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So, Before getting too deep into actually tearing the front end off thought it
would be a good idea to install the extra short radiator. Number 1778 .....
First, a shot from last week of torching the old bracketry off....using a cutting wheel got old real quick so out came the torch....did it in flip flops too.
the short 1778 2wd radiator.....18 11/16" tall core..... FYI----I measured it 25 5/8" wide core edge to core edge. And I measured 27 3/8" from center of threaded
12mm bolt hole to same.
The water temp after 15 minutes of idling with the 3.4L V6......just won't get over 190~191 to open the thermostat so I can thoroughly flush it or maybe I should be
using a smiley face for having a good low temp system
That water just won't flow....is it because I use synthetic Mobile 1 and maybe that helps keep
the internal friction low and heat build-up just won't happen at idle and under a "no Load"
situation?.....Been 20 minutes and stuck at 191 degrees....Dang.
The 1778 is shown here in the snippet below....hard to beat $68.90 and free shipping.
I actually ordered this one because it was a Spectra Premium Radiator.
Paid a little more and might have gotten a better rad. but, who knows, might be the exact same one as the $68 one.
Got the new rad in.....went in with no real issues....4 tapped rad holes lined up perfect with chassis
holes. 4 shroud holes were close enough to get started and tighten. Off just a smidge but the shroud
tweaked just enough to get it done.
Had to cut the bottom 2.25" off the bottom of the shroud.....and a cutout for the lower hose and
the drain petcock. Not really a big deal. There is now an air gap on the bottom and will address
that later. Now to test drive it.
1 hour later......I don't see any issues with this smaller 2.4L radiator. 191 was the highest it went
driving around town. As I picked up some speed it went down to 190 on 2 occasions. 75 degree
cool air. The "leaky" fan shroud was in place also.
Here's the basic procedure I did in taking the 3.4L radiator out and putting the 2.4L one in.....
I took the shroud off,you can see the upper hose is removed from the engine...
the lower hose is seen removed here.
You can see that the short rad is level with the bottom of the frame rail. I like that
I have to cut 2 1/4" off the bottom of the shroud.....and throw the piece in the garbage
I wanted to put the tranny cooler right in the middle of the fan blade. Also, see
the 2 cutouts made to clear the lower rad hose inlet and the drain petcock.
The zip ties have served me well in the past so I am using them again. If you
were to put the cooler in front of the ac condenser it would get excellent air
flow at high speeds being right out in front but at slower speeds with the
massive air gaps between the condenser and radiator there would be limited air.
Put the cooler right against the radiator like I have here and it pulls excellent
air at slow speeds especially on slow mountain rock crawling trails.
I cut the lower hose 4.25" shorter and used a coupler I fabbed up. It's just a temp. solution but it
works until I get a real hose in a couple weeks.
EDIT----4.25" is a bit too much to cut off so cut only 3.25" out and that way it will not be stretched and possibly pop off the coupling metal tube.
Did you try running the A/C and put the hood down (not latched...)? Might help the heat up process.
Nice job with the radiator!
Thanks! I ran it down the freeway.....65 or 70 mph and the temp gauge is even lower than it was with the massive 3.4 L rad. Amazing. More on that later.
Talking about amazing (pics coming) I saved myself a TON of labor and time by getting a 7" angle grinder. I can't believe how fast it takes the excess weld material off. I do in 5 minutes what took me an hour with the 4 1/2" angle grinder. Ya, it's just a HarborFreight one but it was normally $55 mark down to 45 and with the 20% coupon it was 36.
....no unusual out of balance vibrations. If it last long enough to finish this SAS then it will have paid for itself and then some....but I have a feeling this thing will go a couple more years. There is quite a fan breeze when I am directly above it and appears to have exceptional air cooling.
I'll get 99% of the weld material off and finish it off quick with a flapper wheel
Just a cheapy HarborFreight grinder...I strongly recommend one if doing an SAS for weld clean-up.
7800rpm max here....
11amps
Nice abrasive 24 grit with a max rating of 8500 rpm which is aok.
Although, with the wheels that have the built-in 5/8" threaded arbor it causes
the disc to be a bit to the outside. It still offers some shielding protection.
Grinding off the slag and welds.
Finished the grinding and flapped it 100%. The 24 grit 7" grinding wheel
lost only 1/8" of material from the radius.....not bad at all. Now to turn the knuckles......
Guess I'll be buying one of those grinders when I get back from deployment. I've been hesitant to do so because I have multiple grinders. lol.
