Need a new Radiator!

phazersonstun · Dec 19, 2007

And quick!

Long story short I dropped in an 1988 roller cam into a 67 coupe. Carb'd and setup with all the 88 bracketry and accessories, minus A/C. It is a serpentine belt setup. Got it running and man is it a great runner! Love those motors! But I have a MASSIVE cooling problem. I am still using the old 289 radiator and it is not cutting it. I bought a new Flex-a-Lite fan for the reverse flow water pump, but I have a feeling that isn't going to be enough. I need a radiator that will fit this conversion. I have a 1995 5.0 radiator but it won't fit because it is too wide. It measures approximately 30 inches and I need something in the range of 26 inches. I know guys drop in the 5.0 with EFI, and have success, so there is a solution out there. THanks!

phazersonstun · Dec 19, 2007

Anyone?

mustangman1974 · Dec 19, 2007

hey make sure you got the right water pump on. On my 68 the inlet is ont he passenger side. roller motors are on the driver's side.

68stang351 · Dec 19, 2007

An 87-93 radiator will work. I used a heavy duty fox body 3 row in my 68.
People say it can't be done, but ---------(I forgot to mention that my battery is in the trunk, not sure if the radiator would fit with the battery tray in place)

phazersonstun · Dec 19, 2007

Yeah I have to have the battery in the engine compartment. And that is where I am having fitment issues. And yes I have the correct water pump, it is reverse-flow.

Nice job on your installation of the 351W. It looks great!

68EFIvert · Dec 20, 2007

I am using a radiator made by Northern. It is a generic version so you will have to fab up some mounts for it. Not too difficult. I am running a serp belt and Had to adjust the angle of the upper radiator hose. That only cost me about $20 to do.

Tim65GT · Dec 20, 2007

I am using a radiator made by Northern. It is a generic version so you will have to fab up some mounts for it. Not too diffi

+1

I have my battery in the trunk, but I think it woulda fit if I turned it sideways. I cut the radiator support opening for more airflow and room to mount it foward for theTaurus fan.

The radiator is a Summit (made by Northern) 26" with two 1" rows - $170:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D380425&N=700+4294810996+4294891681+4294883120+400304+4294792672+115&autoview=sku

It doesn't have a trans cooler, so I got a B&M 11" plate type for $50

68stang351 · Dec 20, 2007

That's not a bad deal! I probably would've bought that if I would've seen it before I bought the foxbody radiator. The fox heavy duty 3 row was only 130$, that was the main reason I bought it.

That Northern would be the way for you to go!

68EFIvert · Dec 20, 2007

If you buy the northern one take it to a radiator shop before you install it so that they can put a cap on the top of it. It will give it a finished look. I will repeat this again, put a petcock in it before you install. I screwed up on that the first time and draining the system is very messy when you have to do it by the lower radiator hose.

htwheelz67 · Dec 20, 2007

I have a northern 28" alum rad and inline petcock brand new in the box 175.00 obo
pass side inlet and dr side outlet

Cobain03 · Dec 21, 2007

i have a northern as well

phazersonstun · Dec 21, 2007

Wow! That is a great deal! Thanks for the info on the Northern Radiator. It has the perfect width for the opening of the '67. Got the fan, and installed it. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I never would have thought that a fan blade would have been so significant, but it was.

So I originally had a traditional rotation 5-blade flex fan. It had a steel assembly with aluminum fins. Because there was no clutch, it was turning constantly with the engine. It was pushing hot air through the radiator out the front of the car. This prevented a lot of cool air to pass through the radiator, thereby causing it to overheat. Not only that, but because it was designed to push air in the opposite direction than it was rotating, it was preventing the water pump from working at full efficiency, because of the AIR RESISTANCE!

I installed the new aluminum reverse flow Flex-a-Lite fan with 6-blades. And my cooling woes were cured! It is much lighter, but covers the same circumference, 17 inches. For the most part the temperature gauge stays between 1/4 past to a 1/3 past the C. The only time it gets higher is when I am idling in traffic for a while. But stays near half past. Not only that put my C4 shifts much better. I never would have thought that something like a fan would have had such a far reaching affect.

Thanks for all the info everyone! But unless the temperature raises too high, I probably am just gonna flush the system and call it a day. Thanks again!

enferno · Dec 21, 2007

i, too, bought the summit-brand radiator.

25" about. had to cut about 3/4" off the battery tray to make it fit, but man, it's nice.

i also bought their universal radiator brackets for $15. took a bit of creative work to get the top ones to fit, but i didn't have any steel to fab up my own way of mounting it.

the shroud is one of the 1/2 shrouds on summit for $35. i needed a quick, easy, cheap, and effective radiator for my daily driver.

p.s. the hoses are an 18" flex hose on top, and a 30" chrome flex hose for the bottom. i had to route it underneath the balancer to work on the stock water pump.

Tim65GT · Dec 21, 2007

So I originally had a traditional rotation 5-blade flex fan. It had a steel assembly with aluminum fins. Because there was no clutch, it was turning constantly with the engine. It was pushing hot air through the radiator out the front of the car.

I've heard of pusher fans, but that's not quite the way they are supposed to work...

Seriously...glad you figured it out.

65ShelbyClone · Dec 22, 2007

I'd like to have an aluminum radiator, but I'm getting by with my non-stock roller engine(mods in sig) and a 3-row/stock style/fairly new Modine brass rad. The temp has only crept up on me twice and both times it was 100+ outside. To make it worse, I was going up a steep grade for several miles at ~70mph with the stock fan and no shroud. It hasn't boiled yet, but I kept going when the road leveled out and the temp eventually settled down. I didn't stop for fear that it would start puking and I'd lose all my water.

Is your radiator a two-row? If it's a three-row, then cooling shouldn't be a critical problem.

Need a new Radiator!

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