Good guy alert! Radiator review.

[V8-valiant]

Ok guys I am working on getting my valiant back on the road, last time it was together it had a 10-1 stock stroke small block in it and I chose to go with a champion radiator. It was always getting hot. This time around I knew I wanted to try something different. I wanted to get a 26” in it, after getting recommended to Cold Case Radiators and speaking with Chris I knew they were gonna get my business. We figured out what radiator and fan combo was best for what I had planned and that’s when I called Eric to place the order. Got it all ordered up and a few days later came the goodies. I went with a 2 core 26” radiator with 1.25 cores and their dual electric fans. Upon inspection of the parts I found that like is commonly and issue it was damaged during shipping. I contacted Eric and Chris and they sent a replacement right out! These products look much better than the champion radiator by far, I can’t speak for factory correct fitment because I’m not going that route. Still working in fitting 10lbs into a 5lbs bag but will definitely keep you all posted on how it cools when it’s up and running. I would definitely recommend these guys if your in the market for some cooling assistance, they are easy to talk to and will help you out any way they can. Ok now for the pictures! Enjoy!

 

[xLURKxDOGx]

Excellent. How much for the setup?

Jake

 

[sabre67]

Chris is a great guy to talk to Hes a vendor on this site

 

[72bluNblu]

Excellent. How much for the setup?

Jake

According to the website, the radiator is $399

The dual 12” fans and shroud are another $150

The wiring kit for the fans is another $100

So, $650 for everything shown there, at least according to the cold case website.

The fans are only rated at 2800 cfm, which isn’t enough (in my experience anyway) to run as a stand alone electric fan on a car that gets driven in hot climates. Which is assuming they actually pull 2,800 cfm running side by side in that particular shroud, because the fans are rated at 1400 each and that’s by themselves, not paired up in a custom shroud. That’s not something you just add together, you’d have to get a flow rating for those fans in that shroud for it to be accurate.

 

[Ccas]

So, $650 for everything shown there, at least according to the cold case website.

The fans are only rated at 2800 cfm, which isn’t enough (in my experience anyway) to run as a stand alone electric fan on a car that gets driven in hot climates. Which is assuming they actually pull 2,800 cfm running side by side in that particular shroud, because the fans are rated at 1400 each and that’s by themselves, not paired up in a custom shroud. That’s not something you just add together, you’d have to get a flow rating for those fans in that shroud for it to be accurate.

72, I know you have been critical of claims that mfg's make. In particular and more recently, Cold Case. And as annoying as it is on a personal level for me it's good for the industry. If forces mfg's to raise the bar and backup claims. I've been taking heat from Forum Ralph Nader's for more than 25 years! ;)
So here is a very appropriate test that would address the fan issue very clearly that we just completed in June.
1967 GTO 4 speed car dual quad w/ 462 Stroker motor. When moving, we always run about 190 but we always had trouble keeping this car cool in stop and go driving. Factory 4 row radiator with mechanical fan and OEM shroud temps would climb and soon enough we'd have to pull over. We puked on several occasions. We tried many different combinations of fans, shroud, channeling air through the grill better, t-stats, wp, tuning etc. Same results. We upgraded to a Rodney Red dual 1" aluminum radiator and kept everything else the same. This was an improvement but it just took longer to overheat in city driving. Finally we installed a Mark V dual 1 1/4" aluminum radiator with very expensive dual 12" Spal fans and a custom built aluminum shroud. Success! The car ran 190 most of the time and crept up to 200 on very hot days with a LOT of stop and go driving. No matter how long we drove the car, the temps would not exceed 200. In may we installed our Cold Case vertical tank dual 1 1/4" radiator (the same dimensions as the Mark V) our dual 12" fans and our fan shroud. Been driving it in all conditions for the past 2 months and the car runs 190 most of the time and under heavy stop and go driving on a hotter day, runs no more than 200.

Nothing else about the car was changed. By specs, our car should not be able to stay as cool as the Spal kit. But it does.

 

[Ccas]

btw, I have been giving forum members special pricing for select cars so we can build up a base of good first hand information of results of our products. If anyone is interested in participating, shoot me a PM.

 

[yellow rose]

btw, I have been giving forum members special pricing for select cars so we can build up a base of good first hand information of results of our products. If anyone is interested in participating, shoot me a PM.

The only thing I see I don't like is the overflow hose pointing the wrong way. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single performance MoPar that had the overflow on the drivers side.

Nit picky I know, but it is what it is.

