I just wanted to know if a 4th gen radiator/dual fan setup will fit in a 3rd gen camaro?

 

yeah and i've done it. Get a 4th gen shroud and modify/cut it. Cut off the tabs for the condensor on the radiator - they are NOT hollow. Cut a hole at the bottom of the radiator holder thing - you'll see why when you try to fit in the radiator.

You'll have way more room than the 4th gens do also between the rad and the engine. I recommend buying a Dremel from walmart to do your cutting.

 

If you are going to go through the trouble of cutting off the condensor tabs...why not cut that nipple off the bottom too. Instead of drilling another hole in your rad support. The one on my 99 radiator was hollow. Confirm by sticking somthing up and checking the depth. Overall I was happy with the fit. I used my stock 3rd gen radiator "shroud". Just cut it up and made it fit. I had to move the one rubber insulator over alittle bit. Same goes for the bottom ones.

Im using the 4th gen A/C parts too...so I left the condensor tabs on, and installed the condensor. Everything fit pretty good so far. I even have great access to the high side connector on the condensor.

I havent really looked at the 4th gen shroud. My donar car didnt come with it. Does anyone have a pic of how that looks??? I think mine looks pretty clean and smooth with the 3rd gen piece on top. Ill snap a pic to see what you all think.

Justin

 

Never thought of cutting that thing off of the bottom.

My engine bay:

 

does this help with keeping the car cooler?

 

I would think so. The 4th gen fans move quite a bit of air. It keeps my T/A cool.

 

so colling capacity of the radiator is same but the fans give you more flow across the radiator?

 

maybe, dont know, I dont think the LT1 rad itself could cool much better than the thirdgen one would. Its just easier to use the 4th gen radiator and fans put together.

 

so that being said what inspired you to do this change? were you having cooling problems?

 

Mainly because I had the LT1 engine and wanted the LT1 hoses, and i had the wiring for the dual fans. And yes, had cooling problems back in the day with the last engine(LG4 305).

 

from what i can see from the photo nice fab job i see what you mean from the top rad hose. good lookin motor. i think i have got the inspiration i needed to go dive back into mine timing issues have cript up on my new motor has me shakin my head lol thanks

 

Good looking LT1 man! My reason for replacing is...well, the LS1 was going in. So I figured why not use as much of the parts as I can. The 4th gen rad has provisions for the steam line and all that jazz. Plus..my fans were original. Im not even sure if they were working correctly.

Is that upper radiator support in the pic from a 4th gen??? If it is, and I by no means mean any disrespect, but I think the 3rd gen one fits a lot better. Ill post a picture of mine tonight when I get home. Either way..nice job! I still like the way an LT1 looks when you polish and paint it.

Actually...you can kind of see it in this picture. Its just nice and smooth and uses all of the holes. Lines up perfect.



Ill post some better pics when I get home of how I have mine.

Justin

 

Ok as promised. Here is my 4th gen radiator/fan/condensor set up. Any questions feel free to post em up.

This is the front view. I like how the 3rd gen upper radiator shroud looks stock and smooth.



Here is the back side. I left those tabs on the upper shroud so that I could run my wires across and have something to secure them to. If I need to... If not Ill probably clean those up as well.



Here is the driver's side. This side has a little gap. But Im going to put some high density foam in there to keep air from going around the rad. You can see the upper radiator cushion was moved over in this pic. Just drilled another hole for the nipple.



Clearance to the steering box...



Lastly...this is how my condensor line comes around the rad. That condensor line on the 4th gens is really easy to manipulate. Being careful of course. However the big thing that I was happy to see was that the high side connector is easy to get to, and it will be easy to hook the manifold gauges up to it when I go to charge it. I was alittle worried about that...



It's all coming back out today so I can clean and paint the surrounding metal. Im also going to clean the other parts up as good as I can. Then it goes in for good. Any questions?

Justin

 

The thirdgen one wasn't working for me for some reason, I did try that first. For me, it was just easier to modify the 4th gen shroud.

 

yeah it took some cutting to get it where i liked it. I wish I had a 4th gen shroud to mess with. I heard that it fit...but the donar car didnt have it when I got it. So I made due. I took it all back out tonight and found alittle more trimming to do so that it locks in better. Now all I have to do is get the better lower radiator hose. Although the 4th gen hose looks like it will work... It comes close to the idler arm bolts, but wasnt touching. But I have to see once the rad is in its final resting place.

Justin

 

Did the fourth gen hoses clear everything ok? I am going to switch to a fourth gen radiator.

 

Phew...thread from the dead brother!!

Yeah I was able to use both 4th gen hoses. I just sort of trimmed them and twisted them so they worked. Two cars, a few years... no issues with the rad hoses to speak of.

J.

 

I did this mod also. To mount the fans I put an aluminum piece of angle on the top of the fans and slid that into the radiator top. cut off the side tabs and on the bottom i put screws through the chassis into the fans with threaded clips and tighten them up snug and its all good. deffinately move more air i have no overheating problems. great mod and one i deffinately suggest anyone to do

 

Will 3rd gen fans/blades fit in 4th gen shroud, I can get a 4th shroud but the fans are sold.

 

No idea...but I dont think so. I would just wait and get a set of 4th gen fans already in the shroud. Or, measure the rad and find another set in the junk yard that fits the space. But I imagine 4th gen fan set ups are easy enough to find that you shouldnt have to piece something together.

J.

 

Yeah that's what I thought. The guy only had the shroud left. I did find someone else with the fans and shroud, so I'm going to pick them up Wednesday.

 

bringing this back once again..i have the dual fans now and im goin to plug my single connecter to one fan, but the other one im goin to run a manual switch. so my question is what size fuse should I use for the manual switch?

 

nvm found out a 30 amp fuse with maybe 14-10 gauge wire

 

Anymore pictures anyone?

 

I hope you aren't running power through the switch for the fan....better keep an extinguisher handy.

 

What if the switch was for the ground, and the second fan was hot wired directly to the battery?

 

The only time you should even contemplate running a switch for any type of fan motor is if it is triggering a relay to carry the load to the fan. For example, if a typical relay for a fan is wired where 30 and 86 are always hot, 87 being output to fan positive and then you have 85 running off that switch where the other side of said switch is chassis grounded, then that would work-so long as the fan motor negative is also chassis grounded.

The switch ground (to the relay 85 in this case) could run in parallel with an engine temp switch too.

 

I ran a fan for a grand am for years using a negative toggle switch, never had an issue.

I'm NOT saying you are wrong because you obviously now more about relays than I do, but do you mind giving me a little "relay 101" explaining why a relay is important? I'm afraid I don't under stand the function if what I'm after is a simple on/off switch

for example, in your previous post you mentioned 4 numbers. I'm assuming that the numbers are the terminals of the relay... but I got a little lost when you said that 30 and 86 were hot. I run 12v power to both terminals?