Ended up doing some interesting fab work to make the brackets, but I think it will work fine and looks decent. I was able to move the radiator about 1 full inch forward, and have a good 3/4" of clearance between the fan and water pump pulley. I am not quite done with the top bracket, but you can see what I am getting at...
The radiator is sitting on foam at the bottom, plus there is foam under the top bracket plate. The radiator does not touch any metal except for the top lip which touches the top bracket. The lip is 1/2" thick above the actual radiator tubes. This thing doesn't move at all. I got those long line-up bolts out of the way and all I have left is to buy a larger diameter bottom hose, fill er up, and put the lower valence back on. I will probably look for a thermosatic switch so the fan doesn't run all the time. It probably won't need to now... I ended up cutting about half what I expected on the driver side beside the radiator. I left that one strip as a place to strap my overflow tank to (you can see it better in the profile, with the two drips of POR-15 coming out the bottom).
Not sure on the cores...looks kinda like 3, but I really didn't look that closely. It is aluminum. That is all I cared about. It HAS to cool better than the copper one did.
Got it running and tested it out...in the garage, 85 degrees outside, closer to 95 in the garage with the engine heat and exhaust (garage door is open )...It warmed up to 170, then dropped down to 165 at idle for over 20 minutes. I think that will do it. I have not driven it yet, still need to install the grill and front valence, but if anything, I think it will need a thermostatic switch to turn the fan off and let it heat up some more. Best thing...no leaks Had to reroute the trans cooler with new lines, and had to fab an "extension" for the bottom radiator hose, since I could not find one that would fit. I changed the pics at the first post to show the finished products.
Most aluminums are two core, but they are bigger tubes, so it's a tough way to measure. I would definitely put a switch in there.
There appears to be 3 rows of tubes going across horizontally, so I am assuming that is "3-core". I could be wrong, but that is what I assumed a "core" was. What does "cross-flow" mean? Is that what these rows of tubes are (flow across the radiator)? What would a non-crossflow radiator look like?
A non cross flow would look like your stock one vertical flow with the rad cap in the center.You will probably find that once your driving that you won't need the fan too often.My car has a 6cyl rad that has a maxi core in it [10 more tubes] and the only time i have to turn the fan on is in heavy stop and go traffic.Derek.
So cross flow means that the water has to go down, and across from one side to the other in the little tubes...Basically, it slows the water down so it stays in the radiator a little longer, allowing more cooling to occur...
