74 Brave New Radiator Installation

[SR66]

After removing the original radiator and purchasing a new aluminum one from Champion Radiator. I went with one made for a 55-59 Chevy truck. Its core size is close to the oem radiator.


http://shop.championcooling.com/1955-1956-1957-1958-1959-Chevrolet-Truck-SKU-5559


The upper hose inlet is in the center but will work fine.






I also purchased the shroud without the fan since I already had a Flex-a-Lite 16 inch 2500 CFM fan.


The radiator is well built but the shroud was a PITA to fit on. Clamps and a lot of cussing finally got it in place.


I reused the original support brackets and had to add 3 inch extensions to make them work. The new radiator was going to need to be moved forward a bit to allow clearance for the electric fan.



The new placement puts the bottom of the radiator on top of the chassis support brace. The original radiator sat behind it.



An issue I ran into was that the drain petcock is on the front passenger side. It hit a front brace and I was concerned about it not allowing the clearance I needed to move the unit forward enough. I debated whether or not to plug it or cut a hole thru the thick steel brace to let it pass thru.

I opted to cut the hole with a cutoff wheel on my Dremel tool. The petcock passed thru and allowed access to use it.



The adapted brackets were put in place and I did a test fit of the radiator. Also I marked the adapted brackets at this time for the holes that needed to be made to bolt up to the radiator brackets.





I also had to make connecting brackets from angle aluminum to attach the radiator to the adapted brackets.



Once the final holes were drilled everything bolted up perfectly. I also added a transmission cooler as well.





New holes had to be drilled in the brackets for the oil filler tube bracket and dipstick tube bracket. The over flow tank was moved to the side of the chassis.

[CapnDirk]

WOW!  Nice work, and nice radiator!

[SR66]

Thanks!


It was quite a project getting it all together.

[Rickf1985]

So you are only running an electric fan? No engine fan? You might want to move the trans cooler to another spot and give it it's own fan. That one electric fan is barely going to be enough for the engine and running all the time it will not last a long time. Flexi a lite grossly over rates their CFM ratings on their fans. You will find that compared to the engine fan that electric is going to be pulling very little air through the radiator. The hot trick is to go to a junkyard and get a fan off of a car that used them for cooling. They were much faster and have better fan blades and heavier motors.

[SR66]

Yes I am using only the electric fan controlled by a Delta Current Controller unit. I have used the same set up in my 57 chevy the last 4 years with no issues.


So far this new installation has worked fine and has kept the engine temp stable as it should be.

[Rickf1985]

Maybe the aluminum radiator helps but I went through three of those fans on my CJ-7 with a 401 in it. They were on ALL the time and never could keep it to the point that they would shut of on the controller. It was fine on the road or anytime I was moving over 20 MPH, just the air pushing through but below that when it depended on pulling air in, NOPE. That is where I figure you are going to have trouble is on a hot road in traffic where there is no air but what it can pull. The Flex a lites I had would give up after a couple months and then I had to put on another one. After the third one I went back to the clutch fan. Better cooling and lost no mileage.

[SR66]

That sucks you've gone through 3 of those fans.


I considered keeping the stock fan but decided to go with the electric fan setup since its worked well in my 57.


But if this setup doesn't hold up I'll go back to the clutch fan.


Experimenting with these vintage vehicles is always an engaging process that keeps me trying new things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

[M & J]

Clutch fan with shroud.......

[Rickf1985]

Anything is worth a try but your 57 doesn't weight 12,000 lbs. (close ) and it doesn't have a 440 running through 4:56 gears.