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I'm looking to replace my stock beat up rad with stock dual fans to something inexpensive with slim dual fans. I'm seeing stuff online with actual decent reviews. Who here is using the cheap rads with the dual fan/shroud setup. How are they and would you recommend it.
I recommend you keep the stock dual fans and radiator if you already have them. My wife's 1987 has dual factory and it works great. Mine was originally a clutch fan and I tried a lot of different fan and controller combinations before I found a good setup. The dual factory cool great when working properly. You probably won't be able to improve on them by spending money on aftermarket.
They don't keep up with a boosted ls motor as is. The single core rad even with dual fans is fine idling but once you get into long pulls.. It can't keep things under control enough. There are are higher cfm fans that are slimmer and the fan shroud would be a good upgrade also.
My son and I just bought the Champion 3-core aluminum radiator from JEGs. It will fit with some minor changes to the rubber isolators. But we don't want to use stock fans because a 383 long block is in the future. We're looking at options, like dual 12-inch fans and a shroud. I like duals because if one motor goes out, you still have some cooling. The fans will operate together rather than staged. Does anyone know of any brands that will fit? There are a lot of options out there, but the trick is finding one that will clear a larger radiator. Champion 3-core aluminum radiator from JEGs
I have that exact radiator. It drops right in. Any fans that fit on factory radiator will fit on that.
I have been a little frustrated with radiators. Aside from fan air-flow, the overall cooling ability has a lot to do with the tube diameter (cross tubes), number of cores, etc. Bigger tubes (1") and fewer cores (2) vs smaller tubes (3/4") and more cores (3). If I had to do it again, I think I would go with a larger tube two core. I found that this three core has the smaller tubes and the way they are smooshed down to go across, they got clogged with particulates. After a good flushing it works a lot better. I think pressure checks on either side of the radiator is a great "restriction" check. Lastly, there is the number of rows. More is more cooling- up to a point.
Griffin thinks bigger tubes are better than more rows.
7) What makes a radiator cool better the number of rows in the core or the size of the tubes?
The larger the size of the tube the more the cooling capacity. With a larger tube the volume of fluid is increased, displacing more heat thus increasing cooling capacity.
Last edited by Tootie Pang; Aug 11, 2020 at 11:59 AM.
my setup is NA and I know you are boosted (I am a subscriber on your youtube channel). my setup works like a damn dream. I have no AC either. simply just the radiator with my stock OEM fans and NO shroud either. the holley sniper controls the fans (each on their own relay) and they come on at different temps. my engine will run between 179-185 deg for hours and hours.
That is a beautiful engine bay! Sure you aren't boosted but you are making the bigger numbers. Maybe I will switch mine out for the two core Champion...
That is a beautiful engine bay! Sure you aren't boosted but you are making the bigger numbers. Maybe I will switch mine out for the two core Champion...
thanks. correct, I am not boosted and not running AC, so there is a direct path from the front nose/grill openings to the radiator for fresh air too pas through the radiator while in motion. I also have a fully intact air damn in place. I run Evans coolant too. As for firebirds, like the OP has, they don't have the grill openings for air-flow at speed, so that presents another obstacle for him to deal with. LSX matt was just troubleshooting high coolant/engine temps in one of his threads.
For me, I had no idea/predictions on how my setup was going to work, but I knew I wanted a new radiator, evans, high volume water pump, 160 deg t stat, and to re-use my oem dual puller fans. If all that worked (which it does) I was going to be satisfied. If it did not, I was going to go down the route of adding a shroud for the fans, and whatever else was needed. Fortunately for my setup, everything worked and I have 2,300 miles on the engine, cooling system, everything since March 2020, including 5 days making passes at the dragstrip, 2 autocross events, and several multi-hour cruises. So it seems set.
Last edited by IROCZman15; Aug 11, 2020 at 06:27 PM.
We bought the 951 fan and shroud combo shown below. It fits and works great. We're going to be taking the Iroc out for some extended driving and sitting in traffic to see how it works. The Champion radiator also has 951 in the part #, which is a giveaway. Of course, the delivery people (or someone) just HAD to drop it on one corner (bottom picture) but that was easy to straighten. When I bought the Tenhulzen alignment system with the aluminum toe/camber/caster plates, one edge was bent like this also.
I used to repair vintage HAM radios for people and ship them by mail. A delivery guy dropped one box right in front of me and seriously damaged it. I filed a claim, and the service stalled and stalled until the claims window had closed. I never got a cent to cover the damge.
Last edited by W3AFC; Oct 24, 2020 at 06:33 PM.
Reason: spelling error
Hey W3AFC, That's the exact Rad and fan set I'm getting ready to buy for my 90 IROC, 305 TPI. How did yours turn out? Did it meet your expectations? Thanks!
small update: after a year of pretty heavy street, drag, autocross and general aggressive driving my radiator has done its job of cooling AWESOME. zero complaints performance wise. However it has developed a small pinhole leak and is leaking my Evans waterloss coolant out slowly. I contacted Champion and they stated that since I have a lifetime warranty on the radiator, I could pay to ship it back and then they will ship me a replacement. i asked them if I could wait until winter time when the car is completley off the road, and they said sure! So that is promising, will let you all know how it goes.
We're having a weird issue. Around town and idling in traffic, the fan & radiator combo works great, 25-30 degrees under the stock single-core and fans. But at freeway speeds, even in overdrive with the engine loafing along, the temperature climbs to 250. Normally, at Interstate speeds the temp goes down or stays the same. The fans are both pulling, so they're not fighting the wind. We had to mount this big guy differently, and I used 1-inch square foam rubber to seal the front edge against the A/C condenser, and I think that might be causing fan cavitation. The fluid levels are spot on, so that's not it. We're using Prestone 50/50, new of course. I'm wondering if we should have bought a louvered fan shroud, but there's not much free space for that much air flow through the louvers anyway.
Last edited by W3AFC; Oct 24, 2020 at 06:27 PM.
Reason: spelling, picture size
Reinstalling the air dams took care of the highway speed temperature increase, and it even seems to help at low speeds, but the temps have been only in the low 70's so we won't know until summer.
This was a new issue to me, but then I have always replaced those plastic pieces if for no other reason than to keep water and debris from splashing up over the engine and belts. I left them off once on a 2.7L Stratus, and every puddle resulted in a squeal from the belt. My son left them off his Iroc because they rub sometimes when pulling up into our workshop.
My '75 Grand Prix and others never had this issue because the radiator had a large plastic shroud that the centrifugal fan on the end of the water pump fit into.
