Engine Cooling Thoughts And Radiator Recommendation

[FuzzFace2]

I'm with ya on Champion Radiators!

We have been using Champion heat exchangers for our race cars and tow rigs for the last 5 years or so. Probably 10 or 12 installed in that time. We had only one fail on a Dodge because the person who we installed it for zip tied his electric aux. fan directly to the core and after three years of vibration, it finally ground into the core causing one of the rows to leak. If he had just used some rubber isolators!

For the money, Champion radiators are a great value! I had one in my Bronco. Put in a two row to replace the 3 row brass/copper I had built several years before. It was a pretty heavily modified 400M. I actually had to take the 160 T stat out and put a 198 in so it would reach operating temperature a little quicker in cold weather. Ran at a steady 175/180 year around.

Unless your running some high compression or drag racing, a quality 2 row fabricated aluminum radiator is more than enough to cool a stock to moderately built V8 with a Viscus Clutch fan.

John, What you may have seen when you came out of the store was what is called Heat Soak.

That is where the heat from the motor soaks into the non-moving coolant and the temp will rise on the coolant but once the motor is started and the coolant moving a bit the temp should level out to normal.

This is normal for any motor & cooling system.

Also the 19x* stat is normal too. My 300 six calls for a 192* stat and is what I run.

I also have AC so have the larger radiator and shroud, 300 motors with out AC did not get a shroud.

I am also told the AC trucks got a clutch fan but I am running a good old direct drive fan and it cools just fine so I dont mess with it.

The only time I may see the temp climb a little is if I am sitting for a long light, AC on and it is in the high 90's but once I start moving it comes right down.

You also dont want the motor to run too cool as you will not boil off condensation and that can hurt your motor.

Dave ----

[Rusty_S85]

John, What you may have seen when you came out of the store was what is called Heat Soak.

That is where the heat from the motor soaks into the non-moving coolant and the temp will rise on the coolant but once the motor is started and the coolant moving a bit the temp should level out to normal.

This is normal for any motor & cooling system.

Also the 19x* stat is normal too. My 300 six calls for a 192* stat and is what I run.

I also have AC so have the larger radiator and shroud, 300 motors with out AC did not get a shroud.

I am also told the AC trucks got a clutch fan but I am running a good old direct drive fan and it cools just fine so I dont mess with it.

The only time I may see the temp climb a little is if I am sitting for a long light, AC on and it is in the high 90's but once I start moving it comes right down.

You also dont want the motor to run too cool as you will not boil off condensation and that can hurt your motor.

Dave ----

From what I see in the parts and illustration guide 81/82 had two options of fans for with A/C while 80 and 83/86 only had one option of fans for with A/C. Below is what is shown on the screen further down for 81/82 which is what I used for my decision on fan upgrade for my '82 F150.

D7TZ-8600-A : Std Cooling, Extra Cooling, Super Cooling - 5 blade flex fan - 18" diameter

E0TZ-8600-A : Super Cooling, A/C - 7 blade flex fan - 18 1/4" diameter

D8TZ-8600-A : A/C - 5 blade clutch fan - 19" diameter

It is why I opted for a 18" diameter 7 blade flex fan from Flex-A-Lite in place of my 5 bladed flex fan. I know it is 1/4" smaller than OE but the extra blades should improve cooling with my dealer installed AC and I hope to get my air registry vent temperature to drop below 58*F on a 100* summer day. It also will go nice with the Cold Case radiator I am seriously looking at getting to over kill my 302 build. I do have the E0TZ-8600-A part number saved on ebay in the off chance I can locate a NOS one which I would gladly swap in place of my Flex-A-Lite fan since I prefer OE components.

Interesting part is 80/82 had a flex fan option for A/C but only 81/82 had the option of a 7 blade flex fan everything else was capped at 4 - 5 blades.

 

[Rusty_S85]

I'm with ya on Champion Radiators!

