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Reply to "cooling system advice ??..."

I am very familiar with Johns cooling system mods, I know them by heart, didn't need to read the article. John & I have compared thoughts on fixing the Pantera cooling system. We are simpatico on this issue.

He eliminated the swirl tank, employed a single pass radiator, streamlined the plumbing and substituted a remote BMW thermostat manufactured by Stant. John believes the BMW thermostat is less restrictive than the Robertshaw thermostat. All of these mods increase coolant flow. Good stuff. Goal #2 of my original list.

I am in agreement with John, the swirl tank is not needed to remove air. Evans Cooling advises against the use of a swirl tank too, because it impedes coolant flow. To Evans Cooling, coolant flow is everything, the faster the better.

He employed a surge tank & installed air bleeds at the engine outlet & both heads. More good stuff, goal #7.

He didn't install an air bleed from the radiator. Carrol Smith recommends the radiator air bleed. It makes sense to me that there should be an air bleed at each pressure drop, because entrained air will escape at each pressure drop or drop in velocity. Since every Pantera built was delivered with a non-functioning air bleed system, John's lack of a radiator air bleed is obviously not the end of the world. His Pantera has 3 functional air bleeds which are 3 more than what it had when it was new.

The remote BMW thermostat allowed John to modify the heater core plumbing. Getting those tubes out of the tunnel and routing the coolant to the heater core through the forward firewall makes good sense, I plan to do the same thing with 6018.

John utilized two high capacity electric fans (goal #6), sans an air shroud as an air shroud would restrict air flow at high speed. Air shrouds improve the fans ability to move air, but restrict the free airflow through the rad. Its a trade off & an owner should be honest with himself & decide which is most important. If you race open road races, etc, then free airflow is more important. If you use the car for in-city transportation, then I think the fans need the shroud. I had a shroud built into the radiator I had custom built by Evans Cooling, even though Evans Cooling advised against it.

Johns modifications are very extensive, more extensive than the average owner will want to do. As a side note, the mods I'll be doing to 6018 are in some ways more extensive than John's.
Last edited by George P
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