Loggin on to this...

 

Z06 Kern,

Is your radiator and intercooler a single combined unit? From your pictures it looks that way.

 

I just welded some aluminum angle to the radiator and the intercooler at the top. It will be bolted in from the bottom, I can still get my hands between the two if the fan would go out on me. I thought it made for a cleaner look and with the two units that close together the fan should pull more air through the intercooler.

 

I'm wanting to hear some real world responses to the statement I read in ModularTurbo's thread. I know he mentioned he didn't want to hear about cars that had the A/C torn out and wanted it to be an unmolested street car, which I understand, but I still want to hear people's experiences no matter what their setup. I feel like that this post is kind of an alarmist pessimistic type view on the whole deal. I'm sure people can relocate/rearrange their cooling setups and work just fine without all of the extra worries the post throws out.

I'm sure there's a way to measure how hard the fans are working and that the current DIY turbo build guys who have modified their cooling systems don't have problems, and I've seen numerous DIY builds the past couple of years. Is this type of statement correct or is it a little too much? I honestly don't know and would like some opinions. Thanks!

 

i read that post also and thought that if that was the case why have people been doing this for years...

 

It really all depends, he made such a broad statement.

Climate?
which aftermarket radiator?
stock fans or aftermarket?
stock waterpump or aftermarket?
stock thermostat?
stock settings in PCM?
stock alternator?
driving habits?
how well it was designed?

there is no such thing as an "unmolested street car with twin turbo's" to which they are referring. tranny has mods, rear end, scfs at the least, wheels and tires, fuel system, etc etc. IMHO, when youve taken a 300hp car and re done the whole drive train, fueling, and induction systems and more than doubled the horsepower (assuming its 600 to the wheels, with TT id hope so) it has then been "molested."

 

Well guys.... i created this thread nearly 4 years ago now and still have yet to even do it myself. I now have new plans and am ready to tackle it! Are you guys still using:

GRI-1-25241-X Radiator, Universal, Crossflow, Aluminum, 27.5 in. Wide, 15.5 in. High, 3.0 in. Thick, Each $189.95 1 $189.95

Or is there a better option? With this radiator, are any mods to it required or is it plug and play once you get it mounted?

 

I originally used the Griffin radiator (P/N:GRI-1-25241-X) (27"x15.5"x3").

With two Proform 10" pusher fans (P/N: PRO-67010) 1000cfm each.

The pictures below show that. It was just before I installed my turbo kit. once the turbo kit was in, the turbo was right in front of the radiator inlet, so i had to change to a dual pass radiator (AFCO) with both the inlet and outlet on the passenger side.

With the griffin radiator and two pusher fans the car ran quite a bit hotter. I think the griffin radiator would be more than adequate with some nice puller fans if you can make fit.

I am working on a solution to heating issues this winter.

 

Anyone know a place to get the flex-a-lite FLX-220 fans as listed on the first page? I tried summit and they are listed as "N/A" and I can't even find them on flex-a-lite's website.

 

i used the Griffin rad. the stock hose worked well, as for the bottom i used a Gates 22242. lil triming

 

I fit my Pt88 with radiator in stock position. I would think the only reason I'd have to change it, is for an appearance mod.

 

The stockers work just fine, straight up. The fins aren't angled, the radiator is. Lots of us use them vertically..


It's too wide. The end tanks on both ends are considerably wider than the condenser. You'd have to cut out a lot of "meat" to get the stock one vertical. I cut my core support right after the brackets that hold the headlights, and it doesn't require an overly complex filler plate. All of us love saving money, the reason that so many people use Griffin radiators, is because the stock one would entail too much work (not to mention cutting) to make the cheesy stock one work. I tried to stand up my stocker, and decided right then and there that a Griffin was in my future, haha. With most people having from 550-700rwhp with their turbo setups, having the thicker radiator makes sense as well.


You guys don't have to fab all kinds of stuff up to run an ugly steam vent line to your radiator or top hose. Do like many of us conversion guys, do, and tap the top of your water pump with a 1/8" tap, run a nipple, and a 3" piece of hose. It works great. I see lots of people have to put extra time, effort, and complexity into their limited front-engine-space unnecessarily.

 

01z28, did you move the abs block over at all? If so, did you make a new bracket or how did you go about doing it?

 

Thanks for the insight. We ended up going with the griffen rad and spent a good amount of the weekend mocking it up. I'm doing puller fans(flx-420)/griffen rad/condenser. I'm trying to source a smaller condenser to use and find a place to make the lines. I'm looking at a Vintage Air 24 x 12 condenser and having a local truck shop make me some braided steel A/C lines. Here are some pics of the current mock up. Has anyone used an aftermarket condenser and/or braided steal ac lines? Just curious if you have some pics. We have a general idea of how we want to route everything.

Sorry for the picture bombing, but this is how the pullers and rad are sitting in the car. We had to completely cut the rad support and will weld on a support in front of the crossover. Also my brother is modifying the headlight brackets and hood latch since this is impeding on those areas.

 

is that the F-Body specific radiator Willizm?

 

did mine 2 clean up the engine bay and make room for future plans

custom griffin rad/shroud



























saddle mounts

 

In my build thread i stood mine up, got the 16 inch torqfan from autozone an use a 1 3/4 16" piece of flex hose for bottom, 1 3/4 30" for top, came out real nice

 

My rad is the universal Griffin(25241) one that pretty much everyone else uses. I think it's in the pics. Here is some more pics as to how it looks. We finished all the brackets for rad/condenser/fans. we have a support brace that goes on the inside of the setup that holds the setup in place. I'm very happy with how it's coming together so far. So it is possible to get a set of pullers on a radiator and condenser to fit, but it did require some hood latch and headlight bracket(T/A) customization

We shaved a little more off of the existing hood latch bracket(not shown).








Here is the finished product. Unfortunatly I don't have a pic of it all on the mounts once we welded the main rear support in place so just imagine that the earlier pics without clamps. Also, you can see the bottom IC mounts so that along with the top mount bar is going to keep that sucker in place .

 

Very nice setup.

 

thanks
i also modified all the AC lines