Re: [AMC-List] How I identified a bad radiator and choice for replacement in my 70 AMX road racer

[Jock J Jocewicz <namdra@xxxxxxxx>]

Hal,
  Have you tried Doug Noland for an aluminum radiator? He is listed on
page 23 of the latest NAMDRA newsletter. His website is at
http://www.customaluminumradiators.com.

But it does sound like you have another problem, not the radiator, like a
head gasket leak, etc.

On Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:50:59 +0000 hal.lynch@xxxxxxx writes:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I am going through an interesting issue with my 70 AMX road racer 
> and thought I'd share the experience so far and request any input 
> before I proceed.
> 
> Back in 1999 I removed my Allison NASCAR engine to refresh and store 
> in favor of a mild 401 that I had built by Ron Waters at WSC.  The 
> engine is a copy of his very successful road race engines.  I tpped 
> his extensive r oad race knowledge to build a second 'mule'motor for 
> my car that I will use for street use, driver training and chassis 
> setup for the AMX.  It basically has been blueprinted, balanced, 
> ported and plumbed for dry sump oiling.  Outside of that it uses all 
> the same accessories of my NASCAR engine.
> 
> Once I installed this engine in my car back in late 2003 I 
> immediately had a problem with water temperature creep, where the 
> water temp would just keep rising as it idled.  I shut it down once 
> it reached 210 and scratched my head..  How could a brand new engine 
> running proven accessories that supported a NASCAR engine and never 
> ran hot ata all now fail me?
> 
> Long story short, I found pretty quickly saw that the ratiator was 
> not getting hot, removed it hand sure enough it was plugged.  Now 
> this was a custom 7 core radiator built in 1985 by now defunct 
> Webster Radiator in NY .  It was made on 7 cores of 3/8 tube in 
> cross flow pattern and litterally didn't have 500 miles on it as I 
> primarily showed the car off a trailer.
> 
> I had the radiator 'rodded' to clean it out and merrily proceeded to 
> reinstall it.  Fast forward through a move to Northern IL I never 
> proceeded with the further testing till this spring.  Pull the car 
> offf the jacks  this spring and start it up to test the cooling 
> system and same thing happens, but much very slowly.  The engine can 
> idle fine but as soon as I add any heat by driving it or reving it 
> it can't disapate the heat generated.  This time, however, the 
> radiator was seemingly getting hot.  Take the radiator out again and 
> over to a shop and have it flow tested.  Told it was fine and 
> reinstalled.  Start the ccar and it still has water temp creep.  I 
> decided to enlist a second pair of eyes and have a race engine 
> builder watch the car warm up with me and a friend of his was 
> watching and recommended using an infared heat gun to measure the 
> engine and rediator temp as she warms up.  As dwe do we see that the 
> engine warms up fine with no apparent hot spots.  The top few inch!
>  es of t
> he radiator are engine temp but as you test the lower rows of the 
> radiator the temp drops radically.  (i.e top inlet 170 degrees and 
> bottom of the radiator 100 degrees).  We believe that only a few 
> rows of this monster radiator are working and that the tiny 3/8 
> tubing may have accelerated its clogging.  I learned that today 
> radiator technology has changed dramatically from the eighties.  New 
> radiators use 1 inch to one and a half inch tubing to cool with 
> fewer rows.  
> 
> So I'm tossing this radiator TFO (the f--- out) and looking to 
> purchase a new aluminum radiator.  So far my best choice is an 
> aluminum Griffin radiator using NASCAR standard size of 27.5 long 
> and 15.5 high, Ford style inlets and outlets.  Three rows 1.25 inch 
> tubing rated for up to 600 hp.  Priced at $270.
> 
> So,  does anyone have any input on the size and shape of a aluminum 
> radiator for a 70 AMX or other AMX radiator support of this size?  
> Hope the radiator technology issue of core tubing size is of value 
> to everyone running around with a older radiator.  
> 
> Hal
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> 


Jock Jocewicz - President/Editor NAMDRA     NAMDRA@xxxxxxxx
8537 Antioch Rd., Salem, WI 53168 (262) 843-4326
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'06 AMC NATIONALS - SEP. 14-16, 2006 - CORDOVA DRAGWAY PARK, CORDOVA, IL
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