New radiator hoses? Dual fans? Cowl or ram air induction hood? Or is there a special type of mod you can do for cheap thatll keep it cooler? Ive heard of people hooking the radiator fan to a toggle switch so you can manually turn it on and off,but are there anymore ideas?

 

run with no hood? 180* t-stat might help.

 

Flush your cooling system really well and run a quality coolant at the proper mix and also add an additive such as Royal Purple's Purple Ice. You can run a lower temp thermostat and upgrade to an electric water pump. Upgrade the electric fans to larger aftermarket ones and toggle switch them or have them run constant.

 

wrap the headers.

 

Yeah my dad was talking about installing that t stat. i think he bought one actually

 

Hey i used that stuff last time i flushed! haha
And yeah i was thinking about an electric water pump. Just gotta wait for that money to come in!
And im thinking ill need a new radiator and fan here pretty soon
Car sat for 10 years and they arent in the best of shape. I was checking out an all aluminum radiator on summit and a dual fan upgrade
My fan right now is warped. That thing rubs until it gets going pretty darn fast.and even then you can hear it hitting the radiator

 

Ranging from easy to difficult:

-make sure everything that´s already there works
-Flush cooling system
-swap the stock thermostat for a lower temp one (170° - 180° depending on futher mods and engine operating temperature)
-fit a wider/deeper airdam
-fit a higher (cowl) hood
(-on T/A or firebird they look appropriate, on camaro only functional, add fender vents that are open to the engine bay to extract heat)
(-on TBI/carb only, make nosecone functional)
-paint headers white or wrap the headers

 

Why do you think it needs to run cooler? If it's not boiling over it isn't overheating. Your motor runs best at higher temps-190 plus.

Anti freeze coolant doesn't cool as well as plain water, but the anti-freeze protection, and especially the corrosion protection require it's use.

Water wetter's and the like assist cooling by reducing cavitation-the formation of pockets of water vapor in the system. You shouldn't need them with a stock system (and be prepared to find black crud in your system after you use them).

Higher capacity water pumps, blockages and running without a t-stat can lead to cavitation. You don't want that.

Bring your stock stuff up to specs. Replace the radiator if it's crudded up. You don't need anything fancy for your motor provided it's in good tune.

Tune up your motor. An out of tune motor produces more heat for the same amount of power (compared the same motor in-tune). Think about it...if it's not using the fuel efficiently it has to burn more to turn the back tires.

You can toggle your rad fan (although you don't need to) but keep the temp switch in place for when you forget to switch it on. Do NOT wire it to run continuously. The start up load on the fan motor can exceed 20 amps, more if it comes on before the engine starts and the voltage is lower. Add that load to the battery at the same time that you hit the starter and be prepared to replace your battery, or wiring, or other stuff.

 

exactly what NAF said

also make sure you have the air dam installed underneath.

 

Cleaning 20+ years of accumulated crud off the engine may be helpful.

JamesC

 

An electric water pump is not a good option on the street. They are not an "upgrade" by any meaning of the word. They are used on drag/race cars that are not daily driven - I assume so that 1) a tad bit less belt-robbing power, and 2) so the w/p isn't subjected to so many instant 1000rpm to 9000rpm cycles (water pump works best at a steady rate, not wild changes in rpms).

Something not mentioned yet - take upper rad support off, tilt radiator towards engine just enough to get between rad and air conditioning condensor and clean out all the leaves and debris - these cars collect a massive amount of junk in there.

Another option, an aftermarket fan controller that is adjustable - you can turn the "on" temp down lower in the summer so the fan comes on a bit sooner, and change it back up during the winter (when you want to get a bit more heat out of the heater). They range from about $35 to $100+, depending on the bells and whistles. I have a Flex-a-lite and it's the best $100 I ever spent - 3+ years now and fan always runs where I set it. Plus, the Flex-a-lite controller starts fan at 65% full speed, reducing the initial amperage draw on the charging system. Has provisions for A/C, manual on/off switches, easy to wire.

 

4 cored aluminum radiator, dual fans, hi flow water pump. 160* thermostat only if you get the thermo hypertech chip/prom, and a new low temp fan sensor. adjust your timing to 6*btdc or whatever it calls for, and do a throttle body bypass. done!