I've had cooling issues with my barracuda from day one and I've tried every wrong way to fix it. The temperature always stayed steady at about 180* while driving at 30+ mph, but I had to avoid cities and traffic at all costs because the temperature would just keep on rising to 220+ degrees. I added a 26" 3-row champion radiator and also bought their aluminum shroud with dual 12" fans. The aluminum shroud and dual fans sure looked cool but unfortunately they were not enough to keep it cool at an idle, and then the temperature even climbed while driving down the freeway! Their shroud blocks way too much air from going through the radiator to be effective.
I finally decided to start from scratch and just overhaul the entire cooling system. I already had a high-flow water pump and high-flow 180* t-stat, and the champion 26" radiator. I added a 17" fan with thermal clutch, hood-to-cowl seal, hood-to-radiator core support seal, and fabricated a custom fiberglass fan shroud.
The shroud looks great as you can see in the pictures here. I followed the techniques linked in previous posts in this thread. I used three layers of chopped glass, two applications of body filler, and semi-gloss black paint. Just finished this project this evening and took the cuda for a test drive. I drove about seven miles at an average of 45mph to get it good and warmed up, the temperature held steady at 180*. I drove it home and parked it in the driveway and just let it run for half an hour. Temperature climbed to 185* and no further. Success! Looking forward to getting stuck in some real stop-and-go to see how it does.
