It's 100% getting heat soaked from the A/C condenser... Yesterday it was 92* out, I was right at 200* so turned AC off... 5 minutes later was 170.... I bought that GN performance fan with the extra harness for oil/trans cooler fan. I wonder if I'd get more benefit from relocating the AC condenser to a parallel to the ground position with the 3rd fan dedicated to just that? It would stop the heat soak of the rad which cools coolant, trans and engine oil so bigger "bang for the cooling buck"?
Consider boxing it in with the GNS Rad Ram Air and then throw a Spal pusher on the front of the condenser core that triggers on with the AC and you'll be fine.
I have the box kit and a fan on my liquid IC so I know this works.
My 87 GN is hot... I have done "all the cooling mods" and still running hot. I'm wondering if it's the high/low speed relay situation?
I have a moderately built engine, 375hp at the wheels, large front mount IC. I run about 210 degrees here in Tampa, FL w/ the A/C on. I've put in the 160* thermostat, fresh coolant and flushed the whole system, bled out all the air, has a big Champion aluminum radiator and the GN performance dual fans. The fans helped quite a bit b/c it was running in the 230-240 range!!! I know the temp sender is accurate b/c I can watch the temp rise at start then drop to 160 when stat opens before it rises again.
I have the Fast XFI 2.0 and fan comes on at 160. What I notice is that it doesn't "feel" like what I'd expect for 3100+ CFM. My mustang has a smaller Black Magic fan that feels like a hurricane when it engages. Makes me wonder if the FAST is only engaging the "low speed" relay rr is this just where these cars live temp wise in hot climates?
You say that you have done everything and it still runs hot.
The first problem is your radiator. I'm sure it probably has 3 rows of cooling tubes and they probably don't advertise the width of the tubes. The most efficient radiator has 2 rows of 2.25" cooling tubes .You bought the wrong radiator. You should have bought the Cold Case.
You are correct in feeling that those fans don't move the amount of air that they are advertised to move. You bought the wrong fans.
The best fans that move the most air and are the most efficient and the most controllable are Fans from Delta PAG.
Delta Performance Automotive Group designs and manufactures high performance cooling systems using cutting edge technologies. Custom and OE cooling systems for every application from 1 unit to OEM production runs.
deltapag.com
There are other options for fans with brushes, but brushless is the best.
Even though you bought the wrong radiator and fans, I think you can improve your situation in a noticeable way with an external transmission cooler. If you run the hot tranny fluid to the radiator first and then the external cooler, which is what all of the manufacturers suggest, you won't notice any improvement. You must run the hot fluid to the external cooler first. Your biggest problem is the temperature of the coolant leaving the radiator. If it is not below the temp of the thermostat, you'll never get it down to 160. In order for the thermostat to get the coolant down to 160, it must be fed with coolant that is colder than 160. You're sending hot trans fluid to the radiator which puts a load on the radiator. If you put less of a load on the radiator, the radiator and cooling fans won't have to work as hard. If you are still using the engine oil cooler, you are adding that workload to your radiator and fans as well.
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I still have the stock radiator fan, but I don't run voltage through the resister. I have an F body radiator which has 1 row of 1" wide tubes. It doesn't have the engine oil cooler but it does have the trans cooler. I installed the external trans cooler 3 weeks ago and ran the lines in such a way as to first send the hot tranny fluid the radiator cooler just as they recommend. I saw no difference in coolant temps even when i turned the cooler fan on. It would just get hotter and hotter and wouldn't cool down from when I put the trans in park and let it Idle. One week ago I rerouted the lines to send the hot tranny fluid to the external cooler first then to the radiator. The results were noticeable and shocking. Not only did the engine run cooler, when I parked the car it went down to 163 degrees and the radiator fan shut off. That is the first time that has happened since I bought the car 35 years ago. The next time I drove the car it was 85 and quite humid and I turned on the air conditioner And once again was shocked at what I saw. I think it got up to 172 as I pulled in the driveway so i put it in park and let it idle with the a/c on and the temp came down to 169. Then I turned the a/c of and let it continue to idle and watched the temp drop to 165. The I turned the heater on and watched the temp drop to 163 at which point the radiator fan shut off.
For all these years I've never been able to get the temps under control the one thing that changed everything was the addition of an external trans cooler plumed the exact opposite way that they recommended.