Blown Guys- Which Radiator You Running?

[FastSVO]

yeah noobz- it may be just me

Car wil be fine and the temp starts creeping up after 15 min from 180 to 195. On highway speed sometimes it will come down a bit, in hotter weather stays at 195 ish.

I ordered an aluminum replacement air deflector.
I have a ram air hood with a 1.5" cowl

I've owned several Vortech cars and this is the first one that I'm scratching my head on.

as requested.................

@mikestang63 - I am assuming those temperatures were with the A/C running?

 

[mikestang63]

@mikestang63 - I am assuming those temperatures were with the A/C running?

nope... top down no a/c

 

[Noobz347]

While you guys are pondering the effect of cowl hoods; remember where the high pressure areas are: The grill and the base of the windshield. An "inducted" cowl, is just that. It allows air to be inducted at the base of the windshield and flow down the firewall to exit beneath to the lower pressure area, underneath the car. *poof* out the back.

The bumper and nose splits the air. Some goes up, some goes down. The idea is that there's enough pressure there to force air through the restrictive (comparatively) radiator fins. A inducted cowl alone can affect this because we're adding more volume to the underside of the car. Volume that was initially forced over the car. Add some under-hood ram air and you see how it begins to stack.

So before tossing money at more expensive cooling parts, we can try to return some of that negative pressure to the engine bay. More air through the radiator....

Of course, none of this has anything to do with anything when the car is not moving. Your fan solution has to take care of this.

Steps to try:

Block the circled portion off first (it's not doing anything anyway).
Get a chin spoiler down there.
If not sufficiently improved, block off the inducted cowl


Now there's a side effect for shiny motors. Lower pressure in the engine bay generally means a bit more turbulence. A bit more road dirt etc., in the bay.

I would imagine that you have fender skirts installed. They help with cooling too.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

I've owned several Vortech cars and this is the first one that I'm scratching my head on.

Gotta look at the upside man.....at least it looks good while its overheating.

 

[mikestang63]

Bear with me for the novel. On my 4th jack and coke to numb the back pain.

Ok spent the morning at LKQ and scored both a single Taurus fan and also another dual Contour/Cougar fan. ( I am determined to get this to work) After a few hours of pulling those fans, I gor some Hi Temp Black Matte paint and brackets at Wally Mart and decided to tacke installing the new chin spoiler, larger overflow and the dual Contour Fan, Both the dual Contour and the Taurus fan pulled a crap load of air but the dual fan gave more clearance.

Removed the old overflow- pita with blind bolts, Removed the existing Dodge 300 fan, and then got to thinking. Maybe I can move the radiator forwrard a bit? Do I spend about an hour playing with the radiatotor and bending the brackets to get it to pull the radiator foward. I'd say it move it a good 1/2" with no onlty about a 1/4" gap between the rad support and the radiator-more air going through the radiator and not over it.

Spent about an hour fitting the new behomoth overflow.. It just fits under the hood with the hood closed. It cant go any lower as it hits the lower hose. Can't go any higher or it hits the hood. Fabbed up some brackets and drilled some holes, riverted them secure and bolted the sucker in.. It holds 50oz so more capacity than the 33oz unit

Then spent about 2 hours fitting the Dual fan in- trimmed off all the tabs and it slid right in.. Painted it hi temp matt black... Then fabbed up some small brackets to hold it to the top of the radiator and pop riveted those on. .. Fabbed up the same brackets on the bottom. Then undid the wiring loom on the fan and wired it up connecting the Power and Neg from the two fand together and then to the quick Disconnect plug aI had used for the Dodge fan. Covered all the wiring in loom and secured to the fan running the wires under neath the fan so no wiring is visible. Secured the fan to the bottom of the rad support and also the power wires from the fan to the FAL controller with wire loom and zip tied out of the way.

Checked all the wiring again amd jumpered the thermostat sending wires on the FAL controller so the fans should come on when the key is on. Turn the key and they work.

