The Goldcar Story, cont.

An early morning loaded, covered and tied down for our trip to go visit the car appraiser today. Safe trip got a chance to see one of my high school buddies who use to be my co pilot and his son. Took them for a ride and his son said he had been in a faster car but this was the coolest! Lots of memories…

Well the car building gods haven’t been shinning on us lately. We’ve had a couple of set backs due to some health issues. Just as we thought we were back on track have to quarantine until Monday.

We’ve been working on building a fan shroud. Still on hold finishing our front frame panels. Going to our first show tomorrow. The new poster is ready and looking good. We’ll see how effective it is at tomorrow’s show.

Just a couple more pieces to cut out, assemble, paint and finish our fan shroud. Then finish the front panels.

Nice show picture board

Yes sir, what OI said.

Thanks OI and Bob!

It was a success at the show. Lots of lookers that read the story board instead of asking me what is it! Gave me time to engage the people that wanted more details and share their rides. All in all a successful outing. Lots of nice cars today too.

All of the pieces for the fan shroud are in primer and ready to paint before final installation. The main panels are in paint at the shop. I’ll post final pics later.

Staying tuned [P?

Finished the fan shroud, now to find out if it works! We’ll get the temp gun Monday to see if it is enough to keep us cool when idling. Preliminary results show a definite improvement…is it enough???

Well a little good a little not so good. Our new fan shroud did help but in the long run didn’t make enough difference to be our solution.
Thought about a higher flow water pump and cross flow radiator. At least for now, I’m thinking change the mechanical fan for an electric one. At a recent car show I saw where one of the cars had an electric fan just on one side of his radiator and it was staying cool. It got me thinking, I would have more room if I could offset the fan so the fan motor would miss the water pump shaft but still have enough fan blade to do the job. I think this will be a winner. I measured today and it looks like it will work…if it can do the job is the next question. Since I have no problems running down the road, with a 3,000 cfm fan it should cool this this when idling in traffic and parades.

The final body work on our front panel pieces are in the final body prep stages. We had to go back and modify one of the pieces due to some other changes. Just one of the hazards of making everything custom. Paint coming SOON! It won’t be much longer we’ll have a complete car. Then we can fine tune it! Hahaha

Hard to tell from the pics, but is your fan completely inside the shroud, or is it halfway out? For it to work best, it needs to completely circle the fan, and the fan blades need to be sticking out of the shroud about halfway. You need all the airflow to come through radiator, none getting around the sides. Without the shroud circling the fan, you have turbulence at the bottom side causing the air to stagnate there. An easy test is take a sheet of paper and place it at various places on the front of the radiator, you should be able to see where the suction of the fan is greatest. The mechanical fan should be able to cool it fine. It will move more air than an electric fan if set up right.

Bamamav said:

Hard to tell from the pics, but is your fan completely inside the shroud, or is it halfway out? For it to work best, it needs to completely circle the fan, and the fan blades need to be sticking out of the shroud about halfway. You need all the airflow to come through radiator, none getting around the sides. Without the shroud circling the fan, you have turbulence at the bottom side causing the air to stagnate there. An easy test is take a sheet of paper and place it at various places on the front of the radiator, you should be able to see where the suction of the fan is greatest. The mechanical fan should be able to cool it fine. It will move more air than an electric fan if set up right.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bama!
Our fan shroud is positioned correctly but the positioning of the fan is not optimal for the radiator. Discussing with my engine builder…we’re not getting enough air through the radiator at idle. I have a 3000 cfm pusher coming. We believe we can move the radiator back toward the water pump and install this pusher so it optimally covers the radiator. Just in case I have a high flow water pump coming as welll if the fan is still it enough.

WOW WHAT A RIDE THIS HAS BEEN! You never know where these roads will take you. This one began June 15, 2020 and officially concluded today. I want to give a BIG “THANK YOU” to my car builder guru Ron for letting me help build the car of my dreams! Not to mention gaining a good friend in the process.

Ron finished the repairs to our front filler pieces and painted this week. Today we wet sanded and buffed out the pieces then installed them on the car. What a nice finishing touch to our project. We now have a complete car. I told my wife she said he was glad it was finally done. I told her it’s not done just complete!
We all know they’re never really done! Thanks to all of our viewers and comments along the way. We’ve had a blast modifying and restoring “The Goldcar”!

