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10 Steps to a Cooler Running Engine
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  Summers' here and it's a relentless one at that. Old Mother Nature's cranking up the global oven to a cozy broil. Bottom line, it's just plain hot! Heck, Tarzan's probably rethinking that whole fur thong thing he's wearing right about now. At 220 plus degrees Fahrenheit, the innards of any V8 are probably thinking the exact same thing. Here's our situation. We've had an overheating problem in our Toyota Land Cruiser for some time and it just seems to keep getting worse each year. This year we decided to do something about it (finally). We tried about 10 different things and we'll be telling you what actually worked, what didn't work and more. From the mild to the wild, you'll be in the know and your engine will be thanking you. |
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 Here's our setting. About 4 years ago we transplanted a fuel injected, Chevy V8 and a Turbo 350 tranny into the Cruiser. Keeping the OEM radiator that had been cored twice; we hoped that it would be enough. Initially it was, but after some time, and the installation of an aftermarket tranny cooler (one that bolts to the radiator) the motor would overheat at idle or during slow off-roading adventures. It seemed the V8's standard-duty, clutch fan just wasn't enough, so we swapped in a super-heavy-duty one. The swap was successful at keeping the rig cool, but the sound was absolutely deafening. |
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 After a few weeks, we just couldn't bear it anymore, so we figured the next logical step would be to install a high-performance, electric puller fan in place of the clutch unit. Our assumption was that the electric fan would move more air at idle than the clutch fan would, and at speed the amount of air moving through the radiator would cool the mill sufficiently. However, the advice of some of our colleagues proved true and it just didn't work. We did like the small boost in power that we got from removing the oh-so-loud clutch fan and the fact that we could actually carry on a conversation without screaming was definitely a bonus. So, we found ourselves back to square one again and that leads us to where we are now… writing an article on how to keep your rig running cool. In the next few series of this article, we'll be telling you about 10 tricks that you can do yourself to keep your mill running right at the suggested operating temperature. |
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 In the following paragraphs, we'll tell you what we did, if it was a mild or a wild fix, what kind of temperature savings we netted and the approximate cost for doing so. The radiator test was performed in various settings to ensure that we could adequately measure a fair temperature change. Overall, we feel that the measurements we gathered are as accurate as possible. We'd also like to bring a simple fact to your attention. You can indeed over-cool a motor and a motor that isn't running at the suggested operating temperature can not only lose power, but can also cause damage. |
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| What we did |
- Step 1: Replace the aging, failing OEM radiator with a hi-performance one
- Rating: Wild
- Approx. Temperature Drop: 26 degrees
- Approx. Cost: $460
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| As we mentioned, our OEM radiator just wasn't cutting the mustard. Albeit at one time in history a quality 4-core radiator, the seams were starting to leak once again and it just didn't have what it takes to keep the mill running at the right temperature. |
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 We placed a call into Radiators.com to seek their advice. We told them of our problems and that we were seeking a hi-performance radiator that would exceed OEM standards. Their cure. - An all aluminum, drop-in, hi-performance radiator made by Be Cool. That's right… I said "drop-in". Radiators.com was actually able to find an aftermarket, hi-performance radiator made just for our Cruiser. For those of you who own vintage 4-wheel drives that aren't Jeeps, you can probably appreciate the last sentence. |
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 A few of you may be thinking that copper is a better conductor of heat than aluminum, so why would we switch to an aluminum radiator? The fact is that copper is indeed a better conductor of heat, but the other components in a copper/brass/lead radiator minimize its overall effectiveness and actually make an aluminum radiator much more efficient.The radiator supplied by Radiators.com guarantees a MINIMUM of a 20 degree drop in temperature. Our results? A WHOPPING 26-degree drop! With just one component change, we were more than half way to reaching our goal of dropping 42 degrees in our overheating motor. |
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| Here are some details about the radiator: |
- Guaranteed 20 degree drop over 4-5 row copper/brass/lead radiators
- All aluminum tank with a .080" wall thickness provides superior strength
- Tanks are hand built, hand welded and 100% pressure tested
- Lightweight - Up to 40% lighter than copper/brass/lead (Our OEM radiator - 23 pounds/ new radiator - 11 pounds)
- Compatible with all coolant types
- Average 35% lower price over OEM retail for universal Series radiators
- 100% Made in the U.S.A.
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| Overall, the hi-performance, all aluminum radiator supplied by Radiators.com gave us the greatest temperature drop of all of our components and/or tricks. |
 For the most part, we weren't kidding when we said that Radiators.com was able to supply us with a drop-in replacement, high-performance radiator. Albeit, anyone who owns a vintage 4x4 knows that the riggers of off-roading truly prevent just about anything from being a direct bolt-on replacement. That said, we found that we needed to do a bit of relief grinding on the radiator core support and the mounting bracket holes to ensure a proper, chaffing-free installation. |
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 Our only other gripes were that the lower radiator hose pipe on the radiator has a smaller outside diameter, so you'll have to spend some time digging through the radiator hose pile at your local auto-parts store. The radiator itself also did not come with a petcock valve for draining, but to be honest, we never use them anyhow. For me, I'd rather just pull the lower radiator hose and let her rip. These two small problems were WELL worth the temperature savings we netted for this radiator. |
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 After our test fitting, grinding, test fitting, filing and test fitting, the installation itself was a snap. The grinding, filing and test fitting took all of about 30 to 45 minutes. After that, we simply reattached the hoses, filled the radiator with distilled water and anti-freeze and we were off to the races, some 26° cooler! |
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