'69 Mustang Aluminum Radiator

[afret]

Decided to swap from a 4 row brass radiator to aluminum.  The brass radiator had dual Spal fans and would cool well at low speeds but would tend to run a bit warm at highway speeds probably due to insufficient air flow even with the rubber flaps on the top and bottom parts of the shroud. And the thing weighed about 40 lbs!!!



Got a 3 pass two row aluminum radiator from US Radiator.  Ordered it with an extra drain in the bottom tank because of the divider in the tank to make it a 3 pass radiator.  Got a used dual fan setup from a Ford Contour which fit nicely.  The Contour fan shroud has two mounting arms on both left and right sides.  Got a 1"x1" aluminum "U" channel  and cut two pieces to size and bolted one to each mounting flange on the radiator.  Then drilled a hole through each mounting arm and then through the aluminum channel.    Bolted the arms to the aluminum channel and then cut off the excess from the mounting arms.  Saved about 16 lbs.





The assembly bolted on without any mods to the stock mounting brackets.  Only had to cut the mounting flange that was on the front of the radiator on each side that were just like the flanges on the rear side that the aluminum channels are bolted to.  Those flanges would hit the radiator support and would not let the radiator sit in the correct location.  Those flanges were already removed in the photo of the bare radiator above.




Each fan is powered by a separate relay.  One relay is connected to a 185* temperature sender and the other to a 195* sender and will turn the fans on at those temperatures.

It was a nice 65* day today so went for a short ride.  Only one fan would come on today at the relatively low outside temperature.  The temperature did not seem to creep up at highway speeds with this setup.  So far so good.  Seems to work better than the old radiator and fans but probably need to wait for the desert summer to find out for sure.  Was nice to lose all that weight though.

[ToddK]

Looks good, hopefully it should work well. I've been thinking about doing the same change on my cars. Is the any reason why I couldn't paint the radiator black to make it look more factory original?

[machoneman]

You could although I left my aluminum radiator in my '70 Mach 1 in its natural state. Many have noted it 1st even with the hood closed by saying hey, what's with the cool looking rad behind the grille? If you do paint it, use light coats of a good flat black as a thick coat will tend to prevent heat escape....kinda' the reason for a alum. rad in the first place!   

[jayb]

Earl, how does that electric water pump work for you?  I've been staying away from those on the street because when I called Meziere to ask about them they said the FE pumps they have available don't really flow enough to keep a 650+ HP engine cool during normal driving.  They suggested I get one of their remote mount pumps, which flow about 20% more.  I'm actually going to put one of those in my Shelby clone, but don't have the room in my other cars.  Of course, what I have been told is no substitute for actually trying it out, which is why I'm curious about your results...

[afret]

It works OK for the types of drives that I've been doing.  Mostly short 10 mile or so drives on roads with 45-55 MPH speed limits and some residential areas.  I don't know how it would work on long highway drives like what you do for Drag Week.  The temperature would creep up some on the highway portion of my drives but I think it was due to the design of the Spal dual fan shroud on my old radiator since that didn't happen with a single Spal fan.

For really long drives I think I might consider one of those 55 GPM Meziere radiator mount pumps or use an adapter to mount a 55 GPM unit for another engine on an FE.  I think Tom P was selling an adapter he made to mount a BBC pump on an FE some time ago.  I think it would be pretty simple for someone with your skills to make one of those.     I don't know which side of a BBC pump the inlet is on though.

[jayb]

That's a good idea on the BBC pump, I'll look into that...

[rcodecj]

Wow, nice job!
Are you saying that with the 1" channel, that the fan shroud tabs sat the fan on the radiator at the perfect height?
It sure looks like it.
I never get that lucky.
Nice job of fabricating. It looks great.

I run a Ron Davis radiator and fans.
http://www.rondavisradiators.com/67-70-Mustang-radiator.jpg
We've been friends for decades. I'm currently just running the fans and shroud on a brass radiator because I stole the aluminum radiator for my 67, but it cools the 390 fine. You're right about the weight, I install my radiator, fans, and shroud as one unit and it's a strain on the back to lift it up and in.

[thatdarncat]

Looks good, hopefully it should work well. I've been thinking about doing the same change on my cars. Is the any reason why I couldn't paint the radiator black to make it look more factory original?

Many years ago A radiator rebuilder I talked to told me the paint they use is special to allow better heat transfer and if I painted it with common spray paint it would encourage overheating. Don't know if it's true, just what I was told.

[mmason]

Eastwood makes a radiator paint.
http://www.eastwood.com/ew-radiator-black-paint-gloss-aerosol-12-oz.html

[machoneman]

It's true that a thick coat of any paint will slow heat transfer. Back in the day when I'd frequent the radiator repair shops here in Chicago, they would always hit a rebuild with a thin but complete spray of a flat to semi-gloss black paint. Not sure if it was anything special.  But a thin coat of flat black paint, with emphasis on the word thin, would duplicate what the factories did for old school brass radiators.  

[cdmbill2]

I finished the new radiator install in my 71 Mustang and while the motivating power isn't an FE there my be some relevance.

I put in a new Afco dual pass radiator with a Mezeire direct mount pump. The first dirving tests have been great so far in low 70* weather here in SoCal. The intended use is much like Jay's cars, that is real driving and Drag Week. DW ''11 was a problem with the then new engine and a poorly upgraded cooling system I did in a hurry.

I am confident in the new system as I never even had to run the fan and it stayed at or below 180. This ia a 588" BBF that makes right around 1000 at the crank so the test is reasonably valid. I painted the radiator tanks black on the outside as I don't care for the look through the grill.

The bumper hasn't been remounted but you get the idea. The transcooler is on the left and the oil cooler on the right.

[jayb]

Love that water pump setup, Bill.  Glad to hear that the radiator seems to have solved the overheating problems.  What thermostat are you running, or are you running one?  Give us an update when the weather out there gets a little warmer...

[66FAIRLANE]

Love that water pump setup, Bill. 

Yes. Is that this inline pump custom mounted?

http://www.meziere.com/ps-1150-1118-wp337s.aspx

Or is it one I can't find?

I have tried the Davies Craig inline ones made here in Oz (maybe) with absolutely zero success. Keen to see how this works out.

[cdmbill2]

It is a standard Mezeire part located under radiator mounted pumps in theri online catalog.

http://www.meziere.com/ps-1176-1144-wp362.aspx



The system definitly works. I drove the car to our local Saturday morning cars and coffee deal know as Donut Derelicts. Headed down PCH at 60 MPH at 6 AM the outside temp was 45* and the water temp fell to 140 with just the pump, no Fan. I actually cycled thet fan off and on to keep the temp above 160 and I'd prefer 180-185.

I haven't used a conventional thermostat since I went to the electric fan and water pump route. I had a CSI water pump controller but it wouldn't store the settings after getting too wet on DW back in '07 and I've just managed it manually since. I'm looking at variable controller for it now so it can warm up with very low volume of flow much like a thermostat with holes drilled in it as some people do. The fan is contolled by the EFI EMS box and I have a switch to run both with the engine off to cool it between dragstrip passes when necessary. The ET's have always been quickest if I pull out of staging lanes with the water temp at 140 and as much oil temp as I can keep in it.

[cammerfe]

This thread is just one more example of the value of this forum.

KS