The Official FC Radiator Thread.

[TehMonkay]

Originally Posted by Shainiac

I bought an Afco a few weeks ago and installed it. Lucky for me, I live 30 miles from Afco's headquarters AND I worked for a shop that does a lot of dirt track parts business with Afco. I picked up my 26" Dual Pass for a whopping $173

I started off by relocating the battery, which has already been stated. To get this thing in the car, I bough 2 - 3'x1"x1/8" strips of 6061 alum and bent them into "J"shaped brackets lined with weather stripping to cradle the rad under the endtanks. I then used AllThread(sp) and locknuts to keep the top of the rad from moving around and finished it off with weather stripping to keep from rubbing. I used a Taurus fan which fit fine. The only problem I ran into was the return for the heater core. Since the lower rad outlet was 1 3/4" instead of 1 1/2", I had to build an adapter and introduce a "T" for the heater. I had a welder at work make me one out of scrap chromoly since it was free and going to get thrown away. The last hickup was that there is only a few inches between my lower rad adapter and the water pump housing. I managed to hack the old lower hose up enough to get it on there, but its not pretty. In hindsight, I would have made the adapter curved a bit so It wouldnt put the hose in such a bind. Ive put probably 300 miles on the thing and it seems to be hold up fine.

I didnt get a chance to take pictures before I headed back to school, but to say the least, This thing works well! On the interstate with the stock rad and fan, my streetport NA would run 185-190, read from the thermostat housing with a mechanical autometer gauge. NOW, with the new radiator and semi-restricitive Taurus fan and NO ducting between the rad and bumper (wasnt there when I got the car), The car runs dead on 180 cruising at 80mph. If I kick the fan on low, It pulls closer to 170-175!
Next time I get a change, Ill take some pictures for everyone.

where in indiana are you?