A new Cold

[blkcorvair]

Jes got my custom fabbed Alum. rad today and started the pre fit checks. A bit of manuvering but should go well. Had to make a 10" pusher fan but bolted up quite nice and had to get a 25mm longer belt to swing the alternator over away from the outlet thats now on the top. Ill have to weld some custom adjustment arm for the alternator but this honking radiator should keep it all cold. Lighter than stock, but 2 1" core rows will be cooling the H20. new rad is very close in width and hieght but 1 1/4" thicker, and added the conveinece of a drain petcock. More to come.

 

[jlaird]

Wow, lovely.

 

[tosoutherncars]

Blimey! Looks great, Scott!

 

[aeronca65t]

Nice!

I got a new rad when I accidentally stuck a large screwdriver through my old one

(but I just had my old one re-cored, so it's not so pretty).

Keep up the good work!

FYI: I alway ran a blanking plate on mine (even when it was on the street). Made one by just cutting the valve and spring part out of an old thermostat. At the races, it rarely exceeds 170 F. On the street I had a small, Japanese-car pusher fan with manual switch. Always stayed cool.
In my MGB, I'm running a 165 F thermostat and that seems fine too.

 

[blkcorvair]

Running the homeade restrictor plate too, with a small 10" pusher fan. The '75 radiator had the inlet nd outlet both on the bottom so I would think water would pass through the lower half rather than utilizing the whole rad. Plus it has less than 40 tubes anyhow. Sure this will lower the temps. also the new placement of the alternator will allow me to remove the #1 plug without taking the belt off everytime. An Added +!! If it runs too cold Ill just put a thermostat back in it.

 

[58Custom]

Sexy!

General question: Why not make a two-pass rad so that the inlet and outlet end up on the same side thus eliminating the need for the crossover pipe and the extra rubber elbow?

 

[blkcorvair]

No cross over pipe here. Thought of a double pass, but would then need a croos ovber pipe.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

The 79-80 VW Rabbit radiator made great radiator for Spridget, they are crossflow, and if you can locate a Valeo aluminum core, palstiuc side tank they weight like 5 pounds, for $100. The key is get rid of all the old radiator shrouding. Pusher fans or ok, buth they just block air flow unless they are running.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Her's a shot of the hose arrangment, get rid of the cross over pipe, and makes everything acessable on the front of the engine. This is one cool running radiator in a Spridget, lots of racers have use them over the years.

 

[JPSmit]

Hap is there an equivalent shot of that rad on a 1500?

 

[Hap Waldrop]

No, I've never built a 1500 Midget race car, but other than maybe the hoses being different the mounting of the radiator would be the same.

 

[jlaird]

Hap, again your pics are to drool over. Well done.

 

[tosoutherncars]

Hap,

Does the front panel (and fenders?) need to come off for mounting? You can then refit it, for those of us without the one-piece front end?

For those interested, I'll be sure to document it if I try this with my 1500.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Hap,

Does the front panel (and fenders?) need to come off for mounting? You can then refit it, for those of us without the one-piece front end?

For those interested, I'll be sure to document it if I try this with my 1500.

oH yeah, it's a preety good size job, because you get rid of all the old shrouding, all you're left with the way i do it of the old assembly is the vaalnce between the front fender the rest of it is all gone, and to acess all that the fenders have to come off. I guess you could try to cut away enough of the shrouding to get full acess to the VW radiator, but I would just get rid of it all. The race cars are built so that with about a half dozen fastner you can remove the fneder, front valance, grille all in one section, so that can be taken off stood up, and you have full acess to work on the car, it not something I take off much at the track, but it always gets taken off when it returns back to the shop. Y new vintage car, you'll even be able to remove the doors in 5 seconds, but the will still be hinged and swing. For me it all about be able to field strip the car in the shop and make it real easy to work on in the shop. The older I get, the more I want to make stuff real easy to get to, the new car will feature alot of easily removeable items, ad easy acess are to get to stuff like the pedals and such.

 

[blkcorvair]

I kicked around that conversion, Just all my stuffs been painted and finished, Hated the thought of cutting it all back out. Right now my fenders hang on the rad support with 5 Screws each and then the rad support with 6 screws. All breaks down in 15 minutes. So I figured for a bit more money I could get a custom rad fit to my specs that wouldnt take too much to fit. Paid $425 for the one above. May get to mount it tonight, jes have a crank scrapper / windage tray going in first.

 

[blkcorvair]

New Radiator In!

New Radiator Finished. As I expected too cold. Ran down to 145deg. Guess Im putting a thermostat back in it. Amazing though, It dropped 60 deg in temp from the stock rad which I had just boiled out. Heres some pics. Check out the extension bracket to move the alternater outta the way. Now I can change the #1 plug without removing the alternter bolts and belt.

 

[jlaird]

Re: New Radiator In!

Wow, that really worked well.

 

[aeronca65t]

Re: New Radiator In!

Looks great!
And too cold is easier to deal with than too hot.

Check out the extension bracket to move the alternater outta the way. Now I can change the #1 plug without removing the alternter bolts and belt.

I have the same problem....keep meaning to fix it.
Mine has a small, 32 amp Mitsu 3-wire alternator with an oversize pully (to reduce alternator speed).