Classic Roaster Cooling - Page 2

dscott · #21 (**permalink**) 07-10-2003, 08:20 AM

Pete, the relay kit they supply has the fan temp sender, relay, connectors, relay socket, and wires. All the wires are labeled so the hookup is easy. Otherwise you are right, $4 for a relay, add some wire and it works.
Don

petek · #22 (**permalink**) 07-10-2003, 10:16 AM

Right after I typed in the statement I began to wonder if they included the temp sender and wiring. There are times when the *correct* type of wiring is expensive!

Hey, here's an idea... with two fans you could stage the cooling. Use one temp sender to bring one fan on at "X" degrees and another sender to bring the second fan on at "X+Y" degrees.

Why? Braggin' rights!

Robert T. Faust · #23 (**permalink**) 07-10-2003, 12:47 PM

Hi Pete,
I'm sure there will be a step by step "pictorial" of this task? Look forward to reading and seeing it on your website. Your site has been a great help to me, offering some great ideas.
Bob Faust

petek · #24 (**permalink**) 07-10-2003, 02:21 PM

You betcha!

petek · #25 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 04:20 PM

Yo, Robert ... I got my new radiator mounted into my Cobra. Pictures and description at: http://www.birch.net/~petek/cobra/mods/rad/rad.htm

The new radiator is working great! No more overheating issues, no more leaking fluid in the garage.

Robert T. Faust · #26 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 05:07 PM

Pete,
Great Pictures and narrative (wouldn't have expected anything less than perfect with your expertise), Don should contract you to create a new (kind ah sorta more better?) build-up and wiring/electrical manual for the CR. Can't tell you how many times I've gone to your "build up" site for ideas and visual advise.
As I'm looking at replacing my radiator this winter (along with rear coilovers for the back from Don), still haven't decided what type or size radiator to use. Do you recommend a full cowl (cover the complete surface around the fan), to provide better/more drawing from all corners too? (Ahhhhh, does that make sense?) Or do you think it is not really needed, just the fan is good enough?
Thanks
Bob

fxbill · #27 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 05:34 PM

My engine runs about 10 degrees cooler with a shroud that covers the entire radiator tightly with a rubber seal arond the edge and the fan taking up the entire hole. The other that I had was just the fan and frame up against the radiator....Big difference!

I used a Flex-a-Lite Black magic 5.0 Mustang kit. The shroud has the relay, adjustable thermostat and control circuit built into the side of the shroud....Has a nice mounting system too... $200 complete..

Nice job Pete! Come this winter I see some changes being done to mine..

petek · #28 (**permalink**) 08-04-2003, 07:05 PM

Thanks for the kudos on the web site, I do get a kick out of writing about my education with the Cobra.

A good sealing fan shroud will make all of the difference in the world! Right now I've got less than 1/4" between the fan and the radiator and I'm probably loosing 80% of the cooling that the fan could provide.

(What happens is the flow of air created by the fan takes the path of least resistance ... and *through* the radiator has much more resistance that through that 1/4" gap!)

But even so... with temperatures in the upper 90's and low 100's, my Cobra hit 210 degrees once in traffic. If the fan had a proper shroud I wouldn't be surprised if the temperatures stayed at nothing higher than 180.

Winter projects? I'm thinking bigger brake discs up front, tubular A-arms, and coil overs. Yup, the Cobra is done... just never finished!

McCobra · #29 (**permalink**) 08-28-2003, 09:13 AM

Hey Pete,
Nice work on all your upgrade projects. You give us very good explanations of your process'.

Question-
Did you ever come up with a fan shroud idea that would hold up?
Thanks

Jack21 · #30 (**permalink**) 08-31-2003, 04:10 PM

The cooling system is one of the things I seemed to do right the first time.

Got the CR Griffin aluminum radiator and new bracket along with it, but it still required some additional "engineering". The lower brackets needed to be mounted to the frame, and a GM type rubber rad mount used to prevent chafing and movement top and bottom.

Used a piece of hardare store steel shelving wall mount, cut radiator to frame brackets, and fan to radiator brackets, and epoxied them in place with Devcon Z-7 marine epoxy.

Like you, the plastic through-the-radiator mounts for the fan looked like a bad idea; particularly with an aluminum radiator. Got an adjustable fan frame mount from Trak/Pep Boys, and modified it to fit.

The fan is a 16" Scotts unit which includes the shroud as part of the fan. It covers all but about an inch on either side of the fan. Also used foam gasketing between the mount and the radiator to seal it, and prevent contact.

Electrical is a Ron Francis Wire Works fan sender and relay kit. Uses 2 relays. The power side gets juice directly from the battery, and has its own circuit breaker. The sender goes into the water jacket, and needed an additional pipe threaded hole in the intake manifold directly over the water outlet in the head. Since the sender works on a complete-the-ground to turn on the fan, installed an additional complete-the-ground to a dash switch to operate the fan manually if needed.

High capacity water pump is an Edelbrock unit. It needed a little massaging on the bottom for crank balancer clearance, and on the side for power steering pump clearance.

Twin groove March pulleys work great, however am using "Street Rod" ratio water pump pulley. Slightly larger diameter than performance ratio, and moves more water at low RPM.

For lower hoses, used 3 hoses I cut the 90 deg elbows out of, and two pieces of stainless exhaust tubing to connect.

Using Stant 7# cap, and 180 deg Robertshaw thermostat year round.

For coolant expansion and contraction, used a Trak/Pep Boys coolant recovery kit. There isn't so much as a bubble of air in the system, and the coolant recovery bottle level changes about a pint with engine hot or cold.

And it all works. Temp is rock steady at 180 deg unless I'm stuck in traffic in the summer. Then it climbs up to about 210 deg. Typically then, I'll turn on the manual override and bring it back down to 180. 14,000 miles now and absolutely no cooling or overheating hassles.

Mike Hausner · #31 (**permalink**) 08-24-2004, 08:13 AM

In addition to the AFCO Racing aluminum radiator (similar to the GRIFFIN unit) and Don's fan package I installed an EDELBROCK water pump on my 331 stroker (10.1:1 compression). At my first cruse I had to sit idleing in 87 degree traffic for several minutes and the temp never went above 190 degrees.
When mounting your fan, fabricate 4 aluminum "Z" brackets to keep the fan about 1/8" away from the rad fins. I can send pictures if anyone wants to see how it came out.
Mike