Radiator & front condenser clearance

A Fluidyne with shrouded sucker fans AND a front-mount A/C condenser CAN be installed with the rad in stock upright position but as you've found, its not easy. There are three minor mods most of us do to fit big radiators and/or front mount A/C condensers.
First, cut the few spot welds that hold the pusher fan mounts and remove the entire assembly. Shrouded sucker fans are far more efficient, will lower your running water temp and are simpler to install.
After that's done, add a pair of 3" long straps between the radiator top mounts and the radiator body mounts such that the rad tilts foward at a 20-40 degree angle (exact angle unimportant). The lower mount posts welded on the radiator will pivot in the stock rubber bushings and the welded frame brackets.
This is done strictly for convenience in servicing and installation; the lay-forward position will have no effect- positive or negative- on your engine water temp.
The last thing you need do is make a new upper sheet metal panel to fit the far smaller opening now between the front edge of the rad and the body, so all the air coming in the grille goes thru the rad, not up and around it. Not doing this will raise water temps by a significant amount. A simple flat sheet metal panel held with a few sheet metal screws will suffice.
NEVER use plastic tie-wraps to hold the shroud to the Fluidyne rad. The tie-wraps will eventually cause water leaks & ruin your radiator.

I just completed this task on one resto and am helping another owner right now with another.

Adding to Jack's remarks, we use the lower mounts and cut off the upper mounts. While fitting the new radiator/condensor & fan combo, we simply weld in new upper mounts in the ideal location.

Since we are in Texas, we are also using four fans. On the current resto, we fit even thicker, higher flow, SPAL fans up front.

After we finish the second conversion, I'll document the transformation and park it on the Space City site. We, Rob Pink and I, are doing a better job documenting it this time.

Eadiator suckers and shroud

Condensor/rad combo and pushers

Pushers

The fans are also serve as back-ups when Bill runs out of gas. They'll move the car forward as long as the battery holds out. :^)

John,
Do you have a part # for the condensor and the fans?

Thanks,
Ron

Ron

I can dig through my papers and find them. However, we used a different condenser on each application and were able to use thicker fans up front when we used a radiator without a rear shroud. The condensor pictured was acquired through Quella, the last at Vintage Air. We mounted both condensors to the Radiator differently because of design differences.

For that matter, how thick is your radiator?

This really does matter because the thicker 10" fans flow substantially more air. We bought the fans here http://www.the-fan-man.com/ I believe they are 13" suckers and 10" pushers. Best prices and inventory.

My radiator is from Quella also. Like the one pictured.

Ron

Thanks for the pics, I will have to check clearance on mine when I do the mock up this weekend.

Interesting with the 4 fan setup, have you tried with only the 2 fans and it ran hot? I question the surface area of the 4 motors which do not move air but act as a blockage, had that problem on a previous project. As long as I can get both coils to fit with the fans and shroud without any major mods, I will be happy.

Again thanks for the pics, they really help this old dog.

Angelo

Whether or not two fans would suffice is a good question and an issue we have debated ad nauseum locally. We did not try 2 fans with the rad/con combo. I type to slow to list the pros and cons we surfaced of both approaches.

This car has a dynod 600hp 427 Keith Craft motor that we figured it would generate a lot of heat energy. Suffice it to say, the cooling performance met our expectations, and we are mimicing the design on a second Pantera at this moment.

30 years of Pantera ownership experience has led me anecdotally down this path. In low speed summer traffic, one can't have too much air being pushed through the rad/com. Above 35mph when you have adequate flow, obstructions are less significant; above 50mph, obstructions are insignificant. I've played around a bit with the Pantera's cooling system. A few items we've learned are available in a cooling white paper at the Space City Pantera's website.

Angelo, I can't say definitely on the pusher shroud restriction, but I ran a dual 10" sucker fan shroud several years ago, and around town and at reasonable speeds they worked fine to keep the engine cool. On my favorite NV test road, ten minutes at a steady 140 mph saw the water temp gradually climb from 190F to 230F. Slowing down to 90 or so, the temp also slowly came back down.
A few years later with 12" sucker fans in a matching shroud, a repeat of the same road & speed showed no temp increase over a ten minute run. So I suggest that you run the largest possible fans in your sucker shroud. If that's not economically possible, cut the triangular areas between the smaller fans and cover the cut holes with flexible rubber flaps held only on on edge. The theory is, at very high speeds fwd air pressure thru the rad will push the flaps open, reducing any restriction due to the shroud or fan size. Then at low speeds, the suction of the fans will keep the flaps closed, improving shroud efficiency. Look at certain stock Honda and watercooled VW radiators from the '80s-up which use this flap principal to good effect.

Angelo, do consider the amp draw of the fan set up. I have the front mounted Meriah (sp) pusher fans, which I measured at 4 amps each, steady state. I also had a sucker fan behind the rad which had the thin "pancake" motor; that one took 11 amps. That's the trade off - the thin motors help with your mounting space, and are lighter, but take more electrical power. Rodney

Rodney is spot on about amp draw. I used relays for each fan as seen in the pic. We ran 4 guage wire from the ampmeter to the relay bridge. and as a doubler from the alternator to the amp gauge to handle the output of the 110 amp alternator. Again we are repeating this exercise on our current project; however, we are using a 175 amp alternator from DB as it will put out closer to 75 amps at idle. We calculate the system need about 81 amps with fans running and lights on. This ought to cover it

I have recently modified a Flex-a-lite fan shroud for a friends car with rubber flaps to aid cooling at high speed. The rubber flaps are an old idea that dates back to the 70's I think. I did the same to my own car with aluminium flaps a few years ago and cured my high speed over heating.

The fans in these pictures pull 3000CFM (1500 each) so they are not the most powerful fans available but should keep the car cool.

I am about to install a single 16" sucker fan on an MG V8 and cant make sense of the Summit racing website. Some of the fans claim to full 3600CFM and only draw 10 amps whereas other fans, also 16" claim to pull 2500CFM and 20 amps. Twice the current draw and a lot less air? Can someone explain this to me..

It's interesting what Rodney says about thinner fans drawing more amps, maybe that's the reason?

Johnny

I used a power file and reciprocating saw to remove the plastic.

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