 

[72bluNblu]

72, I know you have been critical of claims that mfg's make. In particular and more recently, Cold Case. And as annoying as it is on a personal level for me it's good for the industry. If forces mfg's to raise the bar and backup claims. I've been taking heat from Forum Ralph Nader's for more than 25 years! ;)
So here is a very appropriate test that would address the fan issue very clearly that we just completed in June.
1967 GTO 4 speed car dual quad w/ 462 Stroker motor. When moving, we always run about 190 but we always had trouble keeping this car cool in stop and go driving. Factory 4 row radiator with mechanical fan and OEM shroud temps would climb and soon enough we'd have to pull over. We puked on several occasions. We tried many different combinations of fans, shroud, channeling air through the grill better, t-stats, wp, tuning etc. Same results. We upgraded to a Rodney Red dual 1" aluminum radiator and kept everything else the same. This was an improvement but it just took longer to overheat in city driving. Finally we installed a Mark V dual 1 1/4" aluminum radiator with very expensive dual 12" Spal fans and a custom built aluminum shroud. Success! The car ran 190 most of the time and crept up to 200 on very hot days with a LOT of stop and go driving. No matter how long we drove the car, the temps would not exceed 200. In may we installed our Cold Case vertical tank dual 1 1/4" radiator (the same dimensions as the Mark V) our dual 12" fans and our fan shroud. Been driving it in all conditions for the past 2 months and the car runs 190 most of the time and under heavy stop and go driving on a hotter day, runs no more than 200.

Nothing else about the car was changed. By specs, our car should not be able to stay as cool as the Spal kit. But it does.

It’s nice to see that you have at least one real world example of those fans working to keep a similar style of car cool. Obviously different makes/models have their own intricacies as far as pulley ratio’s, pump volumes and frontal areas. Some makes/models are more prone to overheating than others and when aftermarket parts get involved it can be hard to compare from one to another. But cooling at low speeds takes the aerodynamics out of it and the fact that the temps were creeping up in stop and go traffic before suggests those fans are working better than the other ones that were used.

Fan CFM is one of those things that can be kinda hard to compare, it can vary a lot depending on how the tests are done. Like comparing head flow numbers from different flow benches or dyno results from different dyno’s. It’s pretty safe to assume most fans are rated pretty generously with though, especially when it comes to aftermarket fans. OE fans aren’t typically marketed for aftermarket sale, and the OE testing is more regimented, so they tend to be more reliable for cfm numbers.

I know the dual electric fans on my car are rated at 3,000 cfm on the low speed and over 5,000 cfm on the high speed. And when I’m out and about in traffic when it’s 105+ degrees here my fans do run on the high speed. Not all the time, but the temps do climb enough for the controller to kick up to high speed if the car sits around long enough. Now, most folks aren’t still driving their muscle cars at all when it’s 105+ degrees out, let alone in traffic, so maybe my requirements are at the high end of the scale. But I wouldn’t even try to run anything rated less than 3000 cfm. It would take at least a few folks running that fan set up in the same bodystyle car with a similar set up and and conditions to mine before I even considered it.

I’m not saying they won’t work, and I’d love for the OP to post his findings when he gets everything put together and on the road. I just thought it was worth mentioning because there are definitely people on this board that have tried running lower cfm rated electric fans without success.

 

[V8-valiant]

Excellent. How much for the setup?

Jake

If I remember correctly it was around $600 for the whole setup. Radiator, fans & schroud, and complete wiring kit with shipping.

 

[mopower440]

btw, I have been giving forum members special pricing for select cars so we can build up a base of good first hand information of results of our products. If anyone is interested in participating, shoot me a PM.

Im interested in the special pricing to see if your 22" with the big tubes will keep my BB dart cool as opposed the stock 22".. we talked about it before but needing a price before I do it. I need the bottom hose on the passenger side and top hose on the drivers.

 

[Ccas]

Im interested in the special pricing to see if your 22" with the big tubes will keep my BB dart cool as opposed the stock 22".. we talked about it before but needing a price before I do it. I need the bottom hose on the passenger side and top hose on the drivers.

pm sent

 

[Charrlie_S]

I know the dual electric fans on my car are rated at 3,000 cfm on the low speed and over 5,000 cfm on the high speed.

At what static pressure? Cfm means nothing without knowing the static pressure. Most advertised CFM for electric fans is 0 static pressure, and the CFM can vary greatly between similar "0" static rated fans once static pressure is brought into the equasion.