#60417
Chuck & Wanda King
Participant

    Check six,

    I’ll be glad to give you as much info as I can, but most of what you need to know (and believe) is in the tech tips article , part 1, 2, and 3 (coming up) on this web site. This is an example of pennies make nickles, nickles make dimes, etc. Look at the various data and plots and see how much is gained by certain enhancements— some are more beneficial than others. Get your biggest gains where you can, and add some of the refinements along the way—–they’re all listed for you.

    I’ll address some of things you asked about and maybe a few more. I’m going to start with the mechanical fan because a lot of air and lots of your time will have to do with this. A 15″ fan will help tremendously. You said you don’t have the equipment to raise your engine—– sure you do. A scissors jack a piece of 2×4 on your oil pan is all you need. It’s much easier if you have stock exhaust manifolds than headers, but simple enough none the less. Leave your transmission mount attached, remove the single nuts on the engine motor mounts where the bolt portion passes through the frame bracket. Then raise the engine up with the jack till the bolt clears (make sure your hood is open for this), slip in an 1/8″ thick washer, lower the engine and replace the nuts. You’ve just gained 1/4″ at the front of the engine where the fan is over the rack. All the cars are just a little different here and there, you may not even need to do this.

    Both the Derale and the Imperial flex fans mentioned in the article sell for about $30. I personally prefer the Imperial even though it doesn’t draw as much air the way it comes as the Derale. It”s more of a simple bolt in and you can just increase the pitch of the blades by gently, symmetrically bending them (without putting a crease in them) to get nearly the same airflow. Imperial is sold at Advanced Auto.

    The shroud: Just having the shroud in place will increase the air drawn through the radiator by about 25% (see data)—– that’s alot! Enclosing and sealing the shroud will add nearly another 25%. If you’re going to use a 15″ fan, then I”d say to stay with the Tiger shroud or the aftermarket Tiger shrouds available. If your going to enclose it, there’s much more that needs to be addressed than I’m willing to get into here. I may give a tech session on this at the upcoming United, if your going to it and can wait till then (otherwise call me sometime).

    If your going to stay with the 13/14 fan that you mentioned (13 1/2″) or any other 14″, there is a shroud out there that can be modified that makes a nice, clean, functional enclosed shroud. It takes a little work and ingenuity, but the basic shroud is there. It’s from an 86 Ford Taurus (or years of that body style) 6 cyl. Part # E7DE – 8146 – DA. I’d just check the junk yards till you find one, and you can probably get it for $5-$10.

    While you’re at the junk yard, see if you can locate that Fairmont/Zephyr water pump pulley we mentioned, and put that on as well.

    This brings up the next point. What you said about machining out the fans (and hubs) to 1″. The mounting hub on the shaft of the water pump is pressed on, simply have it removed, reverse it and repress it to the PROPER location and you won’t have to have that other more expensive machine work done.

    The Fluidyne radiator: All I can say is that it was not a good performer in our tests. I’d rather stay with a stock rad than that. Best of all I liked the stock recored using the VT Windsor core (local radiator shop can order it). Griffin is a great choice if you get enough air through it (not so good if you don’t)

    The electric fan: Good to use as an auxiliary, but get as much as you can from the mechanical side first. The little 4 paddle 10″ Dodge colt fan is super (Summit’s 4 paddle 10″ looks like the same thing). The Mazda 626 11″ is a good one as well. Remember to keep the fans shroud about 1″ away from the rad ——– it make a big difference. As for the switch, I like the adjustable thermostatically controlled switch (about $20 at Advanced Auto). The sensor can just be placed and held firmly against the side of the rad tank and then you can just adjust it to what temperature you want it to come on. Keep it fused, but on the constant hot side of the fuse block.

    Changing the air flow within the valence using air deflectors actually consistently raised the engine temp by about 1 degree. I know it sounds odd, but I can only tell you it did it every time. Only when an air dam was used that went below the crossmember did we see a decrease in engine temperature. Go ahead and try it, but you’ll need a digital temperature gauge to see he difference.