Projects Dodge This - 1939 Dodge Southeast Gasser Build

Sounds like a good plan on delivery Tony. Would have suggested the quick detach on pushboard myself had I realized you kept it on all the time.
Several years ago on my OT '03 Silverado/Duramax I encountered a slight heating problem which I traced back to the simple deal of a "GA Sheriff's Assoc." tag on the front (these tags cost a $20 mem. fee and $7 for the tag and are a big help when you're just a little too much over the speed limit, BTW). Relocated tag to be over face of bumper instead of above it in airflow path and heat problem gone.

 

With a good fan shroud and a good fan blade (no flex fan), a 180* thermostat should be suffice. The 195* t-stat is a big part of the issue. With a 180* it should run ~190*-200* in clean air and ~210* max in traffic. With a 160* it wouldn't get warm enough in the winter to run much if any heat. Trans cooler location shouldn't be a problem, but you may be right on the pushboard. Trans temp gauge would be optimal for towing with an automatic.

 

Car looks like its improving every race! Good to see you again

 

x2.

If you had an electrical fan only on a switch (thermal or normal), then I'd go with a 165* but for a mechanical fan then the 180* would be where you would want to be.

I had a 165* in my falcon back when I was daily driving it and during the winter I rarely turned the fan on unless I was in stop and go and this was with a 300rwhp 302 and a griffin aluminum radiator. Once I got above 10mph I could turn the fan off.

 

I think your right on on all of the above. I put a external cooler and an aux. fan in front of the radiator on my (OT) S-10 Blazer when I started towing my old V-drive with it. It ended up running hotter at all speeds unless I left the aux. fan on all the time (including at highway speeds). The only other suggestion I can think of is to swap the current trans cooler for on of those extruded, finned aluminum ones that mount under the car. Also, a universal receptacle style trailer hitch mounted to the front of the truck makes for a great push board mounting system (if you have room / clearance). It also makes maneuvering trailers in tight quarters SO much easier!

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You know when you look under a 48 Ford there is a TON of room in the fender well behind the headlight. Wonder if that area could be used for a trans cooler? Those long finned trans coolers seem like a gimmick to me - but maybe they work? If I could just find another place to put the transmission radiator that would probably fix a lot of this.

 

If u have a fan on it mount it horizontally under the gravel shield / front bumper. Dont use one of the finned tube ones if u tow ..they are marginal at best

 

you're marginal allwilly

 

Come on down for the party! Would love to hang with you. I understand on the running around at the track. It was hard to see everyone and I wasn't racing. I wouldn't be surprised if everything you listed doesn't fix the cooling issue. I'd think I'd try all of the other ideas before going through the trouble of moving the trans cooler. Do that last.

 

If you could figger a way to mount that cooler in the fenderwell and somehow duct airflow to it, that would be a great spot for it!
You said the heat problem is at hiway speeds when we talked. If you have all the airflow from the grill opening going thru the radiator with no chance of any appreciable amount bypassing the radiator, you don't even need a fan at hiway speeds, much less a shroud. But it's a whole other story with slow speeds and no fan.
If you think there's any possibility of the air being trapped under the hood after passing thru radiator, and pressurizing the engine compartment, thereby restricting air flow thru radiator, take a look at your hood hinge setup and determine if you can purposely misadjust so that rear of hood is elevated to let air out.
If this helps, either run it that way or find somebody with a louver press.
Airflow is a science in itself. Back in about 55/56 Grumpy Jenkins ran a "USA-1" tag on his stocker's front bumper. Later after 55/56 Chevys were no longer relevant to stock class racing, he disclosed that the tag, if angled back just right, would divert cool airflow up under front lip of hood, up over the radiator, and back to the carb and air cleaner snout!
I'd save all that time and effort on a fan shroud for a last ditch effort.

 

Should have this heat thing licked . Nothing like overkill to solve problems.
160 degree T-stat ( didn't really do anything in the summer temps it goes to 180 - 190 no matter)
Moved the trans cooler into a horizontal position below the radiator.
Kept the push board in place - car needs it for looks
Removed the mechanical flex fan
Added a 4000CFM box dual fan setup
Put in a Dakota Digital dual fan controller - it snoops the temp sender to turn on the fans - nice!
Converted the cooling system to Evans NPG+ waterless coolant

One thing I found is that the Stewart Warner temperature gauge is 20 degrees off! The IR probe and the Dakota Digital both confirmed the water is 220F when the gauge says 240F. Anyhow - the tow bill from an overheat would be more than all these overkill parts so pay now or pay later.

May 30th - Knoxville Drags here we come!

 

BAAAAAHAAAAAA!! TOO FUNNY!! AND YES, SHE IS HOTT !!!

 

HELL YEAH!! AWESOME-AWESOME-AWESOME!! A.) not a willys B.) gotta HEMI : )
I have palamides on theback of my coupe too !!! be readyto polish them every 7 minutes !! ha-ha!!

 

I never realized you had one a them fucking POS flex fans! Never-ever had any luck with them.
Is that SW temp gauge electric or mechanical?

 

Its electrical Dave - the sender is working ok, something is off on where the needle points.

Hey Steve - did you drill your Palamides for rim screws? Trying to man up and drill mine

 

P

DOH! Having been a gauge calibration laboratory manger for ten years, I should have thought to mention that. You would be surprised how often gauges are off. If your gauge error is linear (ie. off by 20 degrees at each point on the gauge), then all you have to do is move the needle back 20 degrees to make it right. If it's not linear, then usually the inside of the gauge needs tweaking, but I don't think the Stewart Warner gauges have any adjustment points built in. Their pretty much considered a throw away gauge in the Navy gauge cal. world. The really bad news is if you buy another one, there's a really good chance it'll be off as well. Now, this isn't a slam on Stewart Warner, most people just don't realize how loose the industry standards for automotive gauges are. Basic rule of thumb, the smaller the gauge, the less accurate it will be.

