Under the hood modifications
Read MoreUPDATE - 7/18/2018: Notice how much of the condenser/radiator is above the rear edge of the hood latch bracket. After this picture was taken I mounted four Cadillac mid 80s four tone horns on that flange at the back of the bracket, blocking some air flow to the top of the condenser and radiator.! Scroll down below to see what I did to fix my cooling problems..
Now that the PS pump issues are over with, turning my attention back to finalizing the fans/radiator/condenser work. The holes in the fan mount plate will be covered with two FLAPS of 1/32 thick Buna-N.It's a very tough but flexible material. UPDATE: Buna-N falls apart just sitting on the bench for a few months. Got some Silicon Sheet material for the flaps. The purpose of the holes and flaps is that when sitting still or going slow, the flaps will be closed, but when up to speed, they will open and furnish maximum air flow in the corners where the fans AREN'T. There is a 1 inch clearance between the fans and the radiator inside the shroud.
THIS DID NOT WORK!.. the fan would not fit with the water pump pulley on the engine.. sold the 16" and got two 10" Spal fans...Going to have to do some work to fab up support. Don't like what I did first with the screws. Probably will be a DO OVER. That fan will not work. This one's for sale. Just ordered 2 - 10 inch SPAL fans to replace this one so the motors should clear. Eight and a half inch total thickness with this configuration. The problem for clearance should be solved with the two fans where the motors will be on either side of the water pump shaft, with one up high and one down lower. Fan shroud allows one inch clearance from the radiator fins. You can see the marking on the mounting plate for two fans. Anybody want to buy a brand new 16 inch puller fan?
All parts sandblasted, painted, and assembled. Will check the clearance between the OPEN flap condition and belts/pulleys before I decide to make the flaps TWO piece or ONE piece each. The holes on the lower left are not in a rectangular pattern because there is an angle iron (modified) support that is in the way of the flap there.
Decided to reroute the fresh air intake from the rear of the fresh air plenum (old fresh air for the cabin) to intersect the plenum closer to the front of the car. There is a screened intake port in the "radiator bulkhead" just behind the grille. This air intake does not take air from the wheel well, but from the front of the car.
Dakota Digital Cruise Control box/interface. Next to the box is the (not installed yet) transmission connector/transmitter to tell the "brains" the speed of the car. Tubing and blue wire in the upper part of the picture is the windshield washer tube, the "warm air feed" from the heater to the hood mounted tachometer to keep the glass from fogging up in cold weather and the tachometer signal wire.
After being a little concerned about temperature control I realized that three of the four 1987 El Dorado 4 tone horns were blocking some of the air flow to the condenser and radiator I decided to relocate them to the sides of the radiator. In addition I'm adding another 10 inch Spal Pusher fan with a separate thermostat and relay to help out the airflow. This is the driver's side. Not worried about paint..because you can't see the horns nor the brackets.
Passenger side horns relocated. You can see the transmission cooler along with 160 degree fluid temperature control valve just to the right of the horns. The control valve keeps the fluid running through the radiator cooler to help bring up the fluid temperature, but then when it reaches 160, it is diverted to the cooler in front of the radiator.
I also discovered that the floppy rubber gasket at the top of the air diverter on top of the radiator/condenser wasn't even touching the underside of the hood, allowing a huge amount of the "grille air" to go around the radiator/condenser at highway speeds. Fabricated this (shiny black) diverter to help force nearly all the air through the radiator/condenser while on the highway.
With the new fan and relocating the horns, the grill had to be chopped up a bit to clear everything. Don't worry, you can't even tell there's anything missing when it's installed...All 6 pieces of the grill have to go in at the same time, as the crossbars and the upper lip are screwed together at the ends and you can't get to the screws when in place.