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Hood adjustment options?

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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 10:22 AM
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Default Hood adjustment options?

Went to close the hood after installing my dewitts radiator and spal fans and found it is kissing the **** of the ac condenser. Tried adjusting the hood and the stopper but no luck. Hood won't shut by a 1/4". The damage on the side of the hood support area was preexisting, the flat spot is new damage. Any suggestions beyond grinding a slot in the hood or enlarging the slots in the hood bracket I'm not considering? I can not move the radiator assembly any further back.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 04:53 PM
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Are you sure the condenser is seated properly in the brackets on the radiator? And, are you sure the radiator is seated all the way in the radiator support? Do you still have the plastic piece that holds the radiator down? If so, try installing that and see what happens. You shouldn't need to modify anything to install a DeWitt's radiator.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 07:02 PM
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I just put a dewitts radiator in mine and had that exact problem. I bought the car with a SC so have never seen a stock setup before and figured it must be a rare problem with something about my setup. I have A&A upper mounts and was able to push the radiator back a bit more and get it to fit. Why cant you push yours back any more?
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 08:02 PM
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Originally Posted by TorqueWinsRaces
Are you sure the condenser is seated properly in the brackets on the radiator? And, are you sure the radiator is seated all the way in the radiator support? Do you still have the plastic piece that holds the radiator down? If so, try installing that and see what happens. You shouldn't need to modify anything to install a DeWitt's radiator.
Yes the condenser is seated in all of its tabs. The radiator is seated all the way in the plastic drain piece. I have a supercharger and putting on the plastic radiator shroud is not an option.

Originally Posted by darsondriss
I just put a dewitts radiator in mine and had that exact problem. I bought the car with a SC so have never seen a stock setup before and figured it must be a rare problem with something about my setup. I have A&A upper mounts and was able to push the radiator back a bit more and get it to fit. Why cant you push yours back any more?
There's no play if I push the top back it will press the inlet against the supercharger. Going to research the radiator cradle spacers to move the assembly down.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 08:53 PM
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Originally Posted by darsondriss
I just put a dewitts radiator in mine and had that exact problem.
DeWitts has been making this model for ten years and never heard of this before. I'm going to look at the fixtures and procedures tomorrow to see if anything has changed. The only thing I can think of right now is the radiator is not sitting all the way down on the passenger side. The passenger side bottom mount has a round rubber cushion that fits on a aluminum stem. This is a tight fit and if the cushion isn't on the stem all the way to the stop on the radiator, and then the condenser will sit up higher. OP should check to see if the radiator is level from side to side.

Last edited by Tom@Dewitt; Jul 1, 2018 at 09:22 PM.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 09:16 PM
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On mine it didn't seem to be a issue with height, I had the AC condenser mounts cut down at least a least half an inch and had cut the lower radiator mounts down another half inch to fit a 4" inlet pipe over the rad on stock cradle.

i have the a&a top mounts and they have alot of rotation/play in them, so my setup issue could very likely be my fault.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 10:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Tom DeWitt
DeWitts has been making this model for ten years and never heard of this before. I'm going to look at the fixtures and procedures tomorrow to see if anything has changed. The only thing I can think of right now is the radiator is not sitting all the way down on the passenger side. The passenger side bottom mount has a round rubber cushion that fits on a aluminum stem. This is a tight fit and if the cushion isn't on the stem all the way to the stop on the radiator, and then the condenser will sit up higher. OP should check to see if the radiator is level from side to side.
After looking under the radiator the bushing is seated around the stem, but the upper portion of the bushing is not seated on the thick piece of the stem, should it be seated higher up on the stem, I don't recall being able to push the bushing further up?

Also the radiator spacers from A&A are already installed.


Last edited by tommypenguin; Jul 2, 2018 at 12:13 AM.
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 10:56 PM
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More pics for clarity.






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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 10:59 PM
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Old Jul 1, 2018 | 11:43 PM
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Originally Posted by tommypenguin
After looking under the radiator the bushing is seated around the stem, but the upper portion of the bushing is not seated on the thick piece of the stem, should it be seated higher up?

That looks right
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Old Jul 2, 2018 | 06:56 AM
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You might try shortening your sc coupler a hair. I cut a bit off mine in order to get the inlet pipe to go on easier, but in your case it might move the dongle back a bit and let you told the radiator a bit farther back
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Old Jul 2, 2018 | 09:52 AM
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DeWitts suggests the SC inlet tube is the problem and that the shorter (cut down) version would solve that issue.
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Old Jul 2, 2018 | 10:20 AM
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Originally Posted by tommypenguin
you driver side mount seems a bit off there.
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Old Jul 2, 2018 | 06:22 PM
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Originally Posted by darsondriss
You might try shortening your sc coupler a hair. I cut a bit off mine in order to get the inlet pipe to go on easier, but in your case it might move the dongle back a bit and let you told the radiator a bit farther back
I called A&A and they suggested that I try cutting the inlet pipe coupler down a 1/4-1/2" of the coupler on both sides to gain clearance. They also suggested trimming the bottom of the ac condenser tabs so that I can push it further down to gain clearance. A&A said that installing the updated inlet would not provide additional clearance where I need it. Would need to modify my shroud to, to accommodate that.

This weekend will attempt to solve this issue, pretty confident that trimming the ac condenser tabs will lead to victory. Can test without trimming by pulling the condenser out, moving it down a 1/2" inch and tack it to the tabs to the holder on the radiator with double sided sticky tape and attempt closing the hood. If it clears I'll trim the tabs and call it good, if that doesn't work will also try trimming the inlet coupler. Will follow up with this, when I get back to work on it.

Last edited by tommypenguin; Jul 2, 2018 at 06:24 PM.
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Old May 22, 2019 | 11:10 PM
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Been almost a year, still have this issue. Have spent god knows too many hours f***ing around with it.

The issue is that my supercharger inlet is pressed against the back of the dewitts radiator which pushes the radiator/ac condenser assembly too far forward by probably 1/2". I have proven this theory by pulling the supercharger inlet off and verified I can close the hood and clear the ac condenser. I have shortened the coupler as much as possible, after doing this the inlet was resting on my spal fans bracket so I trimmed that portion, got more clearance but the inlet is resting on the top of the radiator. Also called A&A and asked if the new inlet would provide better clearance thorough a more steep angle to clear the radiator and they said it would not. They said they have had to fab up lowering the radiator cradle or install a cut down version of the dewitts radiator to clear the inlet.

For kicks I have tried removing the ac condenser from it's tabs and pushing it down an inch or so where it is flush with the bottom of the radiator. In this scenario with the ac condenser lowered probably an 1 and 1/2" inches it still will hit the hood just higher up on the spot.

Really sucks, The hood pretty much shuts completely versus what it was in my original pic, probably can't completely shut by an 1/8-1/4" and constantly is making contact. Don't care about the damage to my stock hood as it's not worth much to begin with. But I want to put on a carbon fiber hood and don't want to damage it because I was not able to reconcile this issue. Any other suggestions on something I could try beyond fabrication or purchasing a cut down radiator/fans to clear the inlet?

Last edited by tommypenguin; May 22, 2019 at 11:14 PM.
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Old Sep 14, 2019 | 09:11 PM
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Had to also order the shorter version of the fans but can now close my hood without hitting the condenser now.
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