Aluminum Radiator Benefits?

[turbojimmy]

This is one of those" closing the barn door after the horse has left" questions. I've already ordered an aluminum radiator, now I'm wondering if it will help me.

I have an old 3-row radiator from Nick (probably 6 or 7 years old now). When I first installed it, it made a huge difference. Temps were always at 160 degrees, maybe it would creep to 180 with the a/c on a really hot day. I have a 160 degree thermostat and dual (Ramchargers) fans. Everything seems to be functioning properly.

Ever since I had the engine rebuilt (in 2002 or thereabouts) the car has run hotter. I always figured it was because it was punched .040 over. The more I run the car the hotter it gets. On the highway yesterday, with the a/c on it got to almost 220 before I got off the highway to a slow cruise where it begins to cool down. Once it heats up it takes a long time to cool back down. If I let it sit and idle it will eventually cool back down, but it takes a while. At idle or slow cruise the temperature is totally dependent upon the fan turn on temp. The default setting on my Extender chip is 180 degrees. The temp never goes below 180. In 'race fan' mode the fan basically runs constantly and the temp will get down to the mid-high 160s. Climbing hills or at highway speeds it will creep higher and higher until I slow down. I recently added a FMIC which obviously doesn't help, but the problem is still as described, the temps are just shifted a few degrees higher across the board.

It's fine at the track because I spend a lot of time idling in the pits or in the staging lanes. The 1/4-mile run doesn't make it much hotter and it cools right back down after the run. It's just trying to actually drive the car around that's a problem.

I think all this points to a capacity problem and I'm thinking an alumium radiator will have more cooling capacity than a stock re-core? I hate to go through the time and expense of swapping the radiator out if it's not going to do me any good.

Jim

 

[Boost231]

nicks unit is a very good radiator. i did notice even more of a temp drop once i took his out and installed my PTS Alum. radiator. I think it will help in your case since you do have a front mount which doesnt help air flow. let us know what happens when you get it installed. should run real cool. mine will never go higher then what the chip is set at.

 

[SloGN]

too hott

On the highway seems to be more of the problem correct? At what speeds does the heating up start?



One thing that i would check is the radiator/condersor boxing rubber. what you want is that at highway speeds is that all the air is forced to go thru the radiator then out from under the car. If that boxing rubberstuff is missing and allowing the forced air to not go thru the radiator then it's a airflow issue.

With a stock ecm most chip guys set the fan turn off point around 50 mph so the fan will not run at speeds over that set point. The stock chip had this set around 35-38 mph to conserve energy on the alt and less drag on the engine.

I too recently run into this problem with a friends car doing the same thing and he had took all of that rubber stuff out when doing the front mount and it would gain 20 degrees out on the highway slow down and in traffic the casr would run 165 all day long.


I have the G-body fans and a front mount I/C with a .040 bore and i can run the A/C and the temps in traffic got to 190 degrees with outside temp around 92 degrees.


I hope this helps ya out.

 

[turbojimmy]

On the highway seems to be more of the problem correct? At what speeds does the heating up start?

One thing that i would check is the radiator/condersor boxing rubber. what you want is that at highway speeds is that all the air is forced to go thru the radiator then out from under the car. If that boxing rubberstuff is missing and allowing the forced air to not go thru the radiator then it's a airflow issue.

With a stock ecm most chip guys set the fan turn off point around 50 mph so the fan will not run at speeds over that set point. The stock chip had this set around 35-38 mph to conserve energy on the alt and less drag on the engine.

I too recently run into this problem with a friends car doing the same thing and he had took all of that rubber stuff out when doing the front mount and it would gain 20 degrees out on the highway slow down and in traffic the casr would run 165 all day long.


I have the G-body fans and a front mount I/C with a .040 bore and i can run the A/C and the temps in traffic got to 190 degrees with outside temp around 92 degrees.


I hope this helps ya out.

Thank you both for the replies.

I can cruise around town all day long at like 35-40 MPH as long as I get some stoplight time in between. It seems to be the constant highway speeds (50+ MPH) that do it. The faster I go and the longer the trip the hotter it gets - to a point. Without the A/C on it seems to peak around 200-210. Also, hill climbing. Most notable is the last 2 miles of my trips downtown. I live on top of a mountain and the temperature will increase steadily - even at relatively low speeds - as I get closer to home. Happens every time. The hotter it is outside the hotter it gets. I usually let it idle in the driveway until the coolant gets back down to 180-ish before I shut it off. It hasn't overheated yet (220 is the hottest I've seen it, and that was yesterday when it was 95 degrees out).

I kept the rubber blocking in place where I could, but I did have to remove the one piece that ran between the bumper and the rad support in order to install the front-mount. I had this problem, though to a lesser degree, even without the front mount.

Sitting in traffic with the a/c on it will probably pull down to 190 - it's just at speed that's the problem.

What radiator do you have?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[SloGN]

Thank you both for the replies.

I can cruise around town all day long at like 35-40 MPH as long as I get some stoplight time in between. It seems to be the constant highway speeds (50+ MPH) that do it. The faster I go and the longer the trip the hotter it gets - to a point. Without the A/C on it seems to peak around 200-210. Also, hill climbing. Most notable is the last 2 miles of my trips downtown. I live on top of a mountain and the temperature will increase steadily - even at relatively low speeds - as I get closer to home. Happens every time. The hotter it is outside the hotter it gets. I usually let it idle in the driveway until the coolant gets back down to 180-ish before I shut it off. It hasn't overheated yet (220 is the hottest I've seen it, and that was yesterday when it was 95 degrees out).

