I fabricated a fan shroud for a 22" - 4 row brass radiator, but will it be enough?

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jbc426

jbc426

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I bought a custom radiator spec'd out by US Radiator several years ago for my '68 Barracuda. It effectively cooled the Magnum based 408" stroker that put out around 380 RWHP with an A/C condenser in front of it. I was running a factory radiator fan and clutch.

I am now upgrading a similar displacement motor to 820 flywheel hp using a Paxton style supercharger, and I'm wondering if that same radiator with a 16" Zirgo electric fan with a custom fan shroud will be enough to cool it. I don't like the look of aluminum radiators on old Mopars.

I made a sheet metal shroud that stands off about an inch from the cooling fins and is relatively tightly sealed around the perimeter of the radiator for maximum flow through the fins. The tech guy at the fan supplier stated that I could always use two 12" fans to gain even more flow if I needed it.

I'm curious what experiences some of you have had trying to cool higher output engines with a 22" radiator.

68 408 Paxton.jpg


Shroud.jpg
 
I’d give that a go on any engine, it can only improve cooling. Guessing that your going to have to give it a try to see if it does the job on your higher horsepower engine.
 
jbc426 said:
3000 CFM. The car is my daily driver, so no heavy track use, and I am spraying straight methanol.
Click to expand...

I don’t think the radiator will be the issue, going aluminum by itself isn’t some huge upgrade and a 4 row brass/copper radiator isn’t like comparing to a 4 row aluminum radiator.

The fan CFM is pretty good, although there is some room for improvement there.

As I’m sure you probably know I run an OE ford contour dual electric fan set up on a 26” aluminum radiator. Those fans pull ~3,000 CFM on low speed and ~5,000 CFM on high speed. But I’ve only ever had the high speed kick on like twice, and both was when I was stuck in traffic on 100+ °F days. One was like 110°F. And I didn’t have any overheat issues, just ran hot enough to trigger the next fan speed.

Now granted I’m probably only in that low to mid 400hp range, so that’s a whole different deal. But so is spraying methanol!

Personally I think you’re close enough to give it a rip, I don’t think you’re gonna overheat instantly or anything. I would imagine you’ll be just fine under normal driving conditions, the question will be whether or not it will be robust enough under more extreme conditions.

Like my car I wouldn’t worry about under any conditions now, as long as everything functions correctly it’s not gonna overheat.

How much room do you have from the backside of the core to the front of the water pump pulley? There are other fan options out there that flow more CFM, like an OE Taurus set up, or there’s one from a Mercedes, the HHR fan, etc that fit a 22” radiator and have built in shrouds. Just not sure if there’s enough space for something like that. Not sure you need it either, just throwing out other options in case you need to move up on CFM or go two speed etc
 
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