Projects New Radiator

I am leaving no stone overturned this time. When I built the car I used a very big trans cooler( almost as big as the AC condenser) and this is in front of the condenser. It was too big to move so I went to O’reilly auto and bought a much smaller one. Maybe this plus the fan will fix the problem

 

Definitely no blown head gaskets I did some engine work last spring reworked the valves. I measured the AC condenser it’s 22x12 the trans cooler was 14x10. I used a much smaller trans cooler that I put on it today. Now I can drive it again and see what it does

 

I’m thinking my problems are solved. We drove to Wood River, about 20 miles didn’t run the A/C it was 172 when we got there visited for awhile came home ran the A/C it was between 177 and 180. Driving in town it went up a little but as soon as the speed picked up the temp dropped right back down.

 

Outside temp is about 70 degrees, but it would have been higher engine temps before

 

Great news. So many items have been discussed.
Exactly what did you change to improve it since we’ve been involved in your venture??

 

I believe it was the FAN.

 

Moriarity, I believe your right in rereading all the posts. It does look like it was the trans cooler. I doubt I've ever seen one cause overheating at highway speed. It must have been a huge one to so much havoc.

 

Yes I believe it was the transmission cooler. 14x10 nearly covered the A/C condenser. I would like to have done theses changes one at a time, so that I would know for sure, but got tired of working on it so just did the fan and cooler at the same time. The transmission cooler was kind of an after thought.

 

Thanks to everyone who posted ideas on here, this had me at my wits end. I hope on 95 degree days it works

 

Glad to hear you got it solved and thanks for following up!


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When you put the new fan on, did you remove the fan shroud?

 

No I left the shroud on, fan is to far from the radiator to not run a shroud

 

I drove the convertible to work today, had some running around to do after work. It was mid to upper 70’s by then. Car never got over 180. Didn’t go on the highway but I feel the problem is gone

 

I had a buddy that had a worm running 32 roadster. By that I mean it didn't puke but the gauge read 180-190 on a constant level. He ran the car out to Longbeach, WA for the annual summer's end hoopla and she got hot and puked at speed. He wanted to blame the fan or that he was losing the water pump. Car ran fine all weekend during the event and puked on the way home again. Long story short, the cause ended up being a fine meshed grille cover he added for the trip to the coast, it was restricting air flow on a car that already had some cooling issues.

Cars that overheat at speed have restriction issues or too small of radiator. I'd bet good money that trans cooler and ac condenser were making quite a air flow restriction. Glad you fixed it @OLDSMAN. There is good lessons to be learned here if people are willing to hear it.

 

When I built the car I should have known better using a trans cooler that big. It wasn’t necessary to have one so large. Live and learn

 

We drove to Salina today for the leadsled spectacular the car ran 185-190 all the way here. It’s about a 140 mile drive so I am certain my cooling issues are fixed