moving the radiator forward

[RICH MUISE]

Had a good day...actually started a project and got it finished all in one day. I was getting tired of the upholstery stuff,so I got to playing with the new aluminum radiator I bought a few months back...the one quite a few of us apparently got from Classic city. I wanted to move it as far forward as posible to make room for a Mark viii fan and shroud assembly. I came up with this idea that's super fast and easy. I just cut a 1/4" wide slot in the core support, and ground the corner in that area just a bit. This let the radiator just slide down into the frontside area of the flange.I determined I could move it frontwards using 1 1/4" spacers, which gives it about 1 1/2" overall movement. I could have gone more, but didn't want to weaken the core support by grinding more metal off it. The only other cut was removing a bit from the top of the radiator's side mounting flange. If this ends up being the final sizing for the spacers, I'll make some plain steel ones and weld them on. the spacer is not accesible from either side, so I held everything in place with rubber bands until I got the rad. in place and pushed the bolts thru.The first pic shows 6" to rad surface. Note the marks on the masking tape is all I had to cut.

[RICH MUISE]

mo' pics
Pic one is where I trimmed the side rails
pic 2 is just holding the spacers in place for the trial fit.
pic 3 is showing what was at 6" is now 4 1/2..
The upper tank has about 3/8 clearance between it and the core  support, and the bottom tank has about 1/4" clearance all the way around.

[JimNolan]

Rich,
   Thanks for showing us the pictures. I'm installing a 425hp engine in my 57 now and I'm wanting to use a new thermo clutch fan I've got and I need another inch of space between the water pump and radiator. Trouble is, I won't be able to take my radiator support out to work on it. Looks like you got your's looking pretty good. I need to figure out something. Jim

[RICH MUISE]

Jim...I don't know about needed work to mount your fans, but as far as the radiator is concerned, it can easily be done with the core support in the car. The only work to the support was the two slots so the radiator could just slide down from the top ( also taking a little metal out of that top corner as I had shown). Hood may have to be off to slide the radiator in, I don't know. The only other thing of concern is attaching the spacers so you don't have loose parts in an area you can't get to to hold them in place while you're putting the bolts thru everything. The rubberbands worked fine just leaving 1/4 of the bolt protruding thru the spacers, but it sure would be less hassle with the spacers tacked in place.

[JimNolan]

Rich,
  I plan on running a water pump fan. The one I've got is just too long by about an inch. The hood will be off so I can get to it.

[Frankenstein57]

425 HP?, I think the drag racing bug got Jim

[RICH MUISE]

I think so Mark
Jim you'll need (4) 5/16 x 2 1/2 bolts, nuts washers, and (4) 1 1/4 long 5/16 dia hole spacers. You should pick up about 1 3/8 to 1 1/2 inches of added space....but that for a radiator with the close to original design top tank. If your radiator is different, you may gain more or less. See the pic I posted with the tape measure on the lip of the core support and reading about 2 inches to the tank....this is what determines how far you can move it. If you'll notice, those measurement pics are with the radiator sitting in the normally mounted position of course.

[JimNolan]

Frankenstine57,
   It's not going to be a motor that shakes the whole car with the engine hitting like a one cylinder Farmall. It's just shear cubic inch (410) and breathability. The bottom end is all Eagle and the top end is all Edelbrock with a 670 cfm carb. The cam is 215/225 .050 dur and .515/.540 lift. The Headers are the one's I bought off Stan at FPA. My Desktop Dyno 5 likes it. I think I will too.  
   I should see a somewhat smooth idling motor with a lot of vacuum. And, muscle when you hit the gas. I wouldn't have something I couldn't drive 1000 miles without being in comfort either. I still remember the first 427 Galaxie I ever saw. You wouldn't have known what was under the hood till you hit the gas. The biggest concern I'll have I think is not driving it but cooling it. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.
   The main reason I'm doing it is I don't think I'll be able to do something like this again. I'm getting too old for this BS. Jim PS  The drag racing thing, yea, I'll do that every now and then. I can't build something like this without trying it out. I plan on being at Columbus next year. They are having a FE reunion and drag race at Beaver Springs, Pa April 27th I plan on going to also.

[JimNolan]

Rich,
 Don't take your pictures off the post. I think this will work for me. Jim  PS. I've got a Aluminum Radiator that's about flat in front. I should be OK. And, I saved all your pictures. Damned nice idea, thanks. I'm not going to wait and see if it overheats. I'm going to do what you did and put the thermo controlled clutch fan on it to begin with. That's not going to hurt the looks of it if I've got patience cutting it out eaither.

[57chero]

Is it going to clear the slope of the hood when its shut, there pretty close in the original position.

[hiball3985]

That looks like a neat trick. Just out of curiosity have you checked that the hood will still close? It's amazing what an inch here and there can do at times.

[57dohc]

Rich,
Great job and geed pictures.  This might work for me as well.  Do you think you will have a hood clearance problem by moving the radiator forward?  The hood curves down a bit towards the front and I'm not sure how much clearance was orginally there.
Have you found a air conditioning condenser that will fit?  The Mustang one I have is 2 inches too wide to fit between the hood hinges. Thanks! Al

[RICH MUISE]

Hell, the radiator is just aluminum...slam the hood a couple of times 'til it fits.

Seriously, we could put some 1 1/2 spacers between the hood and the hinges and call the "crack" a specially designed air vent.

No, really seriously....the six cylinder radiator IS pushed frontwards about that 1 1/2, so my uneducated guess is that the 8 cyl. radiator is just going to end up where the factory radiator placement for 6 cylinder cars would be, so I wouldn't anticipate a problem. Pat Fleishman told me he has done this, he just does it a different way. He actually cuts a wide strip from the sides of the core support (right where I cut just the slot) and welds it back together.
I think I posted pics of all the angles, but I can take or post more if anyone needs to see a certain area better.
57dohc...I haven't looked into the condenser yet..I had just figured on ordering the Vintage air one whrn the time comes. I'll look at using the mark viii units also when I disassemble the donor car.

[RICH MUISE]

I got to thinking about something else Pat had told me when he did his. He said the bottom of the core support had to be trimmed in one area. That was not the case with the radiator I had installed, but it may be the case for other aftermarket radiators. The Aluminum Classic Auto unit fit like a glove along the bottom..an even 1/4" clearance all the way around.
With that said, if your radiator is different, check bottom clearance closely.
Rich

[rmk57]

Rich,
 Don't take your pictures off the post. I think this will work for me. Jim  PS. I've got a Aluminum Radiator that's about flat in front. I should be OK. And, I saved all your pictures. Damned nice idea, thanks. I'm not going to wait and see if it overheats. I'm going to do what you did and put the thermo controlled clutch fan on it to begin with. That's not going to hurt the looks of it if I've got patience cutting it out eaither.

The shortest fan clutch I came up with is a Hayden #2765 which is used on mid-80's Jaguars. There nearly identical to the C9OE unit used on Cobra-jet Mustangs. I have one on my 460 57 Custom along with a 19" steel fan and one of those universal fit aluminum rads and it never gets above 180 degrees.
Randy