I have a Howe Racing Radiator with a home built shround attaced to it. How much strenght does this set up need to be mounted with, and what's a good way to do it? I need some way to mount it using the shround's structure. The shroud is held to the radiator with a lot of 1/8" screws. The entire set up barely fits inside of the radiator shell on the front of the car. Right now I was just going to bolt a piece of straight flat bar to the shround and in turn bolt the flat bar's ends to the back of the shell; Just putting the lower rubber mounts on the bottom to hold the assembly in place. Any advice would be appreciated, and listened to.
At speed, there is a tremendous amount of force blowing on the radiator. It's great to have the upper support rods to help out to....with out them, the lower mounts are likely to fail either at the radiator or at the frame due to the tortional (twisting) stress at the lower radiator mounts.
what about isolation? I've always tried to isolate the rad with rubber encapuslated mounts or pads? Won't you litterally shake the crap out of it without some sort of isolation? I agree with all other recomendations. There is alot of force on the rad and you really need to have it properly supported..
Speedway and others sell a bolt with a spring around it for mounting the radiator. So I guess strong but flexible.
I like to mount the shroud solidly to the chassis. Then I attach the radiator to the shroud with Dzus buttons.....using a bit of slit rubber tubing between the shroud and the radiator to absorb vibration.
The radiator is a ridged unit and should be isolated a bit with rubber on the sides and a spring mount kit at the bottom. It will not tolerate very much flex and will crack and leak as the body around it moves to and fro.
You do NOT want to mount the radiator solid - especially using the shrould mounts. Look at chevys, say a camaro around '70 up. The radiator sits into mounts at the bottom, & has a top "cover" that clamps it into place - all rubber insulated. Nothing bolts directly to the radiator. You want to do the same thing. Make u-shaped brackets at the bottom that the strong parts of the tanks sit in; similiar brackets at the top. Find some nice thick rubber to insulate it with, & make sure no parts of the radiator contact metal *anywhere*. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Since I gave up hope I feel much better.
Hey! You just hyjacked Scratch Built's thread! I'm not worth a shit. The paint guys on the Chrysler said they would give me the "clear I resprayed the car with" for free. I'm using Sikkens, & today they refused to *give* it to me but will "let me have it for 1/2 off". They'll give me CHEAPER clear, though! I told them I wasn't using anything I haven't shot before 'cause I DO NOT want to sand & clear the damn car a THIRD *fucking* time! I left without any clear - kinda in a hurry (not getting specific on the details as it may tend to incriminate me). ;^p Anyway, I'm out 20 hrs. of sanding & paying for over $400 worth of clear out of my own pocket - for someone elses' fuckup. TFM (Typical For Me). On being "back": I emailed Ryan & asked him to delete my membership & He said (& I quote) "dont sweat it". Wasn't really sweating it was just tired of my help getting deleted. Never intended to quit *reading* the HAMB. :-D Guess he wants me to hang aroung no matter how much crap I give him. ;^) As you can see I still can't resist the urge to help others if I can, no matter how much trouble it sometimes is. I guess I'm a fucking idiot. Just don't expect me to be checking daily like I was for "instant" messages. They will no longer be instant (especially since with the new version of the board no longer gives me pop-up alerts for them. sigh...). ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" There is no problem that cannot be solved with the *right application* of high explosives.
I would've said, "BIG and firm".... We always handle a radiator minus it's coolant contents. Add the weight of the coolant and it becomes significantly heavier. There's a lot of mass there to prevent movement when mounted. Now, I'm talkin' about a real radiator, not one of those late model single flue cores with plastic tanks jobs. The copper/brass Walker radiator in my '47 Ford weighs a bunch. Being a 3 or 4 flue core, it also holds a lot of coolant. Total weight is significant.
This makes a good point, and got me to thinking. Not only does a radiator mount handle the weight of the fluid but that fluid is in motion! That thermostat opens up and you get a lot of coolant moving in and out of the tanks. A new, larger radiator is on the list of things to do on the bel air, think I may sit down at the drawing board.
The Jalopy Journal
