Hey Guys, i currently have a 3.8 in my cutlass its an 1984, i'm in the process of gathering all the information and parts to do a 350 SBC swap. Anyway my question is can i buy a radiator for a V8 car and use it with my V6 for the time being? I just think it would be dumb to buy two radiators. Thanks.
Are V6 and V8 radiators the same legenth??
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I did mine that way, but it required a longer top hose. You will also want to get the rubber feet for the V8 radiator as the ones for a V6 are narrower. As for length in the core support, they are a few inches longer for a V8. You will have to remove the block off plate that covers the excess hole in the core support to fit the V8 radiator, but it is only held in by 2 9/32 screws.
sorry to kind of steal the thread but I figured thois question would fit in pretty well....
I bought a brand new rad. for my V6 thinking I was going to keep it, and I'm wondering if that same rad. will work with the V8 I plan on putting in(SBC). I have access to a V8 shroud if needed. The owner of the junkyard told me to ditch the fan clutch and just get a solid fan with no clutch for the v8 so it would be constantly sucking air... Do you guys think the v6 rad will still work??
I bought a brand new rad. for my V6 thinking I was going to keep it, and I'm wondering if that same rad. will work with the V8 I plan on putting in(SBC). I have access to a V8 shroud if needed. The owner of the junkyard told me to ditch the fan clutch and just get a solid fan with no clutch for the v8 so it would be constantly sucking air... Do you guys think the v6 rad will still work??
It's doubtful the thinner V6 radiator will keep up with the V8, and I wouldn't take the risk.
And don't ditch your fan clutch, get a new one and find a seven blade fan.
You will definately need the V8 shroud.
And don't ditch your fan clutch, get a new one and find a seven blade fan.
You will definately need the V8 shroud.
I wouldn't use a V6 radiator in a V8 unless it is a pure dragstrip only machine, or you live above the arctic circle. I even run an oversized radiator in my 4 cylinder pickup. You can never have too much cooling area, only too much weight. As for what the yard owner said, he was just trying to sell you a part. The fan does very little to cool the engine unless you are idling in traffic. At normal speeds, it is the air coming through the front of the car that cools the engine. If you do not have enough capacity, the radiator will not have the water in it long enough to properly cool it and you can overheat at highway speeds. I have done this before and it is not fun.
The way he talked it made sense. He said when they first came out with the fans with the clutch, he sold lots of engines because the clutch would stop the fan from spinning whenever it kicked in or whatever, and the engine would overheat. He said those were the years he sold the most motors. He did that fan swap to all of his cars, so IDK.
I guess I saw logic that whenever the car is running, the fan will always be pulling air through the radiator, instead of switching on and off or whatever the clutch does( I don't really know how the fan clutch works), so that air being pulled through added to the air flowing from just moving would provide enough cooling power.
damn, I spent $100 on that radiator and it has just been sitting in the car for like a year, and now I need a bigger Rad. (still not sure...might try it) so I just wasted $100. unless I can find a local buyer.
I guess I saw logic that whenever the car is running, the fan will always be pulling air through the radiator, instead of switching on and off or whatever the clutch does( I don't really know how the fan clutch works), so that air being pulled through added to the air flowing from just moving would provide enough cooling power.
damn, I spent $100 on that radiator and it has just been sitting in the car for like a year, and now I need a bigger Rad. (still not sure...might try it) so I just wasted $100. unless I can find a local buyer.
Well, the thing to learn about old timers is that a lot of them stopped using technologies when they were new 30 years ago, and have no experience with them now that they work right. That's why I give every bit of advice the sniff test to see if it is BS or not. Not only from older guys, but from younger ones as well. In the end, you can usually discern what is true, what is no longer true, and what has never been true. Just remember that engine cooling depends on more than one factor (air flow, capacity, coolant flow, time). There are plenty of old wive's tales you will encounter that are based purely on single experiences, conjecture, or rumor that in many cases are far from the whole truth of the matter.
I'm using a 70 Z28 radiator in my Monte. Everything was the same except the shroud, of course except the Camaro radiator was 1.25 inch's thicker. My car runs plenty cool (about 180-185)
The thing about a clutch fan vs. a solid fan is this...
A clutch fan will only really start pulling it full capacity of air when it needs to. At highway speeds, it will not spin directly with the engine, cause it doesn't need to. The benefits of this are less engine drag, and the biggest factor, noise. Solid fans are noisy, cause they're going all the time.
A solid fan is often a lazy fix for a worn fan clutch. It's a maintainence item that a lot of people overlook. I just bought a nice new clutch few years ago for my 442, now I just need to swap on my 7-blade fan.
A clutch fan will only really start pulling it full capacity of air when it needs to. At highway speeds, it will not spin directly with the engine, cause it doesn't need to. The benefits of this are less engine drag, and the biggest factor, noise. Solid fans are noisy, cause they're going all the time.
A solid fan is often a lazy fix for a worn fan clutch. It's a maintainence item that a lot of people overlook. I just bought a nice new clutch few years ago for my 442, now I just need to swap on my 7-blade fan.
Thanks for the info, i found a rad to work out of an 84 Monte its a brass tank 3core and best of all it was free 8) And the top shroud fit over it perfect.
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