BBR's 83GT - 552 BBF version 3.0 (at least)

[BBR]

My Durango said 108 yesterday, but it really was not too bad with the very low humidity we have.

[Beagle]

heck ya!!! http://www.ergodyne.com/products/pag...?PCA=15&PRD=39

Phase Change Cooling Vest: Constant 58

[milner351]

heck ya!!! http://www.ergodyne.com/products/pag...?PCA=15&PRD=39

Phase Change Cooling Vest: Constant 58

That looks like a heck of a good way to avoid heat stroke - what's the price on such an item? I didn't see pricing in the link.

[Bob Holmes]

Nice find.

My wife uses something like that on hot days when she'd training horses.

My biggest issue with them, and I'll have to look into it more, is that they typically use water. In a car fire, I'm concerned that you'll basically get steamed in your firesuit. Now I have to say again, that I didn't get into the specs on what you posted, and its well worth looking into.

[Deaf Bob]

heck ya!!! http://www.ergodyne.com/products/pag...?PCA=15&PRD=39

Phase Change Cooling Vest: Constant 58

Pdub posted a pic of him washing his car with an ice charged vest on...

[Deaf Bob]

Deaf Bob... it's 80* at 6:30a.m. as I type this, with a charming 62% relative humidity! lol. Amarillo and Dallas are both heading to 102 today.

Nooo thanks Beags... I'll moan about our max. 80*.., thanks.

[CDMBill]

Ever heard of a dual-pass radiator? That's what I went with, the inlet/outlet worked out great for my purposes, plus I figured I could use the extra cooling. Notice how the passenger side tank is split, the coolant goes in the top, crosses over to the other tank, drops to the bottom and crosses back over to the passenger side. Hence "Dual-pass", basically 2 radiators in one.

Dual pass needs higher flow water pump as they operate at higher pressure because all the water has to go through the radiator twice creating a restriction and therefore the higher pressure.

[CDMBill]

Well it certainly can't hurt!

Man, it was 105 degrees when I drove it home yesterday. Every damn surface in that thing was burning me. Took the t-tops out and had to handle them like hot potatoes. The shifter, steering wheel, door bar and window sill were all billion degrees trying to melt my flesh. The door bar in particular. I have GOT to put something on that thing!

I powder coated my cage bars a silver metallic which really helped with the solar heat gain. That's why the NASCAR and road race cars you see have white painted interiors.

[CDMBill]

I read somewhere that an oil cooler can reduce engine temps by 30%. In addition to that, a friend of mine had two chevrolet trucks, one the oil cooler was removed, the other it was left it (the 1st had a stick through the radiator early in its fleet life and they replaced it with a standard radiator). The truck with the oil cooler, lasted 250k miles, the one without 110k. I saw the inside of both motors, the difference really was amazing - bearings and cylinder wall looked new in the oil coolered motor; not so much in the other. Both trucks were in the same fleet, had the same abuse.

Oil coolers absolutely work and work well at cooling the oil and therefore the engine. The debates are cost, complexity and slower warm up of the oil temp as well as absolute temp, which is non-issue in a street driven car.

[Russell]

I dont understand why you say dual pass radiator cools twice as much? You more or less cut it in half and made it twice as long. 4x4=16, 2x8=16. I do see the flow rate through the core being twice as fast so there could be half the time to transfer the heat but it does go though twice the distance making it equal again? I did not do well in thermodynamics.

[BBR]

Heck I don't know. I do know I just got back from Branson, Missouri. Dang it was hot and muggy there.

Radiator should be there today and I should have some time to start the swap!

[CDMBill]

I dont understand why you say dual pass radiator cools twice as much? You more or less cut it in half and made it twice as long. 4x4=16, 2x8=16. I do see the flow rate through the core being twice as fast so there could be half the time to transfer the heat but it does go though twice the distance making it equal again? I did not do well in thermodynamics.

Not twice as much, 10-20% more efficient or as AFCO claims 10-20 degrees cooler outlet temp from the same size core. I came across this article from LSXTV or that goes a bit into the details. The essence of it is that the double flow path uses more of the core than a single cross flow. If you use a IR temp gauge on a radiator that is at full operating temp you'll see ht spots and areas that are seeing more or less flow that the average outlet temp. If you need more cooling for a given space a dual pass is a good idea if the water pump is sized correctly and having the inlet/outlet on the same side works from a packaging stand point.

http://www.lsxtv.com/project-cars/project-all-air/project-all-air-update-the-camaro-gets-cooling/

or if you want to geek out on how these things are evaluated read this patent.

http://www.google.com/patents/US20050171749

or this discussion, please pardon the source but the material is valid.

http://www.importtuner.com/tech/impp_0908_radiator_analysis/

[BBR]

Oh yeah, there it is. A definite steal for $125 and free shipping! I started pulling the old one out at lunch today. I may relocate my trans coolers over to the sides while the radiator is out.

Hopefully I can squeeze in some hot rod time tomorrow.

[SuperBuickGuy]

now that's purdy..... maybe too purdy

[BBR]

Jumped on it yesterday morning and installed the radiator, relocated the transmission coolers and installed the Ranger air dam. Since I relocated it lower and farther forward than stock, I actually had to hammer the sheetmetal around the headlight buckets a bit to allow it to fit. I also had to trim a little more of the core support to clear the radiator cap. This radiator really fits tight and fills up the whole space up front.

I have not tried it out yet because I need a couple of those zip tie things that stick through the radiator to secure to lower part of the fan. Speaking of fan, when I unplugged it, I found the ground lead at the connector had been pretty hot at some point, so I cleaned the end if the wire and replaced the connector.

Old vs. New




Transcoolers out of the way now.
Before:

After:


Ranger air dam.



Hoping to hit the track tomorrow night if all goes well.