Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
That has been my thinking and why I'm so interested in the oil line fittings. I'm pondering a 22" al rad with built in oil cooler and an external oil cooler plumbed in series with the rad cooler.
I had a hi-stall converter (about 2200 to 2400 rpm) installed, which I'm thinking was a mistake. Makes the car difficult to drive at slow speeds in tight situations, ie parking. I suspect an external cooler is required to keep trany oil cooled.
I don't want to change the rad support to 26" if I can help it, although a 26" rad with a shroud sure would be nice. My engine doesn't like stop and go city traffic, heats up too fast for my liking.
On the other hand, my engine has only gone 1215 km (755 miles) so it's probably still tight. The block was boiled, the water pump is new and he factory rad was re-cored so there isn't much left to make it run hot.
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Not sure, it was purchased from Victory Auto Parts in Athol. Victory is a Federated Auto Parts dealer.
The part number was "GMB 120-1200" which doen't tell me much. The suggested retail was $66.77 and Paul's dealer price was $27.53. At highway speeds all is well, over heating starts at slow speeds.
I'm very suspicious of the timing, timing advance and carb settings. Athol is about 2,392 ft above sea level, whereas Calgary is 3,938 or about 1,546 ft higher. I'm going to start by finding a Mopar expert to re-curve the distributor and set-up the carb. After that I can play with rads, pumps and fans.
Joined: Sat Aug 19 2006, 05:03PM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 2919
Make sure it's not one of those scroll-style impellers like 440 Source or Edelbrock. They don't flow enough below 2000 RPM. My low speed cooling problem was ultimately rectified by replacing my CAT scroll-vane pump with a Milodon HV pump. I also swapped-in a high flow thermostat at the same time, recommended by Milodon when using this pump.
I was running a 3-row 22" copper rad that had worked fine at keeping my 383-2bbl cool with its original water pump and OEM 4-blade fan, but wasn't up to the task of cooling my 451 with cast iron WP housing, CAT scroll-vane WP, Flex-a-lite fan. Had already tried adding an electric pusher fan and a shroud. After posting the following, I decided to try replacing the water pump:
I just reviewed the thread on dodgecharger.com that I linked to in my previous thread. In the followup comments since I last looked at it, many people on there agreed that the scroll-vane pumps are not good, and several people also recommend the Milodon HV pump.
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
There in is the problem when your car is being built too far away for regular visits to see what parts are being used. When I first read that thread I come to the conclusion that I would use a stock OEM water pump. Paul didn't like the idea of using my old pump so he bought a new one. Wish I could have seen the impeller. I'm going to ask Paul to get more info from Victory Auto Parts and maybe get Victory to bring in another new pump so Paul can take a few pictures.
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Not to further hi-jack this thread, I'd sure like to know more about those stupid oil line fittings on the AL rads. What kind of line pressure are we looking at? Is it low enough to allow flexible hose with gear type clamps or does it need to be hard line with flared ends? How about hydraulic hose. There is a shop here that will make any configuration of hydraulic hose you need, so maybe the solution is a short jumper hose with a Mopar flare fitting on one end for the transmission hard line and something that will fit the rad.
Joined: Wed Nov 17 2010, 03:28PM
Location: florida
Posts: 1311
There must be an adapter fitting that will work.i think my stock mopar rad had npt threads because i used an style fittings yrs ago on it.I use an alum rad now but again it has npt threads.
Joined: Thu Mar 22 2007, 08:13AM
Location: In the workshop
Posts: 1063
A few comments to previous posts:
Theres no need to change a 22" core support to fit a 26" radiator. All that is needed is a couple of simple brackets. Thats the way I did it.
Water pumps. Whichever is chosen, the flow has to suit the engine. If it the flow is to high, the engine can overheat because the coolant does not pick up enough heat. If its too slow, it picks up too much.
Transmission coolers. Cold atf can damage a transmission just as much as overheated atf. The radiator cooler warms up the oil quicker, which helps the first. An aftermarket auxiliary cooler stops the oil from getting overheated. In between, use a thermostat such as a Permacool 1060.
The big problem with rubber lines and worm clamps is that in my opinion, they're ugly. Thats part of the reason I changed over to female threaded bosses. They give a good choice of adaptors to fit the lines.
One thing that nobody has mentioned is the fact that stock lines go into the transmission via a 1/8" NPT adaptor. If anything, that is a major restriction, and therefore a possible cause of overheating.