10/11/22

We’ve been working on moving the radiator so we can make enough room to install an electric fan. Day 2 of this project since our fan shroud helped but didn’t fix our heat problem. Chasing down a lower radiator hose tomorrow. Once the hose is back on we’re ready electrical connected today, fill with antifreeze and test. I’ll take some pics if we’re successful.

10/12/22

Today we were successful. We may change some things later but good for now. It runs within a safe range but I would like it to run a little cooler. We squeezed about every mm we could and just made enough room and still get alternator belt off/on later without having to move the radiator. The good news is we have room for a smaller puller which I think will give us that extra boost. The other option is replace my stock water pump with a new high flow. The reviews are positive with similar challenges. If anyone has any feedback on going to a high flow water pump please feel free to chime in. It would be easier to add a smaller fan. Unless, I add a smaller fan and still not completely happy.

Have you tried any antifreeze additives? There are some that are supposed to bring temps down.... The high flow water pump may not really help, in some cases it may move the coolant through too quickly, not letting the radiator do its job of removing heat, but every engine/radiator combo is different. I assume you are using a thermostat, running without one can cause that excess flow issue - also, some thermostats are too restrictive and can do the opposite, impeding flow.

I didn't read everything. Was the radiator new?

When I have cooling issues in my stuff, I use a cooling system flush, refill with new coolant and use Water Wetter. It works great.

I don't know whether a high flow water pump is going to help, I've never experimented with them. Do you run a thermostat? If so, what temperature?

No, we haven’t tried additives but did discuss. I’m not sold on using them. I really want to solve this with more air or flow or both.
I’m thinking at this point of installing a smaller puller on the back side opposite end and put a toggle switch just for parade mode. That is the only time unless I get stuck in a traffic jam but that would be rare in my travels.

It has a new aluminum radiator and the engine was rebuilt less than 2500 miles ago.

We started out with a thermostat. Took it out and drilled some holes got a little improvement. Took it out and drilled a few more. Then removed it entirely. The only thing that has really shown promise is more air. In doing some research, the best performance is using a pusher and puller in combination vs one or the other. I’ve found a fan that will fit and puts out almost 2000 cfm. Think l’ll return the high Flo water pump and order the other fan. However, it may be awhile before I do. Lot of other obligations coming up.

Went to a small show today. Good thing the parade wasn’t any longer. I was starting to get a little warmer than I like.

This is only my opinion, but I think that adding more fans is only treating the symptoms, not the cause of your cooling issue. Plus complications of cramming more stuff in a tight space. A balanced system should be able to cool it properly without add ons. I think that a lot of these offshore aluminum radiators really don't perform as well as the advertising would have you believe - for instance, the one I put in my Hercules project is supposed to cool a 500hp big block but is marginal on my near stock 360 FE Ford even with an exposed engine and fully shrouded fan. I'd give the thermostat another try, maybe a 180 degree - running without it may just be moving the coolant through to quickly.
Something that comes to mind to increase the cooling capacity is to add a surge tank so the upper tank on the radiator can fill up instead of having to have air space for expansion. Ever see an early 60's BB Ford or Tbird engine compartment? They used an expansion tank mounted to the front of the engine, so it's higher than the radiator, you'd fill it there, not at the rad cap.... more stuff to fit in but something to look into maybe....[S

Thanks zz. I tend to agree with your assessment of aluminum radiators. This is my second attempt with an aluminum radiator. The first one was a 2 row. Advertised to handle more than I needed but wouldn’t keep it cool either. I sold it and bought this 3 row and it is still having difficulty. I’m starting to think making modifications to my old one and put it back in. It was a little too wide

Adding the electric cooling fan has made the situation tolerable. So far pushing more air seems to deliver the desired results. That’s what has me thinking about adding a puller to the back side where I have room currently. Put it on a toggle so I can activate in stop and go traffic or parades. The rest of the time it has no issues keeping it cool.

Added a second 11” puller and we’re running cool as a cucumber! More air was the answer. I put the smaller puller on a toggle switch since I don’t need it all the time. I’ll see how this plan works out, if t proves inconvenient I’ll tie it to a relay and temp control.

However, never under estimate the hot rod gods. After installing the fans, I noticed my amp gauge was pegged. Discussed with Ron and wouldn’t you know that alternator from ‘67 isn’t putting out enough amps or our regulator is on the fritz. Problem solved with a new chrome 95 amp retro single wire alternator. However the new alternator is going to require a wire change, which means the hood has to come off. Well I have a list of things I want to do while I have access. I’ll update with some pics later.