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Time to get serious about cooling the 65 mustang down

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dodgestang

Active Member
Basically since I built my 65 I've know that I need a bigger cooling system.
I have done some things to bandaid it over the years

1. Biggest Griffen that fits in the stock opening
2. Water wetter
3. Biggest CFM spal fan
4. Driving fast

Anyway, I've made some mods to the car recently that have exacerbated the too small cooling system. Specifically I added a lentech valve body in the AOD trans. While it sounds innocent enough, the lentech is an electric valve body that lets me turn OD on and off, and will not shift into OD unless my cruise RPM in OD is going to be right around 2800. Simple enough since that's basically my highway cruise speed, however, when I am on country roads with a 50 MPH speed limit and behind someone doing it (basically 60 MPH and down) I am turning 3k in 3rd and don't have OD. This drives the temps up in the car. Cruising in at 2200 was always enough to keep it cool but the higher RPMs bring more heat.

So a simple ride home today for 35 minutes at 55 resulting in a very hot car.....one that I am still worried that it might have popped while I was at the office

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niXdudYLKV4

So what I am looking to do put in a much longer/wider unit later this summer. I need to cut the rad support and install. I don't want to put the battery in the trunk but I am willing to turn it sideways if needed. I also know/have heard that you can in theory put a 67/8 rad in without trimming the opening, but I don't think that will give me enough cooling so I was considering a 69/70 size aluminum unit. Pics? Instructions? Feedback? Opentracker....I know you put in a 69....you sent me pics once.....still have them around?
 
Nick,
Is your current lower radiator hose on the RH or LH side? You mentioned that you have done water wetter. What is your water/coolant ratio?
Is the Griffin rad a two 1" row setup?
 
Just from looking at your vid, I see at least a 25% loss in cooling from the fans shroud not covering the rad completely.
Try adding a shroud that covers the corners and sets the fan back towards the eng an inch.
Simple box made from sheet stock, bend a flange for mounting and 1 inch rise and roll the top and bottom.
For a clean seal slit a small rubber hose for gaskets along edge of top and bottom.
This will force it to draw more air across a larger area of the cooling fins.

Total cost :shrug under 25.00 and some time.
 
I'm in the same boat Nick. My car needs a new radiator and I'm shopping. The one I found at Summit that'll fit is this one but at $523 , I'm gonna keep looking.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/bci-6 ... el/mustang

The rad that was in the car was:

Core - 18 1/2" ( 20" mounting flange to mounting flange ) tall X 21 3/4" wide and was a 4 row copper/brass @ 3" thick

Tank to tank OD was 27 3/4" with 1 1/2" inlet and outlet .
Top passenger side inlet , lower drivers side outlet

It kept the car cool on and off the track. I may go back with the same thing - I'm not into $500+ radiators. I do like that the form fit hoses from the 69/70 Mustangs can be made to work.

I haven't done a lot of shopping yet, just Summit so far. If you find another deal, let me know.


169-290513131253.jpeg
 
"Opentracker" said:
I'm in the same boat Nick. My car needs a new radiator and I'm shopping. The one I found at Summit that'll fit is this one but at $523 , I'm gonna keep looking.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/bci-6 ... el/mustang
Click to expand...

169-290513131253.jpeg
Click to expand...

[/quote]

That's the pic.....

What are the options here to turn the battery side ways? Maybe mount the radiator slightly off-center to the driver side? Since I am cutting I can open it up anywhere I want couldn't I and then just solve the radiator hose problem? I was thinking I would take a whizzer wheel right inside and cut the whole bulge out (for those familiar with 65/6)
 
You shouldn't have to cut things up to solve the problem. I ran a very high compression, iron headed, over-bored small block for years with an old three row brass radiator and clutch fan without overheating issues. Get a better shroud arrangement installed and see what that does for you first. Adding a separate trans cooler and getting that additional heat out of the mix would help too.
 
We are running a stock size, 3 row aluminum radiator we picked up from Summit with the proper electric fan/shroud that they suggested. I am not at home so I can't get the company names, but it was an exact fit for a 65 with a 5.0 ( reversed bottom hose). Engine is putting out well over 350 HP and we have no heating problems even in parade type cruises with weather pushing 100F. Not a lot of help I know, just pointing out that a stock size radiator can work. Manual trans so no cooler.
 
I could have put a battery in there if I wanted. There is enough room without the oil cooler. I don't think you will have to move the radiator to the side. Here are some photos of the work I did to the radiator support.

I know this is an unpopular mod to do to the cars but I wanted the added cooling of a cross flow radiator. The down flows don't cool as well.

169-290513163553.jpeg

169-290513163626.jpeg

169-290513163655.jpeg

169-290513163723.jpeg

My overflow is the same as yours and it's in the fender well. I like to make the tech guys stand on their ear to see it.
169-290513163757.jpeg


I used a set of upper radiator mounts to make some lower moutns. There's a rubber bushing under it for a cushion. The top mounts are just all thread mounted to the top flange.

I've had the car like this for a long time. It came with a down flow and that didn't keep the C cool so I put in the cross flow and the cooling issue was over. I don't even have a fan on the motor, I use an electric fan on the back of the radiator and the only time I turned it on was in traffic. I didn't use in on the track or on the highway.
 
That's actually less cutting that I was thinking, you just opened up the back side of the indent. That's pretty straight forward and gains about 3-4 inches almost per side of open flow (at least thats what it looks like)
 
This would be the only real 'change' I would make to the car that isn't easily reversible (sub frame bars and torque boxes can be removed pretty easily). But considering I do run a 410c, 1 3 link rear, and really am far from stock....I need cooling
 
I had been considering taking the entire indent to gain an extra inch forward the whole radiator assembly could sit. Giving me more room between the water pump and fan setup
 
I believe you can call Summit tech support, give 'em that 3802 part number and get all the help you want.

That radiator won't work for our cars. The inlet - outlet are on the wrong side ( top/bottom location ) and the outlet is the wrong size - but that is a good deal.
 
The radiator is one of the last pieces of my "puzzle" for the coupe. I've done quit a bit of digging around and research. You can put a 67/68 radiator in a 65/66. If you don't trim though you lose some of your cooling area which gets hidden behind the radiator support. It doesn't take a whole lot of trimming to open it up though. You need to trim 2 3/4" on each side of the opening. BTW, if you have a reverse flow pump, the 67/68 big block radiator has the hose connections in the correct locations.

My problem is I really want a crossflow radiator though. From the dimensions I could find a 71/73 is too big to fit. I originally looked at swapping over a perfectly good '92 radiator that was in the donor car for the 5.0. Nope, even with it sitting all the way down on the front cross member it sticks up too high.

Take a look here for some ideas:
http://www.mustangsteve.com/radiators.html
 
"Opentracker" said:
The rad that was in the car was:

Core - 18 1/2" ( 20" mounting flange to mounting flange ) tall X 21 3/4" wide and was a 4 row copper/brass @ 3" thick

Tank to tank OD was 27 3/4" with 1 1/2" inlet and outlet .
Top passenger side inlet , lower drivers side outlet

169-290513131253.jpeg
Click to expand...

I'm DYING to know, what is that radiator for originally? That's EXACTLY what I've been looking for!!!
 
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