While some of you were tearing up Jon's trails, I was finishing up my
cooling system project. You might (or might not) remember due to my
engine swap and lack of space, I was running a pair of no-name pusher
fans sandwiched between my condenser and stock radiator. That wasn't
cutting it. It only took 15 minutes of I-84 bumper-to-bumper traffic
to boil over.
I toyed with the idea of just adding an oil cooler... but I decided I
need to fix the real problem and not just band-aid it. The stock
radiator is falling apart... and I'm not convinced it was ever a
quality radiator (it's from the '94 318 dak). With only 1/2" of space
between the rad and the pulleys, something had to move.
I bought a Griffin aluminum rad and a pair of SPAL puller fans (curved
blades, 2" thick at their thickest). after some sheet metal cutting in
the radiator support area, I mounted the new rad a hair over 2"
forward of the stock mounting position (depending on where you measure
from... it's tilted from the stock position). With some creative band
aluminum work, I was able to use the stock rubber isolators to mount
it on the bottom. For hoses, I bought some flexible metal rad hoses...
they're a bit dressier than I want, but I was able to bend the top one
exactly where I need it... the old rubber one used to contact the
hood. Besides, a Steiger trail should dirty it up good and dress it
down. With all said and done, I had enough room to mount the fans
behind the radiator.
As those of you in the northeast would know... the recent weather gave
my new setup a trial by fire. It's been in the 90s the past few days
here. But the truck is staying cool. A few other small repairs and
it's ready for the next DML BBQ!
Don in CT
89 Dak Vert 318 NV3500 4x4
74 Dart Sport 340
98 Jeep ZJ
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