It appears that the more you chop, channel, and sweep the frame the shorter your radaitor needs to be. I'm sure some of you guys have mounted the radiator in front of the cross member so that you can get the right height of the grill shell and would alow you to use a taller radiator on a shorter car. anyone got any pics. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this. Thanks matt king pin customs
if you do that you need to make sure the wheels do not look like they are sitting behind the radiator from the side view, could throw off the look
Many, many channeled roadsters and coupes were done with the radiator in front of the crossmember. Keeping adequate cooling was one reason. Having the bucks to chop the rad., grille shell and grille was also a big consideration to most. The appearance does suffer a bit and it gets the rad. pretty far from the fan. If you put the axle in front of the rad. you need a spring perch on a tube crossmember and eliminate the stock crossmember which will bring the rad. back to it's normal location. Hope this helps.
One reason to stay behind is it was hard (not impossible) to get the bottom hoses through below the spring and over the axle. Didn't want the restriction associated with creating a tubing that would go from round to flat and back agian. http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=60135&img=Dsc01434.jpg" http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=72068&img=Dsc02137.jpg"
The only problem with putting it behinde the crossmember is that i am loosing room for the engine. I am going to run a SBC and try and keep as much of the stock firewall as possible. I moved the crossmember ahead 1.25" just before i swept the frame. I was thinking if i put the radiator infront of the crossmember i would gain some room in the engine compartment and not have to run as short of a radiator if were to mount it on the crossmember. I swept the frame 4" and plan on channeling the car 4" so that means if my firewall measures 27" - 8" = 19" I would need a fairly short radaitor if i mount it on the crossmember. By mounting it in front i can let it hang down infront of the crossmember and use a taller one. I agree though i may have some issues with the outlet on the bottom. Thanks
Rodrelic pics from above ... http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=60135&img=Dsc01434.jpg http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=72068&img=Dsc02137.jpg later, papa al
This modi from Marts site comes to mind, and illustrates whats Boones said about wheel position. This is probably my favorite though and I'm toying with the same idea as far as the radiator/grille setup, though on a 29 roadster. Best, Ralph
Everyone with a channeled model A running a spring over axle must have this problem. I have recently hit this roadblock on my project. I am considering putting the radiator in front of the crossmember and routing the lower hose between the spring and axle. I could then use my stock '30 grille. The routing of the lower hose has me a little concerned. I may have a radiator shop move the outlet to the center of the bottom header. I'd love to see a pic of this....anyone?
Measure what will fit and see if a sixties Mustang radiator will fit. Thats what we have used in a lot of channeled cars in the stock location.
interesting thread...like to see if there are any unique solutions as im in the same boat with a t-v8 im working on. rad way out in front looks pretty bad imo...im trying a scratch built rad with a 17" tall core but im doutfull how good it'll work this summer.
Depends how far you want to depart from the standard configuration. If you mount your spring behind your axle between your split wishbones, that will push the axle forward. Then you can afford to place the radiator in front of the original crossmember and maintain the correct relationship between your front wheels and radiator. I have done this with a nailhead in a 28. Gives you a bit more room for that tasty Buick! Pete
My radiator will need to sit on top of the front cross member, the lower tank will need to work around the spring perch bracket. How can you know if a radiator will cool your mill with these size issues. I don't even know about room for a fan at this time. What are some "rule of thumbs" on grille height, radiator placement, radiator cooling capabilities to size and core thickness? Some where I read (maybe here) about core thickness effeciencies. At a certain point, core thickness starts working as an air restriction and the added rows do little to help with cooling. Anybody know about this? Here are a few pictures of mine...sorry, not really related to "radiator in front of cross member" http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=153402&img=100_1116.JPG http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=153401&img=100_1119.JPG
Heres how mine works.. First I called 1=800=radiators and ordered a 1965 Mustang radiator for 120.00$ ..it was delivered the next day.then we chopped the grille 4 inches Then we flipped the radiator upside down and made tabs on the side to mount the grille to the radiator and welded tabs to the side to mount it right in front on the cross member. after that I took it to a radiator shop and had filler moved to the top and the drain moved to the bottom.. simple solution
Or take your standard size original or Walker radiator slightly modified lower tube to sneak above the cross member... don't chop that beautiful grill and mount it in front of the cross member to look like this... You really don't want to run anything between the spring and axle... just go to a hardware store and pick up a couple copper 90 degree bends in your desired diameter and solder them into position and run it over the Cross member...!
I mounted mine on the crossmember and my car was chopped 7inches and channeled 4 my radiator was 13x13 5 row and cooled the car fine... I was running a 63 vette 327 with dual quads and a nice cam as you can see i mounted it on top and then cut the sides of the shell and ran a 13in fan! Ran stock grill guard on it... not sure why the pics came out distorted?
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