Trevor, sorry I've missed most of this, but my buddy who also built a SC BE has had this same prob. There are friends who race bugeyes forever who told me that the old BE cores had a copper piece that zig zagged accross the vert. tubes and attached both to the tubes and the fins. With age soldier broke and the rad became worthless. In the time there was a tropical rad that had three vert rows. Anyway, my buddy found somebody who would use his tanks and get a three row core. 54 tubes in the 2 row, 97 in the new one, same thickness. When he got it home the bottom tank wasn't in the same position and John had to heat and bend the back side to clear the steering rack. You can't see it. I'll let you know who it does when it heats up. I don't run a mechanical fan off the engine. The electric fan sits in front and just fits when the nose comes down. I seldom have to use it, but I keep an eye on the temp gauge.