Joined: Thu May 01 2008, 11:15AM
Location: Chicago,IL
Posts: 2868
will do when I get a chance. I've now driven it a few times, including to work today, and while it's been cool out still, the car has stayed very cool and the radiator doesn't leak!
Joined: Sun Jul 13 2014, 10:04PM
Location: Mechanicsburg , PA
Posts: 151
Where did you get the shroud?
Krautmaster wrote ...
My 5 year old Spectra premium copper/brass radiator was taken out by a swarm of grasshoppers, 3/8" thick tumbleweed stem and a small rock all at 90mph - all these things went through the hole in the bumper above the liscence plate and left three pin holes that leaked at a fair rate, and the radiator wouldn't hold pressure anymore.
I searched around for a decent aluminum one and discovered that two rows of 1" tubes cools a lot better than 3 or 4 rows of tubes (greater contact area, etc). Champion Radiator (also known as American Eagle) sells C body radiators in two or three row varieties through their website or E-Bay. I ordered their "American Eagle AE332" two row radiator on a Sunday night and had it on Wednesday morning. Looks like good quality, especially for the $179 free shipping price.
Only one problem: The transmission oil cooler connectors are welded in, and they are too small for the factory stock nuts which are 1/2''. The cooler connectors are only .455", so the nuts won't tighten, they'll just leak like a sieve. I opted to add an external trans cooler (I've been meaning to for years) and bypass the radiator cooler altogether. I went with the second largest Plate and Fin cooler NAPA sells, made for trucks, SUV's and motor homes towing 5,000lbs.
I also ordered a 1/2" thick radiator "honeycomb" protective sheild used by dirt track racers to keep the mud and stuff out of their radiators (in my case it is to protect the delicate fins from the destructive grasshoppers and tumble weeds (it is available through Summit or Jegs). I cut it to fit in the recessed area of the radiator bulkhead and fastened it to the radiator with those plastic pins used to mount oil coolers. I installed a high flow 180F thermostat and replaced the brass drain petcock with a sacrificial anode to prevent electrolytic corrosion of the dissimilar metals, and filled it up with the good old green antifreeze.
Even running her really hard (zero to 110mph, ten or twelve times in rapid sucession) it has not gotten above 190F. Previously two or three blasts would heat it up to 230F or more. See the pics for installation ideas:
Joined: Mon Nov 09 2009, 07:40PM
Location: NE Ohio
Posts: 220
Krautmaster wrote ...
It came with the car on the original radiator, fits on the champion radiator perfectly!!!!
That alone is making me switch mine. I have a generic summit or jegs (cant)" remember cross flow radiator on my car. While it has been absolutely great with a 5 blade mechanical clutch fan even in traffic at 100+ degrees I don't have a shroud.
Same here. I did the Ford Explorer aluminum rad swap and just need a shroud such as this to finish off......don't get me wrong...i love my fingers,i just think with a shroud i will have them a little longer!
Joined: Sun Jan 07 2007, 07:37PM
Location: London,Ontario
Posts: 166
I too bought a Champion for my '65 Fury which will soon be housing a very stout 600 Hp 512 sroker so cooling is of the utmost important, especially reserve cooling ability. In my quest for the maximum cooling here's what I discovered and this is what I did. Surprisingly the best mix for glycol/water is actually a mix of 20% glycol and 80% distilled water. Glycol actually has poor heat absorbtion and only aids in scale and rust prevention and freeze ups. Great to run in the summer but don't forget to replace it for winter storage. Just hanging to this mix ratio dropped my engine temp by 10 degrees without any other changes. Further to this change, I installed front shroud pieces on either side of the rad. They are metal wings that start out at the width of the rad and sloop outwards 7 1/2 inches at the grill. The air that is compressed inwards at the forward face of the rad resulted in my electric cooling fan not coming on at all when clocking down from high speeds or not at all at lower speeds when it usually did. It never comes on at high cruising. I can't say enough about electric fans for cooling if sized properly and coupled with a good electronic controller. I use a Spal 2850 Cubic inch per minute fan coupled with a Dakota Digital controller and the results are amazing. The controller handles both my engine and transmission cooling duties and it is set to run on for two minutes after engine shut-down to prevent hot-soak. It use to be I had to open the hood to cool the engine after a hard run but those days are gone. It is capable of much longer delays ( up to seven minutes ) but two minutes does me just fine even when I garage the car. I don't run my transmission cooling through the rad, neither does my truck or new car. I just can't understand adding unecessary heat to my coolant when I only drive the car in summer. This might be a great idea if a vehicle is winter driven but I prefer cooling the tranny as opposed to heating it up, or perhaps under cooling it. I've read a lot of negative reviews about water pump housings and pumps from 440 Source and I concur that they're nothing short of junk. You can't beat a factory Mopar water pump for an A/C equipped car - end of story. Some have tried, most have failed. Chrysler certainly knew what they were doing when they engineered their water pumps and housings. T-stats are another concern I had for quality engine temperature control and I soon learned that all thermostats are not created equal. Balanced-flow stats or "super-stats" are the way to go when heat issues come into question. They do not cycle needlessly and permit an equal pressure of the coolant on both sides of the thermostat which really aids in headroom for cooling under heavy heat producing conditions when coolant flow is of the utmost concern. Some refer to them as balanced sleeve thermostats and some Super Stats because upon failure they're always in the "open" position which most everyone would prefer. Well, there's my two weeks of research on engine cooling but you can check out the facts yourself and I think you'll be as surprised as I was to learn these facts. All information was gathered from reputable sources except glycol manufacturers who really need to sell their product by the bucket full. Yes I do have a Champion rad and am very pleased with it except in my case I had to alter the mounting flange slightly to get it to bolt in.