Cooling question...

[fine59]

question for the coming soon tech section.... i,m putting together a 59 impala and i have got to get the cooling system setup, zz4 cratemotor..(i know i know) 700r4..car is going to be a cruiser i am installing AC heat yada yada, my question is what would be the best setup for this thing, single pass radiator? 2 core? double pass, and i have come across a triple pass radiator, but it seems to me that the water pump would have to work really hard at idle to push the water through a triple pass, i have a serpentine setup and will be running electric fans, any ideas or comments are welcome...(just don't dog me on engine choices) i really want this thing to be able to sit and idle with the AC cranking, gotta keep the wife happy.

[squirrel]

I would just use the biggest normal radiator that was made for the car, a shroud, and a big clutch fan. But I live in AZ, so what do I know?

[TheSilverBuick]

Depends where you live. Since you are talking A/C I am going to assume somewhere warm and agree with squirrel, go as big as possible, but I'd settle for no less than a 3-core radiator. My Centurion has a 4-core and in the Southern California summer's with the A/C on it didn't have any problems with temperature. However, now I live up north above 6500' and things have changed. I found during the summer I don't have any problems but in the winter I have way too much cooling. When the outside temperature is below freezing my temperature sways between the thermostat setting of 195*F and about 160*F like a pendulum, even when cruising at 70-80mph, the engine simply doesn't generate heat as fast as the radiator can remove it. I solved this problem by taping cardboard over most the condensor (that's in front of the radiator) to block most the air flow. Got the idea from 18-wheelers and it worked (even had to pull off the highway once to remove it when I was driving south to Vegas because the temperature started to climb).

[seered]

Be Cool corporation sells alot of direct bolt in make and model specific aluminum radiators tailored to your engine size and transmission cooling needs. Mine works great cooling 860 hp with lots of cruising.

[squirrel]

Your local parts store also sells copper/brass replacement radiators, I have one (cost $200 a few years ago) in my 55...it was designed to fit an early 70s full size big block car, but I made it fit my car, and it does the job keeping my blown big block cool, with the help of a big cluch fan and shroud.

Might be that you do need a trick aluminum custom radiator to "fit in" with the theme of the car, though.

[blu65ramb]

I really like your 59, clean, real clean. I noticed that you said you were going to use an electric fan or fans. Shrouds are just as important with them and even more so in crusin in the heat. A problem I had with the electrics is the amps required to power them, alternator couldn't keep up in stop and go, really pulled the battery down. You know whats its like to start a warm engine. A high amp alternator helps along with a good ratio on the pulleys so the voltage stays up. Sounds like a great project!

[squirrel]

Seems to me that in many cases, running an electric fan is just adding more unnecessary stuff. A big car like the 59 has plenty of room for a clutch fan. Some cars are a tight squeeze and an electric fan is all that will fit, and for those cars it's the way to go, although finding a fan that actually moves the required amount of air is not easy (and those good electric fans are not small).

[dieselgeek]

Seems to me that in many cases, running an electric fan is just adding more unnecessary stuff. A big car like the 59 has plenty of room for a clutch fan. Some cars are a tight squeeze and an electric fan is all that will fit, and for those cars it's the way to go, although finding a fan that actually moves the required amount of air is not easy (and those good electric fans are not small).

my experiences with electric fans are this: 99% of the time, the shrouding is the problem! We figured this out with some homespun testing, ran an electric fan on a radiator with a smoke bomb in front of it... the fans that didn't have a decent shroud (one that completely covers the area of radiator that the fan isn't already covering) will have a 'donut" effect, the high pressure air behind the fan goes around the outside edges and back to the fron of the fan (carrying hot air right back into the radiator) - meanwhile, we made a simple shroud and discovered that the high pressure, hot air exiting the fan couldn't work it's way back around to the front side of the radiator... it was then that we discovered that even the cheapest electric fan works AWESOME if you have a good shroud that keeps the front and back of the fan completely separated along the surface of the radiator.

[fine59]

I knew i could count on this crew to get me going in the right direction, thanks for the replys, i already have the serpentine setup so it will be electric fans, be cool, griffin, fluidyne, is there really that big of a differance between aluminum radiators, what would be the differance in a 2 core from any of the manufactures be it a $500 be cool or a $200 griffin? if its 2 rows of 1 inch cores then?? thanks again

[squirrel]

two 1 inch rows should be fine.

My understanding of heat transfer says that you want the biggest (height by width) radiator you can get, other specs don't matter nearly as much as overall size.