Rear mounted radiators...how come?

hey that looks great, i think a radiator mounted under the body with fans wired as a pusher would work well too,they make some pretty thin fans. I would think all the exposed copper tubing would also help with heat transfer.

 

Ummmmm. Looks great and traditional to me with the Moon tank mounted inside of the rad shell.....

 

So nobody is needing an auxiliary water pump to get the water to flow back and worth? If you are what pumps, manual, electric or both?

 

I am not sure, however; I belive Littleman is using an electric in-line water pump in Deaths Door Step, which is a VERY well built "Hot Rod"...

 

Well, I guess I've learned something here. Prior to this, the only hot rods I'd seen with rear-mounted radiators were very extreme "rat rod" looking and seemed to be built for shock value and not practicality.
Now I've seen some, rodrobb's and flynbrian's, that appear to be well engineered and built for a practical reason and are definitely not rat rods.
Any more out there? Let's see 'em.

 

Littleman isn't a dumbass. I think radials and disc brakes on an open wheeled car are not very attractive but I don't walk up to every one I see and say " man that looks like crap, your car is not HAMB approved"You got flamed because of the way you worded you question, not for the question at hand..

 

Right on. I've gotten over being offended now. For the record, as long as we're talking about brakes, I left the '35 Dodge 10" drums on the front of the '36 because, after all, disks look wrong. They work almost as well as dragging my feet. The first panic stop is reasonably OK, the next one, not so much. Can you say, "brake fade"? I drive it very defensively, like it's a motorcycle and I'm invisible.

Radial tires also got left off, instead, skinny bias plys with eek motorcycle tires up front. Unlike the brakes, they work very well.

Brian

 

i put the radiator in the rear of all the figure 8 cars i built even after they said we had to have them in the front. so we put a small one up front and the one we used in the trunk.

if you have seen a figure 8 race you would not have to ask the question.

 

Theres a company in Wichta that builds DUCKs the radator is 2 sets of copper coils mounted on th underside of the hull. the water cools the coils when floating in the water and lots of air flow when going down the road.

 

I dont need a eletric waterpump for my setup, just a short edelbrock waterpump.

 

A few years ago at car show, I saw a street-driven
fiberglass T-bucket done up in the style of a '60's
vintage altered drag car. It had a louvered cover
over the T- pickup bed the to let the air out and a
rad, a pair of electric puller fans and a Shure-Flow
industrial-style electric water pump, all mounted
in what would have otherwise been the floor of
the pick-up bed. The water holes where the water
pump would normally mount in the front of block
where tapped for AN fittings and connected to
Dash-8 or dash-10 size water lines that were
hidden inside the the left and right frame rails. A
single dash-12 line went from the thermostat
housing at the front of the intake and also
disappeared into one of the frame rails. Up front,
this gave the illusion of the engine having no water
pump or radiator and allowed him to run an empty
fiberglass T rad shell in front of the engine, just like
the on the old altered drag cars. All in all the car
was a pretty slick and a very nicely engineered
piece.

Mart3406
==================

 

Interesting. Love to see a picture of it.

 

Dumb ass, dumb ass, dumb ass!!!
Sorry I just couldn't resist.

Now I'm thinking that as I recall there was at least one salter that had a mid mount flatty and the rad in the rear. That would have been a '40s(?) build if memory suits me.

There were a lot of things done a very long time ago that although not common would have happened in the era that we consider to be trad. With the exception of show cars they were very seldom done for shock value, but out of necessity.

When I ws reading the rule book about trad there was nothing mentioned about radiator location. That is where we find out what trad is isn't it, from a book?

Bottom line is that a lot of things that we do today for cool factor were done out of necessity before trad was rad.

BTW Brian your thinking is good thinking. I don't really think you are a dumb ass.

 

dumb ass huh?.....gee what do you have for a good idea?...

 

Auxiliary radiators mounted front, rear or side have been common wherever there is a cooling problem on autos, trucks, RVs, or machinery. My friend Burl has a 500 CID Caddy in his 1976 Barth motorhome. He mounted a Neon radiator as auxiliary cooling with electric fan up under the rocker panel of his truck behind the driver's side wheelwell. In the fire of Texas/Southern summers it comesin handy for those long pulls to Swap Meets.
Nothing wrong with it. Our comrade who started this thread was referring to the "street" dragster look rather than the use of rear, or anywhere else but up front, radiators.

 

Here is a rear mounted rad in a blown big block 34. Uses a boat water pump with no belts upfront except for the blower. Has 2 electric fans in the rear and an aluminum scoop underneith the car works perfect.

 

so you knew it wasnt traditional and have only seen it on shitty rat rods...

and with that knowledge you decided to start a thread bashing every dumb ass that has done it, even though you have no fucking clue how or why someone would.

what a fucking dumbass.

p.s.

both your cars are played out and boring. wow chaulky flat black roadster ! and oh my goodness black with red scallops, how original.

 

Dumb-ass is a rod that runs warm and overheats and the owner not being able to think outside the box to fix it. Just cause you don't understand something does not make it dumb-ass. I suppose puking water out is traditional but you have got to draw a line somewhere. Smartass would be me!

 

aman!

 

My initial question (poorly worded and unintentionally offensive to some) about rear-mounted radiators was: "how come"..."why do it?"
This question has been satisfactorilly answered by Flynbrian48, Rodrobb, alteredchevy, and a few other knowledgeable hot rodders.
Unless someone else can add something positive or provide more examples, maybe it's time to kill this thread.