[Willy68]

Update. Replaced the lower hose and got rid of the sending unit housing in the middle of the hose. Hopefully no more coolant leaks. I left the radiator cap off while it idled. I could tell that the thermostat had opened at 180. The fan did not turn on until 200. But I think that the controller thinks it was 195. The reason I say that is I have a mechanical temp gauge and the sender is in the side of the head near the headers. I have the line going to the the gauge in the console wrapped in a heat shield, but I'm willing to bet that when the gauge says 200, the controller on the top of the intake manifold is reading 195. Reason I say that is I went for a 40 minute drive. A little stop and go, some highway and some 30 to 40 mph. The gauge never went over 200 the whole time. Most of the drive it was right at 200. It wasn't that hot out, 74. But it was a good long test.

 

[Arkangel77]

Man that's good news. The final test will be a supa hot day but it really sounds like you got it whipped

 

[Willy68]

Man that's good news. The final test will be a supa hot day but it really sounds like you got it whipped

Going to be 97 on Thursday, I'll drive it to work and see how it does.

 

[rp930]

Update. Replaced the lower hose and got rid of the sending unit housing in the middle of the hose. Hopefully no more coolant leaks. I left the radiator cap off while it idled. I could tell that the thermostat had opened at 180. The fan did not turn on until 200. But I think that the controller thinks it was 195. The reason I say that is I have a mechanical temp gauge and the sender is in the side of the head near the headers. I have the line going to the the gauge in the console wrapped in a heat shield, but I'm willing to bet that when the gauge says 200, the controller on the top of the intake manifold is reading 195. Reason I say that is I went for a 40 minute drive. A little stop and go, some highway and some 30 to 40 mph. The gauge never went over 200 the whole time. Most of the drive it was right at 200. It wasn't that hot out, 74. But it was a good long test.

The head temp is approximately 15° hotter than sender near the thermostat housing. I think it is working like it should.

 

[Willy68]

The head temp is approximately 15° hotter than sender near the thermostat housing. I think it is working like it should.

Great to know. Thanks

 

[57vette]

Willy... Can you post a picture or two of your setup from directly above? I'd like to see how the Monster looks in front of your serpentine setup. Something along these lines.

 

[Willy68]

Willy... Can you post a picture or two of your setup from directly above? I'd like to see how the Monster looks in front of your serpentine setup. Something along these lines.
View attachment 293903

Mike, I don't have the car with me right now. But I'll take some shots tonight and post them here. It all fits, but it is tight

 

[Willy68]

Tomorrow it is going to be 98 degrees and sunny. I'll be driving my car to work. Acid test?

 

[57vette]

VA just wrote back to me and said they think the Monster is the solution I'm looking for. Before I order one, I have to ask them about returning it if I can't get it to fit.

 

[67econobox]

I know Willey started this thread, but hopefully I can add just a little insight to fitting the fan to the radiator. My radiator is maybe a little bigger, but I think the same applies for the cold case radiator. I trimmed oy the sides of the shroud to fit around the tanks and allow the shroud to bolt up flush with the core with no gaps. It should give you another 3/8" of clearance to the pulley. I used the 73-78 C10 fan setup and have 3 3/16" to the core. This is in my 72 C10, but the radiator was stolen from my 67 Camaro. You should be able to get Willey's distance to core and remove the spacer thickness. This will give you the minimum distance to your pulley. Of course add a little space.

 

[Willy68]

UPDATE. IT WORKS!!!!!!! When I drove home this afternoon it was 95 degrees and "feels like 102" on The Weather Channel app. It was about a 35 minute ride, mostly driving 20 to 40 mph. The temp gauge never went above 204. As I stated before, my temp gauge sender is in the side of the head near the headers, vs the controller which is in the intake manifold next to the thermostat. So maybe the 195 degree controller is working right at 195 in the intake manifold. The temp gauge never moved once the engine warmed up. 204. When I got close to home and was in stop and go traffic, the temp hit 206. I hit my manual over ride switch just to see what would happen, which puts the Monster fan on full power. Within a few minutes the temp was down to 184! It's a BEAST! I will continue to drive the car and watch the temp gauge, but I think today was a good test for the system.

