Hi there...

I just have a simple question to my new radiator. I bought a new 3-core aluminum radiator from Performance Cooling on Ebay. It fits perfect in my car after some minor trimming of the rubber peaces.

I started up the car after engine overhaul and some performance upgrades.
The car stays cool for a while but gets quickly hot when driving in city traffic or idling...Is this because of my thermostat mayby??..

The store that I bought the radiator from says it will cool down 850HP so I was just wondering if this is with cooling fans or what??

Link to radiator site

As you can see it is a radiator from Champion radiators and I am very satisfied of their service.

I need to know the answer as soon as possible because I am planning to take my car and go on holiday, but I don't want to do that before everything is in working order....Just wanted to hear some of your opinions, and if some of you have the same radiator without cooling fan's.

If I have to buy cooling fans I need to wait a couple of weeks to get them from US. Since I am from Norway it takes a while to get the parts

Anyway, should I try to get a new thermostat first??..Or buy the fan shroud with new cooling fans??

My engine is a 305 TPI engine that is completely overhauled.
Installed a bigger cam with higher lift. Hooker 2055's headers.
Catco 9118 High flow cat. Magnaflow cat-back system.
Ported heads and a performance chip made by myself...

My thermostat is an old 195 degree thermostat by the way..

Please help me out here...

 

well, it really depends on your driving style or how you drive the car. If you do little driving on your thirdgen or alot of highway driving then you'll probably be "ok" without fans, however, if its your daily driver or you plan to drive in alot of stop-and-go traffic, then you might want to get fans. A lower thermostat will help keep the engine cooler, but the radiator only cools down when air is passing through it, so if your sitting in traffic still, a lower thermostat is not going to help....

 

you really should have at least 1 cooling fan. When you are driving slow, or stopped, there is no air moving under the car and through the radiator, thats what the fan is for.

do you have an infrared heat thermometer gun? that will give you a better idea of how hot the engine really is. the factory, and even the aftermarket guages are not very accurate. My autometer setup reads about 20 degrees F hotter than it really is by the IR thermometer gun. Your car may not be nearly as hot as you think it is.

also make sure you are not running lean, or have too much advance, that can make the engine run hot too.

 

Can't you just put the stock fan(s) back on there? Why buy another when you have them? If the OEM brackets won't fit with the new rad, just run those zip-tie holders through the rad fins like all the aftermarket fans use anyway.

You really really need a fan. Cars have had fans of some sort for the last 100 years, there's a reason for that.

 

fan is needed for street use-might be able to drive in
cooler weather without a fan,but it will be needed.
Could probably salvage a good fan from a junked car
over there in norway-check '94 up saab 900,seen a fan
from one of those and it looked pretty decent,also
later model volvo might have a good fan

 

Yeah I know about the air. Just wanted to know if a new radiator have advanced the cooling technology somehow so the fan use is not needed.

Anyway. I know the question did sound a little amateur and stupid since I actually know my engine inside and out and also work as a mechanic myself. Have built several engines. But I didn't know about this zip-tie method of mounting the fans??...How does that one look??

You see I have the old original stock fan that and that fan is working 100% correctly. But after I got the new radiator it didn't fit between the water pump and the radiator itself since the radiator is much thicker than the stock one.

 

HAHAHA, I dunno why but that made my day

 

A fan is pretty much a necessity, unless you don't drive your car a lot, or you only drive mostly on the highway. A lower thermostat would help keep the engine cooler, but without at least one fan to help cool the antifreeze when you are crusin', or at a stop, it really wouldn't make a difference. My suggestion is to get two fans. It made a world of difference for my car.

 

I ran without fans for a little while because i couldnt figure out how to get em to work. I drove 50 miles each way to work but I lived directly off the highway and worked right off the highway so there was no lights at all. But sometimes there was traffic and if you come to a stop after being on the highway you have about 20 seconds before your car overheats. And If theres a wreck I had to just pull over and wait hours until traffic cleared and i was sure I could maintain atleast 50 mph. So you need fans.

 

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HFM-ZFCT/

This is the type of thing I was referring to - they work like zip-ties - they go through a small hole in the fan, through the fins on the radiator, and through those small discs on the otherside, where they "zip" tight. Just about every aftermarket electric fan that I've seen installed on a car uses these to hold the fan against the radiator (especially on the "classics" that have large motors and radiators and never had electric fans stock - like a 1st gen Camaro). I've seen cars with 4-5in thick radiators that had thin fans (1 inch thick) attached to the radiators like this. It holds the fan right against the radiator for maximum air draw through the radiator, and frees up alot of space when the fit is tight.

 

YES! You need a fan.