radiator placement question

[BFS57]

Experts & Diy's;

I want to know if there is a (kind of) set of rules to follow when placing a radiator in front of your motor to get the "most" cooling possible! Let me explain.

I have a '57 Chevy with a 350 in it (new motor now) but it always seems to run hot! The more I drive, the hotter it gets, even on the highway! I am running a brass 4 row radiator in the 6 cylinder position (in front of the rad. brace) I have a pretty good space from the front of my fan to the core of the rad. (about 7") I am also running a Zirgo 2700 fan on the motor side of the rad. I have a shroud in back that seems to help but not as much as I think it should but mostly in stop & go traffic. I think part of my problem is the fact that right in front of my rad. is the AC condenser which is as large as the rad.

My thought is: to move the rad. back towards the motor, move the electric fan to the front side of the rad. giving some distance to be able to draw in some cool air.

Before I go through this all to find out that it does or doesn't work, I want to know if there is some sort of rule or equation that gets the best results for cooling! Or if my thoughts are correct about re positioning the rad.   before I go through a bunch of needless work, god knows I've done enough of that!

BFS57

[alchevy]

I don't consider myself to be an expert, I'm a learner...here goes with my short experience:

Before you move the fan to the other side of the radiator...electric fans come in two different types (pusher and puller), one is meant for the fwd side of the radiator and the other one is meant for the back side of the radiator. You do have the correct one in place right now? Another thing to consider is the ratio of water to antifreeze. A friend of mine told me that water is more of a cooler than antifreeze. I used a 50/50 mixture of water/antifreeze and was told to use more water next time if I had more cooling problems. Keep in mind that I live in Mississippi where I don't have to worry about freezing much in the Winter months.

What temp are you saying that is hot? If it is 200 or just below, but doesn't go over 200 you should be fine. I changed out from an aluminum radiator to a Walker and noticed it running hotter than the aluminum one did, which people told me that this was going to happen. Then after driving the car more, it must have worked out all of the air bubbles and is cooling a whole lot better. A trick to get air bubbles out of the radiator after putting in new fluid is to leave the cap off when cranking it and let it run until it gets to operating temp, then shut the motor off and allow it to cool down some and put the cap back on.

With mine, I had to drive the car and build my confidence back up and noticed that it was not going to go over 200...it just bothers me that I knew it ran cooler. Look at the operating temp of new cars...my 2000 Chevy Blazer runs at just below 210.

The faster you drive the car, the hotter it gets...the lower radiator hose is not collasping on you, is it? Squeeze it with the motor off and see if it could be. Or does it have a spring inside of it? A question that I have is on these aluminum radiator hoses, like the upper hose I have on mine, it is rippled on the inside and outside instead of smooth, so does it cool differently? there are a lot of people using them.
AL

[BFS57]

I have to say that I am running more coolant than water. I also have a fan that goes eithor way. front or rear, My tempurature is in excess of 210 and I am running a 7lb rad. cap.
I have heard that a higher pressure cap may help. I also am considering replacing this rad. with an aluminum one from a Camaro. This set up has given me this problem ever since I bought this car! so the switch of motors has magnified the problem from the tightness of the new assembly!
I will check the bottom hose, it needs to be replaced anyway!

[EMSjunkie]

A buddy of mine had this problem with his 55

do you have a gap between the radiator support and the radiator?

he had about a 1 inch gap on either side of his. ran hot.

we covered the gap, now it runs 185-190 at hiway speed.

just a nonsensical thought from a lunatic mind  


Vance

[Dirk35]

No expert, but I do remember reading about cooling on one fo the boards not too long ago.

From what I understand, (I know, goes against logic of space to radiate the heat away) a gap between the radiator and the condenser will create a lead to possible of eddys of the air that tries to flow through the two coolers, thus a stale air area, and will inhibit cooling. Thus, it is a bad idea to seperate the two and put a pusher fan inbetween the two.

What temp thermostat do you have in the intake? Their cheap (less than $10), Id go buy a 180degree one just for safe measure.  You dont need that much heat in the winter anyway unless you live way north.

Run more water, less coolant mix.

Coolant hoses colapasing? Check it.

Perhaps, the different radiator just doesnt cool as well.

Your fan should be no less than 1 1/2 to 3 inches to touching the radiator.


Insure your fan is Pulling and not Pushing. Get it to where the fan turns on, put a peice of paper on the front of the radiator and it should suck it up to it. Kinda no brainer...but ya never know.

Do you have an escape for the warm air in the engine bay? If you change the inner fenders, and lower the vehicle, you can really make it to where the air has no where to go and thus a high pressure area inside the engine bay.

Do a search of this Here, the HAMB, and Streetrodstuff for Cooling. There was a huge article about this about a year and a half ago on one of the boards, but I dont remeber which one.

[Okiedokie]

I have had a similar experience that I solved by removing the front elec. fan, and installing a CCI [Coolinfg Componants Inc] shrouded electric fan on the engine side of the radiator. $209.00 and well worth it.

[model a vette]

Installing a higher pressure cap will raise the temp at which the coolant will boil. It will not change your temp reading.
I had a problem where the engine would run hotter the faster I went. It turned out to be a leak from the valley into the front coolant crossover in the intake at the gasket. As the revs went up the crankcase pressure would put pressure into the passage and the temp would go up. I could idle the engine all day and it wouldn't get any hotter than the temp rating of the thermostat. I tightened the bolts on the intake and the problem went away. This was on an aluminum intake. I think the problem stemmed from not retightening the manifold after a couple of heat-cool cycles.

[Leon]

One thing I found once was on a new engine the guy was running all new aluminum pulleys and we found out they were underdrive pulleys.  Changed back to stock ones that turned the water pump a little faster and the temp at all speeds came down.