Do I need a bigger radiator for 450 HP Stroker with Vintage Air?

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by AusTx68

Why not just go with a frame mounted dual pass tranny cooler like this one and install the condenser as stated: http://www.summitracing.com/search/?...20cooler&dds=1

If you were down here in Texas I would recommend an aluminum radiator and electric fans. I went aluminum and I assure you they are not overrated. I also run dual fans. I just installed my Vintage Air and plan to get it charged next week. Even without the A/C I have trouble staying below 200 in stop & go traffic during a Texas summer. My motor is a 383 dynoed at just over 400 hp. I'm running a frame rail tranny cooler.

FYI I talked to a guy at Derale Performance today who said he would never use one of these coolers.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DER-13261/
He said, yes they manufacture these coolers, but they just don't cut it, even if you use it in conjunction with your rad trans cooler. He said definitely DO NOT use it as a stand alone trans cooler. He did however, recommend other options like the plate style coolers.

[AusTx68]

Originally Posted by derotoreut

FYI I talked to a guy at Derale Performance today who said he would never use one of these coolers.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DER-13261/
He said, yes they manufacture these coolers, but they just don't cut it, even if you use it in conjunction with your rad trans cooler. He said definitely DO NOT use it as a stand alone trans cooler. He did however, recommend other options like the plate style coolers.

That doesn't make sense to me. There are lots of people that only use the radiator cooler and do just fine. Add a frame cooler to a stock setup and it can only get better. Maybe he's talking about heavy duty hauling or towing where a high performance external cooler is mandatory. I'll bet if you added an aluminum radiator with built in tranny cooler you'd be just fine.

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by AusTx68

That doesn't make sense to me. There are lots of people that only use the radiator cooler and do just fine. Add a frame cooler to a stock setup and it can only get better. Maybe he's talking about heavy duty hauling or towing where a high performance external cooler is mandatory. I'll bet if you added an aluminum radiator with built in tranny cooler you'd be just fine.

I agree... Doesn't make sense to me either. If you use the stock rad trans cooler and add a frame cooler it would just seem to help. I def know he wasn't talking about towing or hauling. He wanted to know exactly what my set up was. He wanted to know year, model, engine size, HP, transmission, rear end ratio, tire size, mode of driving (street, strip, racing, DD), etc. He suggested a couple of trans coolers if using along with stock rad cooler or as stand alone. It was just strange that he had nothing good to say about the heat sink type cooler. He said he would never recommend them, or ever use them on his own cars.

I think I saw pictures of your cooling set up in a thread somewhere and I thought it was pretty good. If you have these, I would love to see them again. I believe you had a SS over flow on passenger side and frame mounted heat sink cooler on driver side.