We have been using Champion heat exchangers for our race cars and tow rigs for the last 5 years or so. Probably 10 or 12 installed in that time. We had only one fail on a Dodge because the person who we installed it for zip tied his electric aux. fan directly to the core and after three years of vibration, it finally ground into the core causing one of the rows to leak. If he had just used some rubber isolators!

For the money, Champion radiators are a great value! I had one in my Bronco. Put in a two row to replace the 3 row brass/copper I had built several years before. It was a pretty heavily modified 400M. I actually had to take the 160 T stat out and put a 198 in so it would reach operating temperature a little quicker in cold weather. Ran at a steady 175/180 year around.

Unless your running some high compression or drag racing, a quality 2 row fabricated aluminum radiator is more than enough to cool a stock to moderately built V8 with a Viscus Clutch fan.

Dont get me wrong Champion makes a nice radiator. Its about all we use at work, Champion or Enthropy which is the only company we use that makes LS retrofit radiators with baffled tanks and inlet/outlet on the same side.

For me I just cant justify a Champion radiator for a street driven truck with a warmed over 302. I also dont want to go making these changes which it seems with every Champion radiator Ive installed at work requires some fabrication to get it to properly fit. Sure it usually is chopping the rubber mounts down for a proper tight fit or in the case of Chevrolet trucks with the panel that holds the radiator down having to be chopped on. Its just something I don't see the point of when I believe the cheaper Cold Case radiator would do what I need it to do in conjunction with my almost OE spec 7 blade flex fan. Hell I was fully content with sticking with the 3 core copper radiator but the more I thought about it the more I realized do I really want to spend money to have a local radiator shop remove my tanks to clean it out so I don't contaminate my new engine build or put that $100 - $150 towards the $500 for the Cold Case plus shipping and tax. I figured it would be better to invest on the new radiator for my expensive new engine build than to cheap out at the last minute. It was also a reason why I decided against shipping my Cardone DSII distributor for a '85 5.0 HO mustang to be recurved and just spent $350 on a DUI distributor that is being custom built with a custom curve. I just couldnt bring myself to trust my new engine to a cheapie $30 cardone distributor.

[Machspeed]

John, What you may have seen when you came out of the store was what is called Heat Soak.

That is where the heat from the motor soaks into the non-moving coolant and the temp will rise on the coolant but once the motor is started and the coolant moving a bit the temp should level out to normal.

This is normal for any motor & cooling system.

Also the 19x* stat is normal too. My 300 six calls for a 192* stat and is what I run.

I also have AC so have the larger radiator and shroud, 300 motors with out AC did not get a shroud.

I am also told the AC trucks got a clutch fan but I am running a good old direct drive fan and it cools just fine so I dont mess with it.

The only time I may see the temp climb a little is if I am sitting for a long light, AC on and it is in the high 90's but once I start moving it comes right down.

You also dont want the motor to run too cool as you will not boil off condensation and that can hurt your motor.

Dave ----

Good points, Dave! Thank you. I may have found my problem though....a loose fitting radiator cap. I have the new cap, just have not had time to check the coolant level and apply the cap. I'll be doing that this weekend.

Rusty, again please keep me advised of your radiator choice? I like what I've read on Cold Case radiators and with my unit being the original OEM unit, it's just a matter of time before it lets go.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Good points, Dave! Thank you. I may have found my problem though....a loose fitting radiator cap. I have the new cap, just have not had time to check the coolant level and apply the cap. I'll be doing that this weekend.

Rusty, again please keep me advised of your radiator choice? I like what I've read on Cold Case radiators and with my unit being the original OEM unit, it's just a matter of time before it lets go.

Will do. Im still waiting for a reply back to my email asking where the radiators are produced at. Honestly I would still buy one even if it was made over seas.

I already made a list of fittings for the transmission cooler to use the OE lines as well and the fan shroud, the trans cooler lines, and other things I would need when I put a new radiator in.

