SkinnyG's '61 Apache

[SkinnyG]

COOLING ISSUES

On the highway, it's fine, but in traffic, in the summer, at 38°C, with the AC on, it's not.

Could be because I have an intercooler in front of a transmission cooler in front of an A/C condenser AND P/S cooler all in front of the radiator. Nah.

The rad core is 22x19" in size and rated for 700hp. I have one $100 17" American Volt electric fan, zip-tied directly to the radiator. This cools ONLY a 17" circle minus the hub of the fan area, inadequate when standing still. The fan is rated at 130W, which should pull about 11Amps of current.

I ordered a $360 "Be Cool" 16" fan that is actually make by Spal, which draws 26Amps.

Excitingly, the blade and hub protrude past the mount, necessitating a raised mounting. If I'm going to raise it at all, I'm going to build a shroud. A shroud should encompass the entire core so the fan can draw air past the entire core. Which I fabricated.

On the other hand, fully shrouding a rad reduces the amount of air that can pass through the rad at speed. To fix this, I made nine 2"x4" rubber flappers from a commercial truck tube, which "flap via three (each) 3/16" pop rivets pulled NOT tight, so they can move. These each cover a pair of 1-5/8" holes in the shroud. In theory, when the fan is pulling, these flaps are sucked closed, and when the car is at speed, air pressure forces the flaps open.









And boy does the completed unit almost fit for reassembly.

The result?

So far, seems good after the first short outing....