by Richard Miller » Tue Jun 07, 2016 11:41 am
my original setup had a 33 inch wide 4 core copper brass radiator and 2 , 12 inch puller fans . it was set with the bottom of the radiator at the front and laid back about 45 degrees ,. aluminum panels at sides to close gaps to fenderwells . bottom of trunk cut out back to fuel tank and top of fenders cutout too ,, looked much like what you show here , also had a 6 inch conveyor belt rubber (tough stuff ) air dam at the pinch weld straight down . initial drives it would overheat . I realized air was going over the top ,, only a couple of inches between radiator and hood , so I got a large piece of foam rubber and put it across the top and that helped ,, but still warm ,, then I realized what I had missed which was that air could go out to the sides and up over the fenderwells between the inner and outer fender ,, stuffed foam up in there,,not elegant but it worked , on a cool day car in motion I ran right on the thermostat ,, just over 160 , 165 ,, no fans needed , stops were good to help warm it up a little ,, warm day in traffic fans on about 195 ,, on those cool days it was too col , engine started stumbling and coughing .. my point is simply that I found that if there is any way for air to get around the radiator it will take the path of least resistance rather than go thru the core ,, and if stopped with fans on there is not a low pressure area behind to draw air and if it can the air will recirculate around back to the front ,, I cannot tell from picture if there is space out at the sides of the radiator but if there is I think it will help to seal them ,, off topic ,, in left bottom corner of picture there is a blower ,, I have only recently seen this a couple of times and I wondered what it was ,,is that the factory air conditioning setup ?
Richard Miller
West Covina, Ca
'65 V8 Vair