[Littlebeefy]

Does anyone ever use the transmission coolers built into their radiator as an engine oil cooler instead? If so is it controlled by a thermostat? Seems like an expensive way to get very little cooling effect. Or am I wrong? Anyone ever use an oil/coolant intercooler on their trucks? I know some later F150s came from the factory like that. Curious how it worked out if so.

[Rusty_S85]

Does anyone ever use the transmission coolers built into their radiator as an engine oil cooler instead? If so is it controlled by a thermostat? Seems like an expensive way to get very little cooling effect. Or am I wrong? Anyone ever use an oil/coolant intercooler on their trucks? I know some later F150s came from the factory like that. Curious how it worked out if so.

Ford in the late 70s had a factory oil cooler that bolted to the inner fender oil flowed through it and coolant from the radiator flowed through it to cool the oil.

My parts and illustration guide only shows it for a 460 police package car but I know the one I found online wasnt the same as the 460 version hooks to the heater ports for coolant and the one I found on ebay NOS years ago hooks to the radiator directly and was for small blocks.

I personally wouldnt use the cooler in the radiator for oil. I am how ever thinking about making a custom line from the radiator cooler to go under the core support and up in front of the radiator to a Derale transmission cooler and then back to the OE hardline. I probably dont need the extra cooler but I do like the idea of having more cooling than not enough for the transmission.

[Machspeed]

Rusty, again please keep me advised of your radiator choice? I like what I've read on Cold Case radiators and with my unit being the original OEM unit, it's just a matter of time before it lets go.

Will do. Im still waiting for a reply back to my email asking where the radiators are produced at. Honestly I would still buy one even if it was made over seas.

I already made a list of fittings for the transmission cooler to use the OE lines as well and the fan shroud, the trans cooler lines, and other things I would need when I put a new radiator in.

Rusty, did you ever replace your radiator and if so, what route did you go? You were doing a lot of research on the Cold-Case radiators in this thread.

[Rusty_S85]

Rusty, again please keep me advised of your radiator choice? I like what I've read on Cold Case radiators and with my unit being the original OEM unit, it's just a matter of time before it lets go.

Will do. Im still waiting for a reply back to my email asking where the radiators are produced at. Honestly I would still buy one even if it was made over seas.

I already made a list of fittings for the transmission cooler to use the OE lines as well and the fan shroud, the trans cooler lines, and other things I would need when I put a new radiator in.

Rusty, did you ever replace your radiator and if so, what route did you go? You were doing a lot of research on the Cold-Case radiators in this thread.

I haven't done the swap yet, will do it when I pull the old damaged engine out for my new engine. I will be going Cold-Case how ever for various reasons including the life time warranty Cold-Case radiators have.

I think the Cold-Case is the best drop in OE style replacement you can get as it has all the OE dimensions and hookups but being a more efficient 100% tig welded aluminum construction with two 1 1/4" cores to make up the 3" core thickness compared to the OE that were from what I could find out just over 1/2" and had three for a 1 1/2" thick core.

[Machspeed]

Rusty, again please keep me advised of your radiator choice? I like what I've read on Cold Case radiators and with my unit being the original OEM unit, it's just a matter of time before it lets go.

Will do. Im still waiting for a reply back to my email asking where the radiators are produced at. Honestly I would still buy one even if it was made over seas.

I already made a list of fittings for the transmission cooler to use the OE lines as well and the fan shroud, the trans cooler lines, and other things I would need when I put a new radiator in.

Rusty, did you ever replace your radiator and if so, what route did you go? You were doing a lot of research on the Cold-Case radiators in this thread.

I haven't done the swap yet, will do it when I pull the old damaged engine out for my new engine. I will be going Cold-Case how ever for various reasons including the life time warranty Cold-Case radiators have.

I think the Cold-Case is the best drop in OE style replacement you can get as it has all the OE dimensions and hookups but being a more efficient 100% tig welded aluminum construction with two 1 1/4" cores to make up the 3" core thickness compared to the OE that were from what I could find out just over 1/2" and had three for a 1 1/2" thick core.

Thank you, sir!