Questions from the gallery?

 

[fairfax1000]

UPDATE. IT WORKS!!!!!!! When I drove home this afternoon it was 95 degrees and "feels like 102" on The Weather Channel app. It was about a 35 minute ride, mostly driving 20 to 40 mph. The temp gauge never went above 204. As I stated before, my temp gauge sender is in the side of the head near the headers, vs the controller which is in the intake manifold next to the thermostat. So maybe the 195 degree controller is working right at 195 in the intake manifold. The temp gauge never moved once the engine warmed up. 204. When I got close to home and was in stop and go traffic, the temp hit 206. I hit my manual over ride switch just to see what would happen, which puts the Monster fan on full power. Within a few minutes the temp was down to 184! It's a BEAST! I will continue to drive the car and watch the temp gauge, but I think today was a good test for the system.

Questions from the gallery?

I’m glad you got it done.
Can you post some pictures of before and after? I actually stopped following this 200 posts ago.
thanks

 

[57vette]

I know Willey started this thread, but hopefully I can add just a little insight to fitting the fan to the radiator. My radiator is maybe a little bigger, but I think the same applies for the cold case radiator. I trimmed oy the sides of the shroud to fit around the tanks and allow the shroud to bolt up flush with the core with no gaps. It should give you another 3/8" of clearance to the pulley. I used the 73-78 C10 fan setup and have 3 3/16" to the core. This is in my 72 C10, but the radiator was stolen from my 67 Camaro. You should be able to get Willey's distance to core and remove the spacer thickness. This will give you the minimum distance to your pulley. Of course add a little space.

So your saying you notched the sides of the shroud which allowed you to move the shroud forward 3/8”? How close is the actual fan blade to the core? I understand what you’re suggesting, and from looking at your pix and Willy’s, it seems like I could eliminate the nuts that Willy used as spacers.

 

[Arkangel77]

UPDATE. IT WORKS!!!!!!! When I drove home this afternoon it was 95 degrees and "feels like 102" on The Weather Channel app. It was about a 35 minute ride, mostly driving 20 to 40 mph. The temp gauge never went above 204. As I stated before, my temp gauge sender is in the side of the head near the headers, vs the controller which is in the intake manifold next to the thermostat. So maybe the 195 degree controller is working right at 195 in the intake manifold. The temp gauge never moved once the engine warmed up. 204. When I got close to home and was in stop and go traffic, the temp hit 206. I hit my manual over ride switch just to see what would happen, which puts the Monster fan on full power. Within a few minutes the temp was down to 184! It's a BEAST! I will continue to drive the car and watch the temp gauge, but I think today was a good test for the system.

Questions from the gallery?

ROCK N ROLL!!!!!!!!!!! I plan to order my setup tomorrow - Only question is 195 or 160 degree setup ( I reeeeely wish they had a 180 controller - I would be on that Line Stink on Shite!)

So your saying you notched the sides of the shroud which allowed you to move the shroud forward 3/8”? How close is the actual fan blade to the core? I understand what you’re suggesting, and from looking at your pix and Willy’s, it seems like I could eliminate the nuts that Willy used as spacers.

Good Question! need clarification

 

[57vette]

UPDATE. IT WORKS!!!!!!! When I drove home this afternoon it was 95 degrees and "feels like 102" on The Weather Channel app. It was about a 35 minute ride, mostly driving 20 to 40 mph. The temp gauge never went above 204. As I stated before, my temp gauge sender is in the side of the head near the headers, vs the controller which is in the intake manifold next to the thermostat. So maybe the 195 degree controller is working right at 195 in the intake manifold. The temp gauge never moved once the engine warmed up. 204. When I got close to home and was in stop and go traffic, the temp hit 206. I hit my manual over ride switch just to see what would happen, which puts the Monster fan on full power. Within a few minutes the temp was down to 184! It's a BEAST! I will continue to drive the car and watch the temp gauge, but I think today was a good test for the system.

