BeCool A-body Mopar “1000 hp” radiator
Updated 06/10/05
Well, this is a work in progress. I have the radiator placed, have the hoses sorted out, and the radiator support modified. I promised a few people to keep them updated on this whole project, so here it is.
I ordered the radiator 11/26/04.
It arrived about eight weeks later, as promised. Unfortunately it was about ½” wider than
the designer intended, which was about 1/8” wider than the space between the
frame rails.
One
modification to the radiator I’ve had to make, the foot on the driver’s side
interfered with the inner fender. A
couple of minutes with the flapper disk on the Makita angle grinder and all
was well with the world. See picture at right, the black mark is
what is left of the line I made with a sharpie.
Both sides require the removal of the “frame” flange and a hole for the radiator feet to drop into. I used a die grinder for the flange and a 5/8” drill bit for the hole. The feet are ½” diameter. I will be welding the seam shortly.
Bent the mounting tab for the recovery tank with two pair of water pump pliers. The offset was needed to clear the lip on the radiator support. Used an existing fender retaining washer to attach it.
I installed the hoses from the previous radiator, of course they were way
off, but it was a starting point. I
took a few pictures, bent up an innocent coat hanger, and headed to the local
auto parts emporium.
Next step – open up the radiator support. The black lines on the tape show where the cut-off wheel will be needed. It was hard to see black lines on Forest Green, so I used masking tape and a sharpie. The existing hole is 23” wide, the core area on the radiator is 27-1/2”. The B&M tranny cooler will be history tomorrow.
Once again the Makita was put to work. Here is the two pieces of metal that were removed.
Here is a picture of the driver’s side bottom of the radiator as seen from the front afterwards. Picture also shows the air deflector installed. I used a pair of sheet metal screws to hold it in place.
I had to add a spacer between the water pump and the thermostat housing to accommodate the addition of the temperature switch for the fans.
Welded the frame rails. Welding was a pain, I couldn’t find a good way to use a “back up” piece of metal behind this weld like I would have preferred and had a bit of a gap to fill. Add that to the cheap MIG welder I borrowed having two voltage settings, “MIN” and “MAX”, made for an interesting time of it. “MAX” burned right through even though the guide on the equipment suggested this setting, so I had to use “MIN” and a relatively high feed rate. Why am I complaining, a friend leant it to me, sure beats buying a $500 welder and a few $$$ more in miscellaneous stuff to get rolling. Not sure if this welding was truly necessary structurally, made me feel better at least. Primer I used went on thick and ugly, but it is temporary, or at least until I paint the rest of the car. I used 3M weld through primer. The guy at the paint supply place said they are discontinuing it and coming out with a version that will spray better. I think with the easier welds for the sub-frame connectors and torque boxes I can do a surprisingly good job with this little $200 welder. I definitely wouldn’t use it for body panels, too hard to control. Equipment I have access to at work has me spoiled, just can’t take it home.
Here is the completed installation. You can see the relays at the bottom of the picture. I modified the upper brackets to better fit my car.
The system works great, even with the electric pump. Driving around in 90F+