I kept the rubber blocking in place where I could, but I did have to remove the one piece that ran between the bumper and the rad support in order to install the front-mount. I had this problem, though to a lesser degree, even without the front mount.

Sitting in traffic with the a/c on it will probably pull down to 190 - it's just at speed that's the problem.

What radiator do you have?

Thanks,
Jim

Jim i have a new stock radiator that is about 3 yrs old. I have always run the rmi 25/penn cool 3000 additive to keep it clean.

If i were you i would try to block the air from being escaped below the rad/FMIC i will try and snapp some pics of what i have done to my car to prevent this when i installed my FMIC.

 

[turbojimmy]

Jim i have a new stock radiator that is about 3 yrs old. I have always run the rmi 25/penn cool 3000 additive to keep it clean.

If i were you i would try to block the air from being escaped below the rad/FMIC i will try and snapp some pics of what i have done to my car to prevent this when i installed my FMIC.

I use RMI-25, too.

If you don't mind snapping pics that would help a lot. I bought some sheet metal and made a cardboard template for blocking but never finished the job.

Jim

 

[SloGN]

I took the rubber mat the used to go from the grill down to the lower radiator support and i left it bolted to the lower radiator support and i cut it so that it would lay flat against the air dam legs and it now goes flush with the back side of the front bumper.


here is the pic i tried to take the pics the best i could without jacking the car up in the air.

 

[turbojimmy]

here is the pic i tried to take the pics the best i could without jacking the car up in the air.

That helps - thanks. I have that stock rubber piece around here somewhere. I may tweak it like you did.

Jim

 

[SloGN]

That helps - thanks. I have that stock rubber piece around here somewhere. I may tweak it like you did.

Jim

hope this helps ya out.

also did you modify the grill and take out the rear section so the air car flow all the way down to the radiator support?

 

[turbojimmy]

hope this helps ya out.

also did you modify the grill and take out the rear section so the air car flow all the way down to the radiator support?

No, I didn't take out the rear section. Is this what you're talking about?

I left that stuff in tact. I thought it would force the air through the intercooler rather than down under it. No?

Jim

 

[84GN-TX]

i have an 84 gn with the factory size radiator which is smaller i believe with the 86-7 engine setup and no thermostat and a 3" fmic. im running a 93 ford 3.8 radiator on high all the time and it barely reaches 160 on the guage. it flows 4500 cfm. that fan is the 2nd best thing ford ever made, the 9" rear being the 1st:tongue:

 

[jcj53115]

I had a very similair problem to what your explaining last year, I too have a 4" thick FMIC and cruising last year my temps would reach 220-230, this year the ONLY thing I changed to the cooling system was I added an F-Body radiator and the ramcharger fans and not once this year has the temps gone over 165.

As slow GN said tho, make sure the air deflectors are in place that too makes a huge difference

 

[SloGN]

No, I didn't take out the rear section. Is this what you're talking about?

I left that stuff in tact. I thought it would force the air through the intercooler rather than down under it. No?

Jim

yes it would allow the air to be forced into on the area around the grill. but the radiator and the FMIC extends down much lower. so by doing the boxing of the FMIC like i did and removing the rear section of the grill at the rivots your allowing more air to come in contact with the whole area when at road speeds.


that area is a positive pressure area with no where for the air to go except thru the FMIC/rad to get to the low pressure area. the low pressure area is going to be on the other side of the radiator and on out to the underside of the car.

 

[Dr.drivability]

radiator

No, I didn't take out the rear section. Is this what you're talking about?

I left that stuff in tact. I thought it would force the air through the intercooler rather than down under it. No?

Jim

If it helps, I removed that piece of the grill and added the new Becool 86/87 g/n radiator and rarely get warmer than 170/180 w/ a/c on. I drive 38mi one way to work! I know I should, but I haven't boxed anything yet. This is with also with a stock fan. Dave

 

[Slow91z]

I had the same problem with my car...I put a new thermostat bang fixed the problem...The thermostat wasn't opening all the way it cooled ok at idle but when the RPM's were up for interstate driving there just wasn't enough flow.

 

[BlackBandit]

Aluminum radiators typically cool better. It's all in how they're built. I personally think allot of guys that have the "my engine runs hotter since the rebuild" thing going on probably have a partially plugged core. How well does your heater work? Allot of times people pull engines and think there radiator doesn't change. The truth is that without the water/protectants in there the tubes fill with corrosion that acts like insulation, stopping the tubes from transferring heat. Just a thought. james

 

[turbojimmy]

I'll definitely remove that stuff behind the rivets.

I'm pretty sure I tried a new thermostat when I put the new engine in, but they're inexpensive enough to try a new one again.

On the radiator: I don't remember if I put that 3-row core in after it starting running hot (after the rebuild) or before. I tried looking at old pics and I think that the 'new' radiator was already in the car when I put the rebuilt engine in it. Either way, it's about 7 years old now. Not that it should be worn out, but it could be clogged.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Slow91z]

The thermostat that was in my car was new also...I changed it when I bought the car and it always ran kinda hot and just kept getting worse...Pretty sure it was just a dud to begin with.

 

[xrunner123]

I think that some people program chips for better highway mileage and do something with the timing. The end result is that it runs hotter, I think.