These are the parts that we...
These are the parts that we will be using. A Be Cool radiator, a Vintage Air fan shroud, a SPAL electric fan motor, and a condenser from Vintage Air.
The very first thing we did...
The very first thing we did was drill access holes to pass the radiator hose necks through the core support. We used a holesaw to do this. We had to do that because the Be Cool radiator mounts on the front side of the core support, as the six-cylinder radiator did. The new radiator is much wider than stock because it's a cross-flow design.
We wanted the condenser/electric...
We wanted the condenser/electric fan assembly to be easy to remove from the radiator so it could be serviced if necessary. We did this by using two pieces of aluminum strap running vertically between the upper and lower tank straps. The condenser will be pop-riveted to these straps. The straps will be bolted to the radiator, making it a bolt-together assembly.
After the straps were cut...
After the straps were cut to length, we drilled the mounting holes and fastened them together using 1/8-inch aluminum Pop rivets.
We placed this assembly on...
We placed this assembly on top of the radiator and centered it from side to side. Up and down positioning was already determined by the strap length.
We drilled through the condenser...
We drilled through the condenser mounting straps into the radiator tank straps with a pilot hole. We came back and drilled out the holes to accept 10-32 nut-serts in the radiator straps with corresponding 3/16-inch holes in our condenser straps for a bolt-together application.
Before we mounted the condenser...
Before we mounted the condenser for the last time, we zip tied the electric fan to the condenser on the front side (toward the grille).
We used stainless steel button-head...
We used stainless steel button-head screws from Totally Stainless for a clean look when we mounted everything together. It looks pretty sano, doesn't it?
We slid the new fan shroud...
We slid the new fan shroud into place and marked where the mounting holes had to be drilled. It mounts in the same location as the original radiator: on the back side of the core support.
The shroud was installed to...
The shroud was installed to the core support. The mechanical engine fan was bolted to the water pump with a fan spacer that would locate the fan in the correct position in the shroud opening.
We made sure to have at least...
We made sure to have at least 1 inch of clearance between the fan blades and the shroud, so some fan trimming was necessary. One-third of the fan should be inside of the shroud for maximum cooling.
Here is the finished cooling...
Here is the finished cooling system. We used an Adel clamp to secure the top radiator hose from flexing too close to the fan blades.
One of the most difficult parts of building any car is designing a cooling system that will effectively keep the engine temperature under control in any situation. It has to keep the engine cool when it's cruising down the highway or when you are driving in annoying bumper-to-bumper traffic. It becomes an even more difficult task if you live in desert areas where the temperature can soar over the triple-digit mark. Combine a hot area with a high-performance engine that will effectively produce more heat than a stocker, and you have a challenge on your hands.
That's the situation we were faced with when designing the cooling system for the '57 Chevy we've been building. We knew the car was going to be driven on Americruise '98, and during most of the trip we would be driving in hot desert areas. The engine that had to be cooled was a 383 Chevy stroker with a nasty Crane cam, aluminum Edelbrock heads, and dual-quad carburetors. It is hooked to a B&M Turbo 350 automatic trans. We added a little fuel to the fire, so to speak, by equipping the car with a Vintage Air A/C system with a radiator-mounted condenser.
Faced with this challenge, we called the folks at Be Cool radiators and told them we wanted a radiator designed to cool a big-block Chevy engine, but we wanted the outlets set up for a small-block. What we received was an aluminum cross-flow radiator designed to cool a 600hp big-block engine. You may be thinking that's more radiator than we need, but you really can't overcool an engine if you use a thermostat with the correct heat range. No matter how efficient the radiator may be, it won't work without a good fan system, so we decided to go overkill in that area, too. We installed a large 17-inch mechanical fan on the engine with a Vintage Air shroud inside of the engine compartment, and on the outside we installed a 17-inch electric fan designed to blow through the condenser and radiator. The electric fan will only be used in high-heat situations because the single mechanical fan should be enough during normal temperatures.
Overkill, yes--but it worked perfectly on the trip, and we couldn't be happier. We were cruising up the Baker grade on the way from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the A/C on, and were running at 210 degrees even though a 117 degree temperature was showing on the World's Largest Thermometer in Baker, California. Not too bad--here's how it was done.