I finally had a cooling problem now that the summer heat is in full swing here in southern TX, sat idling in a drive through line the other day for over 1/2 an hour, temps got a little too high for my comfort.

I have been running with a single 14" s blade fan on a cheap aluminum radiator, as long as I stay moving or in light traffic I never had a problem.

Well anyways I had a new 10" fan that was waiting to be used, and for some reason there's been an aluminum "ONE WAY" street sign leaning on the garage wall, so I put it all together, here's what I came up with.

I forgot to get a 'before' pic, here's one after I just removed the 14", it was mounted to these straps:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1925.jpg

The materials:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1924.jpg

Mocking it up:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1931.jpg

Covered in 2" masking tape, everything drawn out & ready to cut:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1932.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1933.jpg

Getting ready to mount the fans:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1934.jpg

Everything mounted and in place:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1935.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/dwright406/Camaro/100_1937.jpg

I riveted 2 pieces of small square tubing along the top and bottom 'flanges' of the core, then screwed the shroud to the square tubing with 1/2" sheetmetal screws. There's a piece of 1/2" aluminum angle running diagonally between the fans from one top corner to the other bottom corner on the back side of the shroud to stiffen it up, reduce flex.
I sealed off the ends with some rubber that was supposed to be for a threshold gasket at the bottom of a doorway, found it at home depot.
I still have to finish up the wiring, I had a single 30A relay on the 14", I'm adding another relay for the 10", but the relay I've got I just realized is a 5 wire (never looked at it til now), so I'm trying to figure out if I can use it or not.

I tested it with some jumper wires on the 10" fan, you can feel tons of air moving from the front.
I started the engine and for some reason the fail-safe thermostat (about 2 months old) was stuck open. After idling in the driveway for a good 20 minutes it wouldn't get hotter than 140*, so I unplugged both fans and let it get to 200*, plugged them back in and it dropped right back down, so I guess it works. Just have to finish the wiring now.

very nice!

Agree, very nice.
IMO - I would add some flappers. At highway speeds I don't your going to get enough flow through the radiator.

Wouldn't blocking all that surface area hinder cooling?

Take a look at my Cardomain....

Olav

Agree, very nice.
IMO - I would add some flappers. At highway speeds I don't your going to get enough flow through the radiator.

Absolutely agreed. I am in the process of putting some flaps on my MK8 fan as we speak. The car will idle all day at 195 but as soon as I hit the highway they shoot over 200.

Everything I have read says that a cooling issue at speed is lack of airflow. Electric fans would work best if they could be shut off at highway speeds but most aftermarket controllers/relays dont allow this. Since the fans dont shut off they basically turn into a wall.

So the flapper doors are the next best thing.

Shane

Thanks for the comments guys.

I kicked around the idea of flapper doors, they'd be easy enough to add if needed, I'm going to get it on the road and see what happens.

This isn't my first one like this, I built one just like it before that ran cool all the time, that was on a 600hp vega.

This one on ebay is very similar:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/16X31-ALUMINUM-RADIATOR-W-SPAL-FANS-SANDRAIL-BUGGY-FD_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33602QQihZ020QQitemZ300141831346QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

I say leave it as is & try it 1st. That core is not even completely sealed, looking at those pics. I have 93LT1 fans in my 77 and they have flapper openings, but GM got rid of them not much later. The late LT1 and all LS1 fan shrouds are solid. The old ones are now discontinued by GM, all you can buy are the solid ones.

LT1 fans. See the opening over the fan? There is another one below the other fan. OE there were flapper doors over them.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SIBLY/My77Z28/img1188snb6.jpg

Electric fans would work best if they could be shut off at highway speeds but most aftermarket controllers/relays dont allow this.

Ahhhh, the beauty of EFI! I programmed mine to turn the fans off at 35 mph... :p

Ahhhh, the beauty of EFI! I programmed mine to turn the fans off at 35 mph... :p

at highway speeds in my camaro, it will overheat unless i have the fans on, but still at speeds over 55mph, the fans cant keep it cooler than 206 in summer.

Oddly enough the fans on my LT1 powered B body seldom come on at all. Usually only if I'm sitting idling for a while one will kick on. It seems that the reverse cooling on these engines makes a big difference.

Wouldn't blocking all that surface area hinder cooling?

+ 1

Test drive went real well.
I took it through town for a while, a lot of stop-n-go, redlights, traffic, etc. Then went out on the highway for a few miles, then back in town.
Stopped at a grocery store for a few minutes while I grabbed a few things for dinner and back through town to the house.
About 45 minutes of driving, it's a 90* sunny day.

The thermostat is still stuck open, so it took a long while to get up to temp. For the first 20 minutes or so of in town driving the temps seemed to stay around 140-150. After getting off the highway and back into stop and go traffic it was at 160 and never got higher than that the rest of the day.

As far as I can tell this shroud is doing what it's supposed to, I don't think I'll need the flappers, but if I experience any overheating on the highway I'll add some.

When are you opening up a shop? Great job it looks really clean!

Electric fans would work best if they could be shut off at highway speeds but most aftermarket controllers/relays dont allow this. Since the fans dont shut off they basically turn into a wall.



Actually, a friend of mine wired in an airflow switch from an electronics rack that does just that. The vane of the switch is positioned near the backside of the front grille and when the speed is high enough, the vane moves backwards and trips the switch which turns the fans off. When he slows down, the vane moves forward and turns the fans on.