assume all were 3-core? Obviously the tags would tell story even if we don't know exactly what the code for the core means. (Edit, I see the SS & SW tags posted & the use a different tank and core).

As a side note (I realize nobody cares about 350 cars), the order form states that a '70 GS 350 w/I7 HD Cooling got a fuel return line but the assembly manual says otherwise & that only AC cars got the return line. I'm planning on adding HD cooling to my no-AC '70 350 4-sp. & assuming the assy. manual is correct so wasn't going to add the return line. In '71, that changed according to the assembly manual HD cooling is what drove the addition of the return line instead of AC as in '70.

 

Air conditioned 350 cars are good sources for SJ radiators. Have them re-cored with Maine high efficiency cores and it will perform like a heavy duty radiator.

 

SS & SJ radiators use the same tanks but with different cores, and without checking I think the SB rad uses the same tanks as well.

SW radiators are a whole different animal. I believe they use the same driver side tank “IA” but use a much larger passenger tank, and use a much larger 3-core then the other radiators.

They are Big radiators and if you ever pick one up you will know.

As stated earlier the SJ rads are found in many 350 AC cars and 455 non-AC cars, so they are pretty common.

The SW rads are the big boys on the block, regarding Buick’s, and (depending on the sheets you look at) we’re on BB cars with AC and had other applications. Again you need to look at the sheets to determine exactly what they fit.

Also, if you look at the assembly manual page that was posted on the first page of this thread, you will see that if a car was ordered with Heavy Duty Cooling it automatically got the SW radiator. Even a 6-cylinder would have got one.
Duane

PS,
Just so you know the sheet posted is the later of the two 70 versions for this sheet. The earlier version of the assembly manual (first jobs, as they were called) has no mention of a GSX, as they had not been designed yet, therefore that sheet has very different info on it.

The reason the 70 Assembly manual was changed in the first place was to include all the GSX info for the mid-year opening.

 

...because it satisfies one of reasons for rad upgrading, it's a Stage 1, but not A/C. Had it also had A/C, it would (should) have gotten SW. So far, my understanding of what Buick was doing with rad upgrades is holding true. One cooling system upgrade gets you an SJ (or later an SS), two gets you an SW. We're making progress. Don't think radiator, think cooling system load or an ordered upgrade (I3, I7 maybe someone was planning to tow)...