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New griffin radiator and fan combo

Rugger187

Rugger187

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Location
Kanab, UT
I am moving down to the Moapa Valley area soon and will be commuting my 78 2wd Blazer to Las Vegas everyday.
My last trip down the weather was not hot but my engine and trans was running a little hot. Right now I am running a small electric fan with a shroud that only covers half the core.
I was going to investigate doing a windstar electric fan combo but the problem is the I live 120miles from the nearest boneyard.
I also noticed that my radiator is only 3 rows and is leaking just a bit in a few spots. After pricing out a new radiator and dual electric fans, I found that my cheapest route with minimal down time is to do a griffin aluminum radiator with a built in dual electric fan.
Brown Santa will drop it off this week at which point I will take pics of the tear out and install.
Wish me luck!
 
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Old radiator
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New radiator
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Apparently Griffin sells a 'direct fit' and an 'exact fit'. I bought the direct fit so I had take modify some things.
I had to weld some 3" spacers on the bottom where it mounts to boost it up. I also had to fabricate mounts for it. And I had to modify my air box.
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But this is how it looks now.
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It came with a 185 degree temp sender so I am changing it to a 195 so that it doesn't run all the time.
I also used a lighted switch under the dash to turn on the fans. POS had a short in it so when I flipped it, all my wires caught fire. Scared the crap out of me. I am now using a more reliable simple toggle.
It works fantastic so far.
 
I also used some foam all around the edges to further seal the hole in the core support.
 
One more thing, since I got the 'direct fit', it didn't have a hookup for the heater core. So I ordered an adapter from Jags That Run that goes in my lower radiator hose and has a nipple for the heater hose.
 
Make sure you run a relay for your fans otherwise you'll end up with another electrical fire.
 
It came with a relay for each fan.
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I also added a fused junction block as opposed to using their wired fuses.
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I forgot to add those pics.
Thanks!
 
Nice!! Yeah, I went this route because I am moving back to the Las Vegas area soon and figured I would like to run my AC when it is 120 out and not worry about overheating.
 
Wouldn't hurt to add a small pusher fan on the front of the AC condenser. Wire it so it kicks on with the ac. A lot of factory vehicles do this, mainly due to smaller radiators but it helps the ac cool quicker on hot days and in traffic.

It kept up on this mess on 100 degree days.. should work for you! :pimp:

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Dang good looking engine. My 65 Bel Air has a BBC I built for it. I love the sound of a BBC.
Good idea on the pusher fan. I'll have to order one up.
 
Why don't you let the ECM control the fans? A little late, but a lot easier and cheaper.
 
I don't think it would have been easier. I just put the sending unit in the head, ran 1 wire, and voila. I didn't want to splice anymore wires or cut into the ECM harness.
 
Wasn't it already wired for electric fans? I don't know what you ran for a harness I guess, but I know the 80's MAF stuff is.

MAF uses CTS for primary fan control, coolant temp switch in passenger side head for redundancy if the engine gets to 240*. MAP would control both fans through the CTS, with different (adjustable with PROM tuning) temp parameters.
 
I'm not entirely sure how the PO had it all wired. I had 1 fan that was pretty small and it turned on with the ignition. It was not adequate in warm weather in traffic.
 
Gotcha. Well, if ever interested in going to an ECM controlled setup, should be pretty easy. Essentially what you've already done, relay for each fan, only difference is the wire to turn them on/off would come from the ECM.

I've never seen the need to turn both on at the same time, but I suspect with some real heat and crawling, they would be needed. I actually swap the relay plugs once in awhile when I think of it just so each fan gets some use lol.
 
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