A lot of people say you don't "have" to remove the hood....but I did.





The shroud is held at the top with 2 brackets...
The shroud was easily the hardest part of this whole project.....

Mine came in 2 parts....don't think they all do.....I'm NEVER putting it back in....but I save EVERY original part....



In a momment of "while I'm at it", I pulled my hinges so I could clean and paint them...


Removerd the fan once the shroud was off...


Starting to get a lot of room in there now...


After the hood, shroud and fan were off, takiong the radiator out is VERY simple...but it did have to come up driver side first to snake the water inlet tube on the bottom around the A-arms....but very simple...


Old and new.....transfer your brackets from the old rad to the new...



Bought a summit 140amp alt to power those fans....


Reassembly was even easier...no shroud to fight....didn't have to put the fan back on...real straight forward.



Painted my hinges...


All cleaned up...




I haven't wired the fans yet....my buddy who is is real good at electrical is gonna help me with that this weekend and I'll do a seperate post on that...

Took it for a good test drive without the fans.....with the new radiator, I couldn't get it hot enough for the fans to come on even if they were wired up ! LOL ! Never got over 165 degrees !

 

Looks good. Great job.

 

Thank you ! I'm getting more and more proud of her !

 

Nice job. I wired up a LED light to let me know when the fans are on. I thought I would be able to hear them, but the engine/exhaust are louder. I was also going to install a override switch so I could manually turn them on, but I have not seen the need for that yet. Cools great so far.

 

Gonna have to wire it up myself....my buddy is too busy...
Any tips ?

 

Sounds awesome. What kind of thermostat are you running?

 

Just a standard off the shelf 170 degree.....
I would have to assume the temp actually hit 170ish.....because the thermostat did open...but the temp never went past that !

You get what you pay for....a little expensive.....but MAN what a difference !

DeWitts radiators rock ! Couldn't be happier !

 

I was going to do so but it dropped off the radar list. The fans work great on my 383. I'm using a chrome alt that I got cheap at Kragen but had it reworked locally for 90A output. Both Spal fans can run with engine idling and the ammeter stays in the middle (Unless I have the AC on at the time ...)

I'm using the dual spals on a reworked copper/brass radiator with a high efficiency core. Couldn't afford the aluminum rad at the time but it's been years now and no probs. I run 190*F in traffic and 195-200 with the AC on.

Having an LED for each fan and a manual override would be 'cool to do' but heck - it all works fine just the way it is. I'm sure the OP will find same. Unless of course, he likes to tinker with lights & switches!

 

I am using the stock type alternator. Dewitts told me it should power them no problem. I know many have upgraded to higher amp model.
I mentioned this in another thread not that long ago, about Dewitt set up. I am glad I have the LED "fans on" indicator. I had less than 500 miles on a new Mr G thermostat from my recent engine build/upgrade. I noticed the light did not go off and it always did after the fans would run for a few mins to bring the temps back down. I realized something was wrong and the thermostat was failing and not opening. Replaced it with a fail safe thermostat, that when it fails its stays open vs closed like many of the other models. Anyway, problem solved. As mentioned, I cannot hear the fans, so the LED is good insurance.
MR JL , I think mine came with a rad thermo fan switch.., fans on at 195 and off at 175. Although, I think they come on sooner than 195 as I have not been over 185 from what I can tell. Is that what your instructions state? I think that is the standard switch temp range they provide

 

Nice job it looks great, you gotta like Toms units. Now you are all set for that new 383, how goes the engine shopping =).

 

Yes...on at 195 and off at 175...
I am not very good at electrical....if someone could tell me more about how to do the LED indicators that would be awesome !!!


Still looking at different engines....I'll have the money (I hope !) in a few weeks....looking to do it in Spring or early Summer...


There was NO WAY I was gonna do a new engine without a DeWitts rad/fan combo....Like I said, couldn't be happier !

 

[QUOTE=MrJlr;1576556186]Yes...on at 195 and off at 175...
I am not very good at electrical....if someone could tell me more about how to do the LED indicators that would be awesome !!!



I followed the directions that were provided. Made a few mistakes along the way as I always do. I have slept since then, so I will have to go look at how I wired up the fans and LED.

 

[QUOTE=Rebelrob;1576560018]I'm figuring on sum mistakes...!
I wont blow nuthin' up though...!

I'm all ears !

 

Looks great! Not sure about your fans I did a be cool set up and the destructions had the fans wired into a hot on the fuse pannel. I have a heard of the fans turning running when the car is parked in the sun on a hot day causing the battery to die while your at for for 8 hours. I suppose it could happen. I spliced the power leads to the ignition cable so my fans only operate when the key is in and on.

 

I'm wondering about your belt allignment. The last picture makes me think that swaping the belts on the water pump pully would put them closer to straight. Is it just the camera angle?

 

I'm still messing with that...right now the altinator belt is perfect...(that IS camera angle)...but the ac belt is slightly off...

But when I switched them on the pully - they were both way off...
It's just my ac belt and it's driving me nuts...

Anyone got a pic to show their belts to see if mine are bass-ackwards ?

 

Isn't there an "ignition only" terminal on the starter (solonoid side) that I can take power from ?

 

That I don't know. I tucked the wires into an existing wire bundle that went through the firewall. Plus it was easy as pie to identify the ignition wire.

 

Looks great.

 

Thank you....gonna wire it up today !!!