Engine cooling

[Mike Hausner]

How do you "size" a radiator for a particular engine size or horsepower rating? Before I fire up the stroker motor I want to be sure it has enough cooling capacity. Originaly I was going to use a bone stock 302 but you know,....I got carried away when I started talking to the engine builder. The rad I have looks similar to a "stock" Mustang rad and measures 2 1/4"x19"hx27"w-brass. MH

[Mr.Fixit]

The old fashioned way is to try what you have, when you run too hot, put a big fan in it and see if that cures the problem. When that doesn't work, get a bigger radiator like you had planned to anyway. I am sure there are better ways to determine the answer that include lots of math and such, but they are just approximations anyway.

[dscott]

The radiator I use is the Griffin aluminum. It measures 26 x 19 and has 2, 1" rows. Sounds like what you have should work. The 302 is pretty easy to cool. I would use a fan made by Spal, a 16" will cool up to about 350hp, anything bigger and I use the Spal dual 11" setup. You will also need to add a relay circuit for the Spal fan because they draw to much power for the stock harness. It's the only fan I've used that will cool the cars in any traffic conditions.
Don

[Double Venom]

Mike,
Don's right. Sounds like you have an old OEM radiator that CR's used to sell. They have now switched to what Don has described, but the ones Dona and I use are just a little bit bigger, AND a heck of a lot more efficient.


The 16" SPAL is the way to go too. We've tried many, many others and none of them seem to work as well.

Mr. Fixit has the right idea, but it's to darn hard to change once the body is on and the oem style doesn't work!

DV

[Mike Hausner]

Thanks Guys for the responce. I did some checking and found a GRIFFIN rad #25222 which looks like it will fit. I will have to make new mounting brackets but thats easy. You know,.......when I'm done with this I'll have enough duplicate parts to build another car ! LOL MH

[dscott]

Mike, That's the radiator I use. I cut off the bottom of the old radiator support just below the mounting point. I then mount the radiator to the horizontal frame members with small "u" shaped brackets to fit the bottom of the rad. I use foam topper tape for an isolator. The upper brackets will need to be moved inward. Take a flat piece of steel and connect it between the upper bracket mounts, then drill holes for the new brackets so they will mount on the upper channel of the rad. The lower hose is a tight fit, you will need to get a hose with a 45 degree bend right out of the radiator. Also since you will have 2 radiator caps run a larger one on the radiator so if it boils over it will come out the in-line filler.
Don

[Jack21]

The trick is to get it right the first time.

The Griffin rad and Spal fan described will cool 400 inches.

A little pricey, unfortunately, but it does the job and eliminates one item from your upgrade list.

Cobras are notorious for overheating. Mine isn't, and yours won't be. Also use an aftermarket high flow water pump. And if you use March pulleys, use the street rod ratio, not the performance ratio fror street use.

[6T5 Cbra]

Did somebody say Spal?



I have a reasonably built 390. For cooling, I run the dual Spal fans and a Ron Davis radiator (28" x 19") with a custom shroud that attaches the 'fan' shroud to the radiator. I also run march pulleys and an edelbrock water pump that is about ~ 30 % over driven.

Cooling is no longer an issue.

Gene

[dscott]

Gene, Nice looking setup. I like the shroud attachment to the radiator. Nice job!
Don

[Jack21]

Ditto! Do you have a website for Ron Davis radiators?

[6T5 Cbra]

Thanks guys, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. Even more happy with how good it works.

Here's the link to Ron Davis website.

Ron Davis Radiators

Gene