'66 A Body folks, please...

Thanks for trying to save me some money. (Unless I end up buying a new radiator!) True, my factory gauge doesn't show degrees, and being 49 years old with only "factory accuracy" to begin with, I don't know what the actual coolant temp is. What has concerned me is seeing the needle slowly creep upward from a steady reading about mid-scale (comfortably in the "normal" range) to the upper end of the "normal" range. I've only seen this at highway speed on a hot Texas highway in the summertime and with the A/C running. I've never seen it pass the upper line of that scale. Letting caution be the better part of valor, I've always pulled over and let the car idle 'til the gauge was about centered again.

I hadn't heard anyone say that the hot underhood air was going back around through the radiator, but the air coming through the grill IS going to follow the path of least resistance. It's not hard for me to think that there is SOME resistance even through a clean radiator, A/C condenser and tranny cooler with straight fins. Over the top of the radiator, under it, or through the cooling parts - I certainly can't say which is the path of least resistance.

I'm not in a big hurry to spend money foolishly buying a relatively cheap piece of rubber when what I REALLY need is a relatively expensive new radiator. I'm changing to an R-134 A/C system, and maybe the Sanden compressor will help with the cooling.

Thanks again to all for the input! To keep this thread kinda centered what I'd really like is to hear from someone who installed the hood to radiator weatherstrip and ACTUALLY DID get an improvement. Seems to me that Ma Mopar didn't hang that thing under the hood 'cause it's pretty!

But, as always, I could be wrong.....

BC