meldog21

I recently purchased the A&A supercharger kit and am in the middle of the install. I ran into a problem yesterday in that the supercharger will not clear my Ron Davis radiator. I phoned A&A and was told the kit will not work with the RD radiator because it is too big, and that I should buy a DeWitts and resell the Ron Davis.

Well, its a little late to find this out after purchasing and half way installing the kit. Also, I would like to keep the radiator since it works so well keeping my water and oil temps down (it's a integrated radiator/oil cooler). I run in the advanced group at track days so I'd like to keep the same cooling capacity.

Has anyone installed an A&A kit with the larger type (Ron Davis) radiator?

I could really use some suggestions, otherwise I'll have to buy a DeWitts and resell the Ron Davis. Of course that will be at additional expense and delay for the job.

Dog

BLOWNBLUEZ06

I've done it with a full size Dewitts. I trimmed the shroud so the dongle only has to go over the radiator itself. Next thing is that the dongle is made from ABS, so you can carefully heat it up and reshape it on the bottom if needed.

meldog21

Actually the clearance problem is two fold. The thickness of the radiator does not leave enough room for the supercharger (between the engine and the back of the radiator). I can trim the fan shroud where the passenger side fan is, but it might not be enough.

The second problem is the clearance over the top, which is what I think you're referring to. Your solution sounds reasonable to me. I just haven't gotten that far yet since I can't get the supercharger into place yet.

A&A did suggest cutting, lowering, and rewelding the radiator supports. I thought that I might just be able to lower the radiator support bracket more? The A&A kit already lowers the bracket approximately 1" in the front and 2" in the rear.

Further lowering of the radiator should help, but at some point the radiator will be very close to the ground.

So I have your idea for top clearance, any ideas for the engine to radiator clearance?

Dog

C5kid

If you decide to sell the RD let me know, I'm interested

zeevette

Just FYI, you're right to be concerned about lowering the radiator bracket further. I installed my A&A kit but found that my lowered (stock bolts) Z then scraped on everything. If your RD radiator is thicker, and lessens your clearance from the back of the rad, to the front of the motor, it'll be very difficult to even attach the dongle to the SC head unit. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up buying a new radiator.

tlove32

Wow - For all that work....I think I'd sell the Ron Davis and get a Dewitts with an integrated oil cooler.

meldog21

After speaking with Andy at A&A, and Rick at Synergy, I'm going to try moving the radiator down a little more and clearancing the fan shroud. We'll see how that works. If it doesn't then I'll have to do the radiator swap. Then C5kid makes out.

Zeevette I hope it's not too low when I get this done. I already scrape a little getting into and out of my driveway. I'm not really low. I have Pfadt suspension with a normal road race set up. It's only about 1" or less lower than stock height.

Dog

BLOWNBLUEZ06

Exactly how thick is this radiator?

meldog21

Front to back, 2.4" on the finned part, 2.85" on the end caps. When it gets hot it expands to over three inches. I guess an inch or so can make a significant difference in whether or not you can get it in.

Dog





































First sentence serious, second and third, not so much.

Larzmat

I realize this is a really old thread, but I was hoping to find out how this worked out for you? I am in the exact same boat trying to fit the RD rad on an A&A C5 and looking for some ideas..

THanks!

Patches

I did not use the A&A spacers for the radiator support because I just can't afford to lose any more clearance due to a steep driveway. What I did is bought a cut-down DeWitts and had my welding shop drop the radiator pedestals on the support from the top to the bottom of the lower cross bar. That dropped the rad about 1". I have plenty of clearance now and the rad support has not dropped at all.





Other guys have cut that cross bar off and had it welded a couple of inches further forward and tilted the rad and condenser back to create more vertical clearance.

Larzmat

Thanks for the reply! I do have the A&A spacers installed so by doing what you did to the crossbar should allow me to get where I need for the RD rad!

Patches

A head-on shot of the rad/condenser installed



Looking underneath

Larzmat

Thank you very much for the detailed pictures!

I did the same thing and went ahead and cut and lowered the radiator support brackets, welded them on about an inch lower. In the combination with the A&A kit, I now have enough clearance to fit the charge tube no problem.

However, as the domino effect continues I now have an issue where the driver side fan motor hits the sway bar due to the lowered mounting position. Question I am now trying to get answered is that if there is a fan package that offers more clearance than stock. ( like Dewitt dual spal) or similar solutions.

Are you aware of anything slimmer than the stock fans? I would need about an inch of extra room to clear the sway bar.

Patches

I don't have a specific slim fan setup I can direct you to but maybe someone else here does. The Spal brushless fans I installed with my DeWitts cut-down radiator actually still give me enough clearance to stick my hand in between the fans and Hotchkis sway bar. I was amazed I ended up with that much room after some speculation that they would interfere significantly. I did have a set of standard Spals that DeWitts sells but never got around to fitting those on the car as I exchanged them for the brushless version when those came out recently.

GOTHAM VETTE

Sorry, a little of topic here, but where did you get that rad ducting? Or did you build it yourself? Looks like a really nice setup.

Patches

If you're referring to the aluminum air scoop up front that feeds the intercooler - that's from the standard A&A kit. I added some additional fortification with riv nuts to mount it and attach it to the side plates. I also added addtional bracing to the intercooler.

Moonder

Nice work Patches