Final thing is remove the old front air dam. Although intact, kind of bent. The new alum one I painted black as it come bare aliuminum. Bolts right in, with zero flex and is about an inch more of height, so it should capture more air

Started all this around 4pm and finished around midnight. That was with me having to stop about every hour do to back spams. Having 6 bad discs and no lift does wonders for you.

Filled the overflow, started teh car amd let it run for about 20 minutes. Car never hit 180 and the when the fans kicked on they pulled alot of hot air. Have a slight water drip from the over hlow hose which i'll tackle in the moring.Sitting on ice and 4 advil/

Going to test it out tomorrow. Have a car show about 15 miles.

 

[mikestang63]

forgot to add these pics

 

[TOOLOW91]

forgot to add these pics

Awesome bro glad to see you making progress


Sent from my iPhone using my fingers while my auto correct makes me seem illiterate

 

[89oem]

Hope that fixes it, looks good too.

How close is that chin spoiler to the ground?

 

[Gearbanger 101]

So which coolant reservoir did you get this time? I just put the one you recommended to me in yesterday afternoon.

 

[mikestang63]

So which coolant reservoir did you get this time? I just put the one you recommended to me in yesterday afternoon.

I figured let me use the larger one as I bought it already.. Had to fab up some brackets.- it's in the install pics. You should be fine with the one I had and you installed. I'm chasing an issue that is unrelated and what happens next may explain it.

So............... take the car for a ride 15 min. gets up to about 190 ish... fans working fine. ok... seems to be cooling down whn driving .... bring it home and notice under the car..............a puddle................. Ok. maybe I forgot to tighten up a hose last night. get under the car, andighten them down some more.. Start the car.. and no leaks... turn the car off and it starts dripping in the driver lower corner... get under the car.. wipe everything down... start the car again, let it run... turn it off.. get under car and....................look slike the radiator has a leak in the lower driver corner right at the bottom of the tank, Not a a weld but right near the corner where it sights on the support. You can see it dripping out... Son of a biatch - could have decided it was time to go, could have cracked from moving the rad around last night...

So now I have three options

jb weld the crack/nole if possible
take it to a shop and have them weld it
get a new radiator- which is ironic considering that was my origlnal question

Not going to deal with it today as the car is driving fine in case I need to use it and my back is worn out. I'll figure out the course of action when i pull the radiator out next weekend.

 

[mikestang63]

Hope that fixes it, looks good too.

How close is that chin spoiler to the ground?

it extends down about an inch more than the stock one My car is lowered so your milage may differ...lol

 

[FastSVO]

You should be able to get Champion to replace it

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[JD1964]

Any chance combustion pressure under boost is getting into the water jacket and stressing the cooling system? That's when my radiator started leaking, when the head lifted and over pressurized the cooling system.

 

[mikestang63]

doubt it as I replaced the HG when I put on the V3 with MLS gaskets. milled the heads, new arp hardware and no other signs of a HG

 

[Treachery]

Fluidyne Radiator (3-row) - FHP30-93MU - $400

These radiators are on the expensive side but the work really well. Excellent construction. I've have mine in excess of 15 years and it's still going.
A must if you have a blower setup.

 

[mikestang63]

forgot to update.. been a few weeks.. turns out the lower rad hose needed a little tightening,, no leaks . .switched back to a stant rad cap. . in 90+ degree weather car doesnt get over 195 degrees.idles at around 180

 

[Gearbanger 101]

So, did a little data logging today. If I didn't have the dual fans on there, but fox would heat up till the coolant was boiling in the overflow (I would assume). I have the fans set to come on at about 190F, and it cools the engine back down to about 180-185F in about 45-seconds. Cruising down the highway has me running about 195F. Haven't tried to push it yet.

Runs a little warmer than I'd like. I may look into swapping out to a 180-thermostat to see if that regulates it a little better.

This is the stock rad, stock thermostat, stock water pump, 10-rib blower pulley, with the 4.75" accessories (essentially an underdrive crank pulley)

Incidentally, while sitting in my driveway idling, my ACT's got up as high as 190F and would come down to about 185F cruising down the highway.....so there's certainly some heat soak going on in the lower intake manifold. I may consider relocating the IAT sensor to the discharge tube?