[pontiac_boy]

Hey guys,

Im working on putting together my 72 lemans thats going to have a 476 storker. I am trying to gear it towards a street/strip combination. The motor is done but i still have to come up with a good cooling system. I plant to run an electric water pump but obviously in doing so, i will have to run an electric fan as well. I have been looking at this aluminum radiator from opg #ch31364 but i would like recommendations on what electric fans you guys are running as well as water pump. Can i see your steups?

[steve25]

As far as my 2 cents worth goes, if I am building a car that will be taken on longer then 60 mile drives at times then I am more then happy to live with the 12 hp loss from running a belt driven water pump and a clutched fan , then being stuck and calling for a hook at 11 pm on a Sunday nite because my electric pump went south!
Been there done that !

[Squidward]

In this street/strip plan, how much is street vs strip? It just seems that the electric pump is a little counterproductive for a street motor. Same thing with the electric fan, but I can tell you this: If you go electric fan, don't cheap out. My only foray into the electric fan world ended with me tossing my inadequate fan setup, and going with a belt driven factory fan and clutch.

I went with a 4 core Champion in my 72. I was trying to maximize cooling capacity. it cools great, but is a little bit fat for the factory rubber isolators that nestle it in the shroud. It still fits, but not as precise as maybe a 3 core aluminum or factory radiator would.

[pontiac_boy]

The car wont be seeing a ton of street miles. I am try to gear it more toward a track car that i can drive a mile to work and back every now and then when i feel like it. Or take it to a car show/meet on occasions.

[goa484]

Check out the recent engine masters episode about this. What they end up concluding is that an electric water pump isnt worth the cost, fwiw.

[jamaca85]

i would run a manual set up for the street and mild track use. for my track only car i use an electric pump and fan. this makes it easy to cool between runs in the pits without running the car, also if either goes out..just trailer it back home.

[HWYSTR455]

I've run Spal, Derale, and Flex-a-Lite electric fans. All were acceptable for primary cooling fans, and performed great.

The last setup I got was a Derale dual fan with the shroud, and the fans oddly enough are SPAL fans. Derale makes fans in shrouds in a number of sizes, and also make ones that are 'quiet'.

The aluminum radiators that are more than 2 rows you have to be careful, because sometimes the surface area isn't as much as the 2 rows, they use narrower tubes to stuff them in. You're better off getting a 2 row that uses 1 1/4 or 1 1/2" tubes.

Good fans draw amps, have to bump your alt output up, and wire accordingly. Using a PWM controller is a great idea, so you get slow ramp up and not 'shock' the electrical system. You whack an alt with 28a all at once, on, off, on, off, it will drastically shorten the life of the regulator. Not to mention when the second 28a fan kicks on.

You might think I'm nuts, but what I ended up doing was adding 1.5f car stereo caps to the system to cushion those spikes. It made alts last much longer. I wired them as normal, into the stereo, but ran beefier wire to the batt.

On the alts, I've found right about 140a is the max v belts can handle, anything beyond that and they will slip. Once the belt starts to slip, it spirals downward and eventually can't keep up with the load, or worse, super heats the alt pulley and cooks the alt. Best thing to do is go serpentine.

You can read some of my other threads, but that's the basic recap here.

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