Alright, as you can see from the finished install pics, the radiator looks right at home, and looks like a stocker (maybe a little wider) when it is powdercoated black. I wanted a stock appearing rad, I no longer wanted the plastic/aluminum F body, and I definitely wanted something American made if possible. (hard to find nowadays...)
Once I got it in, filled it with distilled water and some Royal Purple rad additive. Left the cap off, started the car, turned on the heater to make sure it was flowing everywhere and started watching the gauge and the scanmaster set on coolant temp. It burped a little bit, topped it off and continued to watch temps. Oh, this was all with the FANS OFF to see how quickly it rose. It took a very long time to get to 160, probably close to 10 minutes idling. Granted this was water from the hose, and it was mid to high 70's outside today, but I thought it would rise much faster.
Anyhow, it got up to 162 finally, I turned off the heater and turned the temp selector to cool so the heater was not drawing any heat off the system and continued to watch. I shut my garage door to block some of the air going in the front and watched. After about 20 minutes it got to 178, still with the FANS OFF, and I switched the fans on. I watched the temps drop 2-4 degrees at a time back down to 159-160.
Took it for a road test, sat in traffic, then got on the highway. Switched the fans off and drove for about 10-15 miles all at 159-162 degrees, depending on engine load, hills, etc. Got off the highway, sat at a stoplight for about 3 minutes, then parked at a gas station for about 5-7 minutes, still with the FANS OFF. Let the temp get to 180, then started driving again. With the fans still off, the temps started dropping to the low 170s, then I turned the FANS ON for the rest of the drive home so I could talk to the wifey and play a little in traffic.
Did one last "test" on this drive where I did a couple "test and tune" runs. :biggrin: Temp was 160 when I did two 1/4 mile runs back to back, and the highest the temp got was 162, and as soon as I let off the gas they dropped back down to 159-160.
So, my final conclusion...? This thing is bada$$ to say the very least. Stay tuned, as I will be doing a trans service and adding a bung in the pan to monitor trans temps, then will route my trans lines to the internal cooler in this rad instead of my external after I get a baseline (external) temp.
Very, very, very nice radiator. The craftsmanship is art and the function is superior!
