Oh god, if the rest of the engine looks like this on the inner cooling jackets, no wonder why it has all sorts of problems. There is a thermostat in there, however it's stuck open. So either it's a regular thermostat and it just failed, or it's an all crudded up regular thermostat, or it's a fail safe thermostat locked in the safety position (open). My money is on the crud option.

And this is precisely why I ABHOR aluminum radiators. I have replaced more aluminum radiators for this reason that I ever had to replace brass copper ones. This radiator has more corrosion than the entire car does.

And it's in stereo.... Both lower sides are rotting away.

Oh goody I can't wait to take off the coolant pump, I bet there's all sorts of unpleasant things in there.

I should mention that's not antifreeze, it's some kind of additive that guy used with water. It doesn't smell like antifreeze (glycol) nor feel like it. It feels like water, plus it stinks. Probably is just water with food colouring for all I know.

Here's more oh my gosh pictures.

This is the radiator, it's a Griffin but because the radiator is directly connected to the transmission via the steel cooler lines it's electrically connected to the chassis/body. So when a little moisture with minor salts sits between the aluminum radiator and the steel mounts, it acts like a galvanic battery and the aluminum dissolves and the current flows.

Now this is interesting it looks like it sprung a leak a while back at the top and someone tried to seal it with JB Weld or something. Well it didn't work and that was leaking too. So this cooling system couldn't pressurize.

Someone put layers of rubber on the lower mounts, but you can see the corrosion from the aluminum radiator. Now if they would have painted the radiator in a thick enamel or such around the perimeter, it might have survived.

I found the receipt for the Griffin radiator and said direct fit. But yet they had to bash and flatten the lower mounts.

Direct fit my butt.

They had to bend one of the upper mounts too and also add layers of thin rubber. Yeah sure direct fit...

And the fan and shroud that was on the car. Now the shroud is the correct shroud, but it's broken. The fan is about 2 sizes too small and way to flex-o-matic for my liking.

Another high quality Edelbrock product... Did I just type that

I will say this it is pretty clean on the inside.

Here's the disassembly so far, is this the extent? Nah, I'm feeling like Al Pacino --> I'm just getting warmed up!