As far as the radiator, is it possible that because it's smaller the fluid is more efficiently cooling?
I also never thought I could justify the much heavier 7" one. But seeing was believing.
I have no idea right now on the cooling.....driving it on the highway now for 2 days it stays
at a stable 191 to 193 range. It just won't get any hotter. I find it hard to believe that the
sudden cooler weather has something to do with it. I purposely did not disturb the old
thermostat to eliminate that variable. The shroud has been shortened on the bottom
2 1/4" inches and has about a 1 inch gap all the way across the 25 inch horizontal
bottom so I would think it would strain the cooling a bit more with air flow issues
but it doesn't. This is the best cooling change I could have hoped for. I suppose
the real test will be July when it's 110 degrees on the highway or a mountain pass.
Oh ya. Forgot to mention that I used to run at 198~202....both the original radiator
and the exact replacement one I got online......same aluminum core with plastic
tanks....and both rads performed exactly the same 198 degrees or slightly higher.
This rad I have in there now is just as wide but 4 inches shorter AND the aluminum
tubes are only .75" wide where the 3.4L big rad is whopping 1.2" wide so that would
seem to be a significant loss in cooling power but I just don't see it happening. It's
really good to have a scanguage2 to track those degree changes in water temps....
and tranny cooler temps
So I cut the knuckles off tonight. I got lucky I think.....not hardly a nick from cutting too deep.
So I picked up on the technique that someone else did......and I cut not on the weld but just
behind it and I think that was a very good idea. I ran masking tape all the way around the
tube keeping it as straight as possible to get a nice straight line. It worked too.
Then I used a 4.5" cutting wheel and cut just about 3/16" into it all the way around. I could
feel the grinder grabbing a bit different when I reached the tube inside.
I used a chisel and hammer and was able to see separation. I'm banging
against the original weld so nothing is being damaged.
God bless America! Success!
Cleaned it up with the flapper and also a high speed wire wheel.
Hardly a nick.
Thickness of the housing is just about 3/16".
Outside diameter is 3.150"
The outer dia of the knuckle insert is close to 2.760" (2 3/4")
Amazing. I so want to do this now with mine. Well done sir, great technique!!
Time will tell with that radiator, like you said, on a good hot summer day OR on the slow moving trail time may make the difference. I know on my rig, I get better cooling efficiency at slow speeds than on the highway. I chalk that up to all the crap I have in front of the grill....:/
Last edited by BigBluePile; 11-12-2014 at 10:54 PM.
Reason: Ugh...I suk at schpellingz
gonna pick one of those grinders up. they seem to get a mixed review at HF but with the exchange policy it should be fine. $45 on sale right now, with a 20% off coupon it will make it a great deal.
Passenger side...PITA to get all that stuff off but now it might be the point of no return. Notice the
radiator is level or slightly ABOVE the frame bottom
This is where the rack and pinion used to live....anyone need a rack?
This is the side I will be mainly working on. Got some ideas for avoiding a box mounting kit(with the 3
tubes that go thru the frame)
Torching off the brackets....one at a time. Guess I am committed now
Got into the upper part of the motor mount a small amount and will fix that. It appears I have enough
room to actually run a MIG weld all the way down the MM bracket on both sides and that is a very
good idea with the reputation these MM's have with caving in at the bottom of the frame.
Good Sunday morning-
Here's a shot of the passenger side....
Here's the driver's side. Now to do clean-up on the slag on frame. As much trouble as it was to
cut the 3 large brackets off(plus 1 smaller one on the inside), I considered the path of cutting 42"
of actual frame off.....almost back to the major cab mount. There's only 2 things secured to that
slab of frame.....motor mount and frontal body mount.
I hope one of the SAS suppliers reads this and considers doing just that. Get a much stronger frame
up front and the motor mount issue could be fixed. There's a transition in the frame strength during
those 42 inches.....the frame horn end is a tiny 3" x 2".......and closer the the cab mount it's
5 1/4" x 2 3/4". Maybe a nice solid chunk of rectangular tube of about 5" x 2".....and a wall
thickness of .188" ......250" might be a bit overkill.
EDIT---After looking at the way the steering box mounts and clearances from the pitman up to the steering sector input shaft, I would say 4x2 rectangular tubing would fit
much nicer.....up to 1/4" wall thickness is not a bad idea......9-18-2015
11-08-2014, 11:29 AM
or maybe I should be