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Yep should have thought to put the IR probe on it. Wondered why at 240 she didn't pop See up till now its been cold outside and it never really got over in the hot zone. The real test is Saturday going uphill to the SEG race in 88 degrees if she can do that, then the Meltdown in July should be a cake walk.

 

well I am just north of Chattanooga if you have problems

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

I had big problems with over heating this is how I got over it
Stays steady at 190F be it in traffic or motorway

Spal fan pulls just over 2000cfm

 

Tyresmoke - you need to show us a pic of the whole car - its that the Dodge?

Saturday morning at 6am the Sedan Delivery left for Knoxville with Quick N Dirty in tow. The first gas stop in Fairmount Ga I needed to use the jump box to get it to crank what the hell man? 20 miles farther I pulled up next to 3dnsouth in Calhoun and said "Should we try it? She wouldn't start at the last stop." He says "Ah she'll be fine, how else are we gonna find out what's wrong?" Off we go.

The damn temperature gauge is still wacky - I put in an oil temp gauge that I had to see what it would say. (The Dakota Digital readout was matching the IR probe so I knew we were ok - but its UN-nerving to watch this going up hill -



The ground must be weak or the 12v is. So we decided to have some fun with the SFCC crew on a TXT thread we have going. "Hey guys is this ok ?"

Then sent this pic of 3dnsouth



So we rolled past the good gas station because of talking too much - we had to swing off and get gas at a little nowhere place that was pretty low traffic. Can't remember if it was me or Tim who said " Hey man beats walking!"

Ha bad gas will get you walking .....



It was kicking an sputtering every once in a while on the interstate - pulled off the first stop light and puuuu .....

The gas was boiling out of the carb. IR probe says 210F so its warm but not smoking. We started messing with the Edelbrock carb. Had it on and off 2x. Just would not run - dumping gas. Lots of cars go by and I'm thinking - if I can get a ride to the parts store, a new 1406 will get us going - no doubt - had too many Edelbrock issues but you can get one anywhere and the linkage is all setup - 10 minute swap.

Finally a white daily driver car pulls over - thought it was the cops - it was Tommy Lee Byrd Nice! He had a funny grin - sort of like what the hell are you guys doing now ? Short story - he ran me to Oriely's bam new carb - started right up and we were at the track in 30 minutes. Thanks a ton man!

 

Had a good turnout at the track. 19 SEG cars, the Border Bandits drove down from Wisconsin Awesome guys! We hung out and talked between rounds. They were amazed at how good Quick N Dirty runs and also about how bad I drive Its either me or this stuff isn't easy like it looks. Got one good 95MPH pass and one 1.57 60 foot time - one wheelie - not much but if a possum needed hopped over it would live.

Good time was had by most - 2 or 3 broken cars - Quain sucked a valve and Dirty ol Basterd lost a keeper and dropped a valve too. I didn't get many pics of the racing.




Great event and well run!

 

So just for an experiment - on the way home - I got home at 2am - Tim pulled the push board off the front and what do you know went from 210F to 187F on the interstate no other changes. The board has got to go!

 

I hate to say "I told you so", but, DAMMIT I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!
Were there any further failures to start without jump box? That 4000cfm elec. fan prolly pulls lots of amps.

 

There you go Tony
Top marks for perseverance once again .top job
@2000 cfm per fan you will be pulling about 20amps per fan at peak power
Most wiring looms Max out at 20amps with both running your pulling close to 40 Amps .
What power are you getting from the alternator?
Here a couple of pics of my Dodge

 

I know it DOM - damn kids today ya buy em books and ya buy em books and they rip out the pages

While were stuck on the side of the road for over an hour Tim found loose battery cables and the alternator charge wire was not very tight. Think that has the electrical knocked out.

Here's me driving like a UPS bus at least all the gears were found.

 

Awesome Dave! Its cool to see the finished product.

The alternator is supposed to be 140amp from Summit Racing. Its got 14v on the battery post at idle with both fans blowing. At 6am I had the 100 watt stereo and the headlights on too. That's probably too much and then the loose cables just made it worse. The 2 fan supply cables on the Alt stud. Probably shouldn't do that. Might be why the fans were running fine but the battery was discharging. Its almost debugged.

 

So it woulda hopped the possum but what about a armadillo?

Good to hear that the rig is getting sorted out!

 

Loose wiring may be why you had electrica problems, I agree. 140 amp alternator should power most anything you have room for in the dash or under the hood! I only have l a 45 amp in BGII, but all it's gotta handle is headlights after dark and the MSD ignition. The 40 coupe has, IIRC, 105 amps, and it has hidden stereo and A/C & heater.
You mention a speed of 95 mph thru traps, was that a full run on 1/8 or what??????
Please forgive me, but the devil made me do it!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!

 

I don't know about the fans being powered from the Alt. Direct to the battery might be better, but if the alt. is truly making 140 amps, I don't think it should matter. The fans probably account for 40 amps, the stereo a whopping 8 amps (100w/12.5v.) And probably 16 amps for the headlights (2 55w low beams, truck and trailer lights for the rest), another 10 amps for the rest of the powertrain loads, and you should have quite the safety margin (does it have heat or a/c and was it on?). My guess is it was mostly the loose cables (especially the alt. one, doesn't take much to seriously kill the output).

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