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Radiator and Electric Fans for BBC

k2-k5

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My radiator is leaking some. Has a crack at the filler connection. It is a HD rad. out of a 3/4 t truck and seems to cool the 454 ok so far and I do not have a shroud as the one from my 350 is to wide. I want to go with an electric fan setup and thought I would consider upgrading the radiator at the same time.

What are you guys with a BBC running for a radiator and electric fan? model and partnumbers would be groovey if you have them.
 
I bought a 4core rad for a 72BBC truck from http://www.radiator.com
I ordered it early in the AM and it was on my doorstep when I got home from work :eek1:
I guess they use local distributors to get it to my door so fast...

Next I bought a Flex-A-Lite dual 13" electric fan:
http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/27inch-electric.html

P1010006.sized.jpg

I have ZERO cooling issues..even in HOT summer heat my 454 stays cool! I LOVE IT! Cools better than my 350 did.
The fan does come with a temp probe but I didn't have much luck with it truning on fast enough so I bypassed the temp sensor and simply trun it on and off manually..I like this better anyway.
Good Luck
cog4.sized.jpg

I did not have much room left to even think about mounting a fan to the engine....
 
I also bought a stock radiator that would have been used in a bbc truck. When I was pricing the radiators I noticed that different prices were coming up for the truck depending on whether it was an auto or manual truck - but from what I saw and found when researching the issue, the radiators were all set up for the auto tranny cooler.
 
I am running dual electric on my SBC and am wanting to go back to the original set up. Couple issues that I have is that if I am in 4X high the truck will heat up. If I am towing any thing it heats up. Last but not least is my fans NEVER shut off. I don't have my stock shroud on and I am in the middle of getting another one. Hopefully it will help out otherwise it's back to the stock set up and use the electrics as auxillary cooling.

Although Burt4X4 yours is very clean.
 
I used a Ron Davis all aluminum radiator when i built my BBC vette. It was very reasonable priced and very well made. They were only a 2 core but i tell you these cores were huge and it cooled better than any stock 4 core i've used. Then i put the permacool twin fans on it. Biggest CFM's they sold at the time. I also added ceramic coated headers, and with those 3 items i was one cool cat.

Just a suggestion.
 
You can buy the fans from a ls1 camaro or trans am and they will work with the factory radiator. I bought some off ebay for $50
 
I just bought one for a nissan altima/maxima.
I got a screamin' deal on it & it looks like it will pretty much bolt right on. I don't have anything special going on under the hood, but I think this will handle it pretty well. At least I hope it does. :D

Later,
Buddy
 
Burt4x4 said:
I bought a 4core rad for a 72BBC truck from http://www.radiator.com
I ordered it early in the AM and it was on my doorstep when I got home from work :eek1:
I guess they use local distributors to get it to my door so fast...

Next I bought a Flex-A-Lite dual 13" electric fan:
http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/27inch-electric.html


I have ZERO cooling issues..even in HOT summer heat my 454 stays cool! I LOVE IT! Cools better than my 350 did.
The fan does come with a temp probe but I didn't have much luck with it truning on fast enough so I bypassed the temp sensor and simply trun it on and off manually..I like this better anyway.
Good Luck

I did not have much room left to even think about mounting a fan to the engine....


Do you have a part number for the radiator? I was texting with a guy from radiator.com and he thought it was a tough application and needed to talk to a specialist. :( About how much did you pay for it?
 
I just bought a 4-core for my 71 yesterday from them and it looks like it fits perfectly. I had to get new brackets for the bigger radiator (have 2-core now), but that's it. I just told him "71 chevy blazer" and they had one in stock. I even picked it up from a warehouse 30 minutes later.

I was in the pick-in-pull today looking for brackets and I can see the 73+ blazers have more variation in how the radiator is mounted. Maybe that's why they say it can be a "tough application".
 
k2-k5 said:
Do you have a part number for the radiator? I was texting with a guy from radiator.com and he thought it was a tough application and needed to talk to a specialist. :( About how much did you pay for it?
Thats wierd :confused:
I too just went there to look up the rad and it put me in chat right away :mad:
STupid web page has changed..not having online look up is a bad idea IMO:doah:
ANyway I got it over 4yrs ago and I think it was like $180 (without that stupid chat)..I got 4cor rad mounts(upper & lower)from ChevyDuty to replace my shorter 3cor mounts. I think thoes were like 30bucks...can't remember too well.. But it all bolted right in.
Good luck....
 
good enough. I put some jb weld on the radiator the other night if that holds i may wait on the radiator and do the aftermarket guage project first since the only guage that is functional is my tach
 
Well Im a little out of the curve but Ill give me input anyways. I run a radiator out of a later 80s suburban. Its a 4 core, not sure it would fit in the stock radiator support but I dont see why you couldnt mod it to fit. I run 2 taraus fans on it. But I also run mine in the back of my rig. Ive had it out once setup like this and the truck ran at 180-190 the whole weekend with only one fan. Given it was in november, but still.
DSCN2371.JPG
 
Burt4x4 said:
Thats wierd :confused:
I too just went there to look up the rad and it put me in chat right away :mad:
quote]

Yea, it's really confusing. I had the same problem at first. The left side of the page puts you in chat, but if you click the lookup feature closer to the right side of the page, it lets you choose the vehicle and gives you a price of $144 for me (2-3 core). 4-core was more expensive. The price their web page states for the 3-core was different than the price I got on the phone.
 
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