It was $800 or $900 last year. I was going to get one, but not at that price it was too much.
Must be Covid pricing then
@stevebuchanan posted:Everything is back together and the leak is gone. I have taken the car out on two drives and everything stayed sealed. It looks like the silicon elbow was the problem. I made some minor changes to it when I reinstalled it. It is slightly shorter now and the hose clamps are positioned for easier access and maintenance should it start to leak again.
Well, that was optimistic of me. The coolant leak in the radiator core reappeared after the two or three hour round trip to Full Throttle Pantera's open house. Thus, I went ahead and got a new radiator, fans, thermostats, mounting grommets, diodes, elbows, etc. My plan is to replace the current the current radiator with this:
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Hi Steve - I bought the same radiator from Summit - as received, the brackets are bent over. Just curious if the brackets on yours are bent over or straight?? Also - do you have any info on your hoses in the pic (part number?)? Thanks!
what fans are you using?
Rob, no damage to brackets on mine. The labels on the elbows are gone but there are numbers stamped on them.
Rick, they are Spal fans. Details are in the photos below.
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Thanks Steve! Summit is sending me another rad (third try). They are also calling Fluidyne to get root cause for bent brackets.
Probably dropped somewhere in handling. that kind of sucks.
The new radiator is just about finished. The car received the following:
- New Fluidyne radiator
- New Spal fans
- New relays and fan switch thermostats. Inlet switch turns one fan on/off at 78/73C. Outlet switch turns the other fan on/off at 82/77C.
- New wiring: Pair of 10g fused wires from battery to relays, all new wiring for relays, fan switches, and fans.
- New connecting hoses and two new tubes.
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Looks nice!
Steve - nice looking setup and job. Please detail the 10G fused main power wires for me? Where did you purchase? They run directly from the batt to the relay. Where did you power the relay on / off from? What relays did you purchase? Finally, how do the fans mount to the rad? Can you provide your part numbers for each component. Many Thanks - Lee
Why are there cutouts in the top rail of the radiator? Hard to tell from the photo, but the fan blades should be 1" from the radiator core for maximum efficiency, they can't pull air if too close.
Julian,
The cutouts in the top rail are from Fluidyne. I think they are cosmetic. The fans are screwed directly to the top and bottom rails, and the housings are essentially sitting on the core. The blades are about 1/2" away from the core. This is how Wilkinson sets up the Fluidyne with Spal fans.
Lee,
This diagram is similar to the way I wired the system. They use one thermostatic switch while I used two with different heat values.
The 10 gauge wire is from Autozone and is an 8 ft roll. It was plenty. The wires are routed in the wheel well.
The fuse holders and relays are from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017...uct_details&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081...dt_b_product_details
The relays are powered by the pink wires that previously powered the fans. The pink wires go to the switches, then white wires go from the switches to the relays. The thermostat switches turn the relays on/off. See photos below. I got the radiator, fans, thermostat switches, and rubber elbows all from Wilkinson.
In the photo above the fans are grounded to the studs that were for the original relays. You can also see a rivet that grounds the relays to the mounting plate. The white wires go the thermostat switches.
This is the outlet thermostat switch. It is the upper of the two switches.
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Very nicely done Steve. Many thanks. Update us on how the rad. works out.
I am curious what your all's thoughts are on having the back of the rad. enclosed in an entire housing/shoud with just the fans exposed. I have seen several posts over the years of people building a full shroud for the back of the radiator with just the fan openings not only the Pantera but other ford powered cars such as how HP mustangs, etc.. Is there any data on this?
Without a full shroud enclosure, the fan will only pull the air directly in front of the blades. Radiator surface area outside the fan’s diameter will not “see” any (maybe a little) of the fan’s air movement.
At highway speeds this is, of course, of little to no concern. But in stop and go traffic, the Achilles’ heel of a Pantera cooling system, you want to actively pull air through ALL of the radiator surface.
Larry
But how many people have said shroud?
Buy a Ron Davis radiator and fan assembly from Dennis Quella and you will get a shroud built around two Spal fans.
Larry
Flexilite has long sold a dual-fan plastic shroud that fits a stock rad core or an aluminum rad upgrade. I think Maradyne sells virtually the same rig thru Pantera vendors. Fans are not normally needed at road speeds over about 35 mph, only around town. Biggest problem I found, aside from initially using too-small (10" OD) fans is, my home-made aluminum shroud restricted airflow thru the rad at very high speeds.
In a test on Judy's and my favorite 70-mile straight desert highway at a sustained speed of 150 mph for 10 minutes, my too-small shroud consistently caused water temps to slowly climb towards 250F (from 210F) until we slowed down. Then temps returned to normal. Using a Flexilite plastic shroud with bigger 12" fans & larger openings in a later test run, that didn't happen @ 150.
Some OEM rad shrouds use small flexible rubber blow-aside flaps to compensate for higher speed air flows. Honda Civics are an example. At low speeds, fan suction keeps the flaps sealed to the shroud, but high speed ram-air blows them open as req'd. Owners would have to fabricate such flaps for a Pantera or Mangusta shroud. I've not done this personally as I seldom exceed 140 mph anymore, at my age.
Another item that is often overlooked is; shrouded fans do not need a baffle between the fans if they turn on and off at the same time but if they turn on and off at different times, you need a baffle to separate the fans. Otherwise, when the first fan turns on, it simply pulls air through the other fan’s opening, not through the rad.