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PW Aluminum Radiator
I am hosting this Album for my friend Dan Lowe. Please contact him direct at the email address below for more info.
Here is an option to having your original brass radiator recored. I found a 19" x 22" universal aluminum radiator for $175 from 4 seconds flat. (Once a year they have a truckload sale and you can get one for $149) http://www.4secondsflat.com/Radiatorsmain.html
The brand of radiator I chose was a Northern. They are a flat tube design with a fully welded construction. Some of the other brands are epoxy construction which are junk. The flat tube design uses 2 rows of 1" wide tubes rather than 4 or 5 rows of 3/8" tubes like a conventional brass radiator. The large flat tubes cool more efficiently. Guys are using this size radiator to cool supercharged and turbocharged 454's and 502's in their hot rods. These radiators cool 50% better than a standard brass radiator. There is a ford and Chevy style radiator in the universal series. The Chevy style is the one to get because the inlet is located on the lower passengers side and the outlet is on the upper drivers side. By now most of you have noticed that the cap is in the wrong spot for a PW and is not accessible. I will be adding an inline cap to the upper radiator hose. On the radiator I will block off the inlet with a 24lb high pressure cap and then put a 18lb cap on the inline cap. The inline cap allows you to cut in a radiator cap into a radiator hose. To maintain that PW radiator cap through the hood look I will mock up an original cap through the hood cowl.
For the flanges on the radiator I used 1/8" 5051 aluminum. The engineer at Northern told me that 5051 was best to use. You can buy universal flanges from 4 seconds flat, but they won't work so don't waste your money. Because my truck will be getting air conditioning I made the flanges z shaped to also hold the condenser. For a standard install you will just need to have 2 L shaped flanges made. My flanges cost me $60 to have made up on a press brake. I had the flanges welded onto the radiator tanks which cost me another $60. I had the flanges welded on each end and in the center.
For the radiator hoses I went down to the local auto parts store and searched through their hose collection until I found two hoses with the right diameter and shape. Only took about 10 minutes, which was much easier than searching through a catalog with the parts guy.
You will all notice from the pictures that I ended up with ample clearance for the radiator with 4 pulleys on the front of the engine. Two belts drive the AC pump and the alternator and two for the water pump and power steering pump. Since I am putting an international t-34 5 speed OD into my truck I had to move the engine as far forward as possible to retain the stock transfer case location with a real short driveline. I have about 3/4" clearance between the fan and the radiator. On the front of the radiator I put a 1 1/2" thick condenser and still have about 1/2" clearance between the condenser and the grill.
Since my v-8 conversion was non-standard using a universal radiator with custom flanges allowed me to place the radiator right where I needed it. Even with the extra heat that a condenser adds to the radiator I am confident that with a more efficient aluminum radiator and a pressurized system everything will stay cool. This option ended up costing just over $300 with shipping of the radiator, which was much cheaper than having the original re-cored or having a custom aluminum radiator made.
If anyone has any questions email me at hbountiful@aol.com |
Date(s): Hosted for Dan Lowe. Album by DanL. 1 - 5 of 5 Total. 2047 Visits. |
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1
pw radiator
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2
pw radiator front
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3
pw radiator side
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4
pw radiator top
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5
pw fan clearance
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