Radiator and cooling options

Well,... I finally got something put together for a new cooling system and it seems to be working much better than what I had. Thought I'd share what I ended up going with in case it might help others.

When I tore my old system apart, I realized the previous owner cobbled together pulleys to make something fit. He was running a 3 groove crank pulley (No AC or PS in my car) and apparently had a hard time finding a water pump pulley because he welded in a spacer in the inside of the pulley he chose, then added washers to space it out even further. I don't know how he ever got it installed without a wobble because it had no back support, so as you tightened each bolt the pulley would lean that direction. I ended up going to Mancini racing and buying their single groove BB pulleys for crank and water pump.

I chose a 22" Champion 3-core radiator and shroud. I had to open up the mounting slots just a bit on the radiator and shroud, but it ended up fitting in pretty good. The shroud left a 3/4" gap along the top and bottom though, so I got a 2" wide strip of 1/16" ABS and formed it to the top and bottom of the shroud to fill the gap, then riveted it into place. I then slit a length of 1.8" ID hose and put it over the ABS I added to work as a seal.

I got a Derale performance flex fan. I'm not a big fan of flex fans, especially the aluminum bladed ones, because most seem to only be rated for 4000 rpm's. This one is rated to 8000 rpms and is steel framed with stainless blades. I'm not racing this thing and will rarely (if ever) go much over 5000 rpms, so I'm good with it. Now having the right shroud on there,.... this thing moves a lot of air. Added a FlowKooler water pump that seemed to get real good ratings and a Miloden high flow thermostat.

Obviously it's not warm enough to really test it, but I was able to run the car in my garage for over a half hour with no issues. My old system would have just sat there getting hotter and hotter. Now it warms to just under 180 (about 178 on my gauge) and the thermostat opens. Coolant starts to flow through the radiator and the gauge drops right back down to about 170-175. You can watch the thermostat operate on the temp gauge. Does the same when driving in town in stop and go traffic where I used to overheat. We'll see where it runs next summer when it is a little warmer out.

I took some pictures of the new setup, but forgot my phone at home today. I will try to remember to post some up tonight.