[AMC-List] Overheating in new 40--Installing Aluminum Radiator w/ AN-20 hoses

[hal.lynch@xxxxxxx]

An update to my overheating 401.  I finally was able to determine that my custom 8 core (old technology copper core) radiator was not cooling, even though two shops said it was flowing.  Turns out that a infrared heat detection gun ws the answer.  I used it with a friend as the car warmed up and could see that only the top six inches of the cross flow radiator was working, the rest was dead cold.

I determined that I needed an aluminum radiator upgrade to keeps my cars road racing modifications consistent and here is how it has worked out so far.  I decided to buy a Griffin custom aluminum racing radiator 27.5 wide and 15.5 tall.  This is a two core aluminum radiator with 1.25 inch diameter tubes.  This is an off the shelf standard racing radiator size and sells for $300.  I ask Griffin to replace the inlet and outlets with an-20 fittings and it cost and extra $20, so new aluminum radiator for $320.  I did have to have brackets welded to it to fit into the radiator support brakets and for this size my support brakets in the car had to be trimed back a bit.  This radiator is cross flow and long and short as opposed to the factory AMX radiators that tend to be tall and narrow.

I've had a custom radiator outlet made, again with an-20 fitting and NASCAR style bleeder valve and have had my aluminum water pump also modified for -20 lines.

The AN lines will be expensive but the whole project will provide me an endurance quality road racing cooling system for about the cost of some custom radiators alone.

An additional benefit of this setup is that my old large copper unit weighed in at over 40lbs, the new Griffin only 25lbs.

I'll post the results once I get the lines made up and start her up again.

Hal
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