When driving back from Houston last week, I was stopped at few lights and found my temperature quickly go to 210 degrees. I had the A/C on moments before with the temperature at 195 and turned it off as I approached the first light. Between waiting at two lights, I quickly went to 210 which has me concerned about my cooling capability. I expect we will often be stuck in traffic much worse than I experienced in Houston.
I'm slowly running out of options with the cooling system. I have a big block style aluminum Champion radiator but it is only two core due to the thickness and space available. I now have an aluminum Flow Kooler water pump that is a high volume unit. I've been running a 10" Spal fan in front of the condenser and a 16" Flex-A-lite with an aluminum shroud which covers the entire back of the radiator. I use a 180 degree thermostat with the fans all set to come on at 180 degrees. I have a good overflow tank and are using WaterWetter. It's all essentially new.
My Flex-A-lite fan is rated at 2,500 CFM but is about all I can fit in the 16" size due to space constraints with the water pump. After reviewing options, I found a Spal dual 11" fan setup with shroud that will flow 2,720 CFM (Part # 910102052). The surface area covered by two 11" fans is about 5% below what I have with a single 16" but I have a little more coverage on the sides under the radiator inlet and on the side of the condenser. These flow a little better so I expect it is a decent trade off.
I trust Spal fans over Flex-A-lite and I think this is about the pinnacle of what can fit in regard to fans. I hope they pull strongly and work far better. I'll only know by installing them. Unfortunately, this changes the setup I've been testing but I think it is worth the risk.
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The Spal fan setup arrived on Wednesday and I started removing the old fan setup that night. On Thursday, I started working on a plan to mount the new Spal fan setup. Unfortunately, it comes without any mounting materials and the section which touches the radiator is not flat. The sides protrude 5/8" beyond the entire top and bottom lip of the shroud. This can be seen in the following picture.
I struggled to find a good way to mount it and have a good seal against the radiator. The only mounting provisions are bolt holes straight through the shroud which in no way line up with the sides of the radiator and wouldn't with almost any car that I could see the shroud fitting. The best option I found was to take the path of no return which involved cutting the existing shroud and mating the two together. I left enough shroud on the top and bottom so that those edges would seal together. I then cut the shroud perfectly so the longer sides would slide down into the shroud. It's a bit hard to describe and I wasn't the best at taking pictures of this project.
I wired up the driver side fan using the existing wiring for the old fan. I then added a new relay near the battery to control the second fan just to make the install quick. One relay might be able to run both but I want to have plenty of extra power so I don't blow fuses or have any other trouble on the trip.
These are the best pictures I have since I did not take any during the installation process.
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