To continue the story of our overheating hot rod, too much motor and not enough radiator being the villians, I bring you the latest chapter... I spent a happy morning in the local "pick your part" yard, my least favorite place on earth. I snagged a radiator, complete with fans, from a Neon. The radiator is 24"x14", single row aluminum core and plastic tanks. The fans are both 13x13, one is significantly more powerful than the other, and I think either of 'em are way more fan the 14" round slimline I have on the Mustang radiator in the car now. Anyway... I dropped the driveshaft and wiggled the radiator up into the space above the rear axle and floor of the kick-up. I've got three inches of clearance between the pig, the upper control arms and the radiator core. There's a couple of inches between the floor and the core, space all around the radiator, and (barely) enough room to have a small fan between the radiator and the driveshaft. Moving, enough air should be moving under the car to not need a fan, and even a small one should be enough idling. I've got the mounts and clamps all made, the radiator is mounted. I'm going to run 1 1/4" hard copper from the lower radiator hose of the front, now the "primary" radiator, to the rear, "secondary" one, which is actually larger than the Mustang "primary". They'll be plumbed in series, coolant to the secondary first, back to the engines lower outlet, and back. I'm thinking enough coolant will be in the copper lines to probably keep the Cad 472 cool, and if it isn't, hey, it's going to another radiator anyway. I was all set, and had even ordered but cancelled, a "Fluidyne" three row aluminum radiator, when I discovered the core was so thick, it wouldn't clear the water pump pully hub, and the fill neck would be directly under the hood center hinge. A two row aluminum radiator is supposed to be enough to cool a big block, but I didn't want to spend 300 bucks to find out that's ad hype, and be right where I started. 80 bucks at the pick your part netted the radiator, both fans, and front seat foam from the same Neon that I've already trimmed and put in the bomber seats of the roadster, so I'm gonna quit complaining about the ambiance of the pick your part place! Out to the shop now to make bump stops to keep the pig from poking holes in the radiator core, and figure out how to get the hoses to stay on slick copper tube. Pics and follow up with results of this entire fiasco to come...
I used copper tube for rad hose extenstions once and I ended up soldering a piece of mechanic's wire around the end to keep the hoses from blowing off. Rough it up with some emery cloth as well to help it grip. Good luck.
To keep hoses on slick copper tube - roll #14 copper wire (house wiring) around the tube about 1/2" in from the end and solder in place. This makes a nice obstruction and when the clamp is placed just behind it it will never pull off. I've used this method with copper up to 2" i.d. with a highly pressurised system and it remained secure.
Chapter 2 (OK, it's practically a novel by now), "It's all Plumbed", or, "Boy, that's a lot of joints to maybe leak..." Last week our hero (that would be me) had mounted the Plymouth Neon radiator up over the rear axle. I made some bump stops, which had to be done anyway, and drove car to work a couple of times to make sure that the rear axle and upper control arms didn't hit the radiator. Good news, no scars on the core! Monday I went to Lowe's and bought 2 10' sticks of 1 1/2" copper tubing, some 45's, some 90's street L's and 90's, 4 couplers, and 2 reducers to 1". Then, I stopped at a NAPA store to get some flex hose, and guess what? They looked at me as if I had 2 heads, and said, "We can only get that in 1 3/4", and it's special order." What the...? Depressed, and with 225 dollars worth of copper I now wasn't sure how I'd get connected between the two radiators, I stopped at an AutoZone on the way home. Guess what? Not only did they have 1 3/4", but they had 1 1/4", in varying lengths, and the guy who's managing the store is a guy who used to run an independant store, remembered me, and was very, very helpful. No more badmouthing AutoZone from this Happy Hot Rodder! The sell lots of flex hose, I was told, no big deal. I spent 2 hours monday afternoon, and all day yesterday fitting the tubing under the car, soldering the many joints as it has to snake around the frame, up and into the rear mounted radiator. A pretty big job, I indexed the many bends with a Sharpie, and sweated them all together on the bench, aside from two at the front where the pipes went up into the engine bay over the frame. I didn't think I could get them in fully****embled, so I did the last two on each pipe (supply and return) with them in place, on my back on a creeper not being able to fully reach around the joints. Then the fun, fill the radiator(s) and get all air out. That turned out to be a challenge, getting the engine and rear radiator to "burp". When they finally did, guess which two joints leaked like sieves? Yup the ones I did in place. Of course now, the entire system is filled with 50/50 mix, and no good way to drain (and catch) almost 5 gallons of coolant. After a tussel, and some spilled antifreeze, I got one of the pipes completely out, and the other dropped down far enough that I could get to the leaky joint. Managed to get all the coolant out, the joints cleaned, and re-soldered. This time, I filled both with water to check before mounting them, and... NO LEAKS! I've got it all*****oned back together just now, the pipes clamped firmly to the frame, and the car is happily idling away, with the temp gauge on 160! Perfect. I have both fans from the Neon, and if it turns out that I need a fan on the rear radiator, I'll have to cut an access hole in floor over the kickup and there's (just) enough room to mount the thinner of the two. I'm hoping I don't need to, but I have the option. The copper looks pretty neat snaking along the outside of the passenger side frame rail. There's enough room separating them that they shouldn't transfer heat to one another, and the exhaust is all on the opposite side of the frame. It looks like it's gonna work! Brian
I'd have posted some, but don't have the camera here, it's in the trailer at the campground. When we get done camping after the weekend, I'll jack the thing up and post some photos. It looks pretty cool, I kinda wish the copper was visible! Oh, I'll add that it ran at 195 this afternoon when I drove it to the state park where we're staying, about 15 miles, and idling around the campground it was at 200-210. I'm going to add one of the Neon fans, but it's MUCH, MUCH better!
The Jalopy Journal