Questions from the gallery?

Very happy to hear this. Good job of basic hot-rodding Willy. My current setup is very close to tolerable, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’d like to know that I’ve got enough cooling on tap to flip a switch and get temps down to what used to be normal (185) on a day like today. LOL, it was 102 in my garage. Waiting to hear back from VA.

 

[Willy68]

Very happy to hear this. Good job of basic hot-rodding Willy. My current setup is very close to tolerable, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’d like to know that I’ve got enough cooling on tap to flip a switch and get temps down to what used to be normal (185) on a day like today. LOL, it was 102 in my garage. Waiting to hear back from VA.

Yes, I like the Switch option. It's very loud at full speed, but I don't anticipate needing to use it much. I was also wondering if it would make sense to switch the controller to the head and the temp sender to the intake manifold? Might make the controller cool the car at 195 on the gauge if I switched them. For now I'm going to drive it a bit and make sure it keeps working as it should.

 

[67econobox]

so a little clarification on how I modified my shroud. When I placed my shroud on the radiator it overlapped the tanks on both sides and left a gap at the top and bottom.
step one was to put the shroud off center to the side so that the shroud sat directly on the core and up against the tank. I then scribed a line using the tank as my guide to mark the depth.

I then used my Rotozip with a drywall cutter to cut out the sides to depth. You have to repeat this for both sides of the shroud. Be careful not to cut away too much material.
second I went in and carefully notched the top and bottom so that they would fit between the tanks. Red Is second step, Blue was the first.

this needs to be done on the four corners of the shroud.
Third and last attach the shroud. I used bolts, as Willy mentioned, the screws are pretty cheesy.

the shroud sits flush with the core the way it was designed, and minimizes the depth of the fan. take your time and make the fit up tight so it leaks a minimum of air.

 

[Willy68]

One more update. Very hot and humid today, 98. Drove it on the highway, and around town for over an hour. Also went out tonight for another hour of driving. Never went over 205 at any point.

 

[Arkangel77]

One more update. Very hot and humid today, 98. Drove it on the highway, and around town for over an hour. Also went out tonight for another hour of driving. Never went over 205 at any point.

AWESOME

 

[57vette]

One more update. Very hot and humid today, 98. Drove it on the highway, and around town for over an hour. Also went out tonight for another hour of driving. Never went over 205 at any point.

Sounds like it’s doing the job. I’m probably gonna order the fan and controller tomorrow. I was looking at my water pump pulley and I’m pretty sure that I could machine off at least 1/4” or maybe 3/8” at the center so that the top of the allen head bolts are flush with the machined section. That plus the possibility of notching the shroud makes me think it would fit.

What’s interesting about all this is that even under the best normal circumstances, these larger (than 396) BBC engines all seem to run very warm the minute aftermarket AC is added. Before adding the VA, on a 95 degree day, if I was traveling at 45 or faster my car would run about 180-185 max. With no changes to the engine whatsoever my 45 or faster temp on that 2 hour trip I took the other day it was 200-205. It was about 85 and very humid, and engine rpm was between 2000 and 2300 on the interstate. The weird thing was that at 35-45 when the engine was at around 1500-1800 rpm the temp would drop to around 190-195 and the PWM would turn the fans off. Drop below 35 mph and the temp would shoot back up to 205-210, stop for a light and it’d go up to 220. Obviously not enough airflow at lower speeds even with the fans on, which is why I think the Monster might be the solution. OTH, I’m wondering if a couple of 12” Spal brushed fans that pull 1800 CFM each might also solve the problem If they could be fitted to my current shroud.

Willy, does that switch setup allow you to shut off the fan totally at highway speed or does the setup have the fan working 100% of the time the car is running, just at different speeds Depending on temp?