How many rows is best?

[olds307 and 403]

Nice choice on the motor👍. Go with a 2 core aluminum with 1"+ wide cores for a radiator. The Dodge Stratus fans fit quite well.

 

[JAMCAR223]

Champion CC162 3 core radiator with Dodge Intrepid electric fans, and a stock replacement water pump on my Turbo car. In Houston, Texas the car runs 172 on the freeway, 185 in stop n go traffic, and 195 with the A/C on. I have the rubber flaps to "box in", and direct the airflow into the radiator. I also use distilled water. This setup has served me well. The radiator is about $260 shipped. Has a limited lifetime warranty, and comes with a 13lb cap

 

[scoti]

Champion CC162 3 core radiator with Dodge Intrepid electric fans, and a stock replacement water pump on my Turbo car. In Houston, Texas the car runs 172 on the freeway, 185 in stop n go traffic, and 195 with the A/C on. I have the rubber flaps to "box in", and direct the airflow into the radiator. I also use distilled water. This setup has served me well. The radiator is about $260 shipped. Has a limited lifetime warranty, and comes with a 13lb cap

JY or store bought fans?

 

[Metzger82]

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. I don't know exactly how many rows the original radiator has but my car is an original Olds 260 with factory air conditioning if that means anything. To be honest I don't want to spend over $300 on a radiator and fans because the building of the Olds 350 alone is definitely not on the cheap side of things.

My hope and plan is something I can take to Norwalk, OH and do some passes down the track and be able to cruise it in the summer while attending car shows.

 

[scoti]

Factory set-up was probably 3-row copper/brass. A fresh set-up would prob work fine or you could upgrade to a 4-row copper/brass which was more common on HD set-ups @ that time. 18-19" mechanical fan w/a clutch would have been the HD items as well.

 

[gp471]

Besides tube size there are other factors such as materials and construction methods used. While brass and copper tranfers heat better than aluminum the solder does not. Aluminum welds tranfers heat much better than solder. Larger tubes have more surface area to dissipate heat. Larger tubes combined with few rows increases airflow through the radiator.

One HP is equal to 42.44 BTUs per minute and is generally 1/3 of the heat the engine produces from burning fuel. Another 1/3 of the heat goes out as hot exhaust, the last 1/3 goes out as waste heat from the radiator. Burning 900 HP worth of fuel will only get you about 300HP.

If you know the amount of fuel your engine will consume, then you can figure out how many BTUs that will produce and compute the expected waste heat through the radiator. Then choose a radiator by its BTU rating. One pound of gasoline produces 19,000 BTUs per minute. One gallon of gasoline weighs 5.92 pounds, so 5.92 x 19,000 = 112,480 BTUs per minute. So GPM X 112,480 ÷ 1/3 should give you a ballpark figure.

Besides the heat capacity of the radiator, you also need to be concerned with coolant flow and airflow. You want a low air pressure zone behind the radiator.

your input is amazing.spent 15 years recoring radiators.feel like the last of the dinosaurs.anyway when recoring a rad,race car,motorhome,hoped up trucks what ever.big tubes and close tube centers would do the job.small tubes on paper where suspose to work but didnt in the real world.but above all else i have never seen a raditor box say how many btus it was rated at.how does one get this info?

 

[JAMCAR223]

JY or store bought fans?

I bought new ones. I couldn't find a clean setup in the J yard that was nice enough for my car.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

your input is amazing.spent 15 years recoring radiators.feel like the last of the dinosaurs.anyway when recoring a rad,race car,motorhome,hoped up trucks what ever.big tubes and close tube centers would do the job.small tubes on paper where suspose to work but didnt in the real world.but above all else i have never seen a raditor box say how many btus it was rated at.how does one get this info?

Reading stuff online. http://www.epi-eng.com/piston_engine_technology/thermal_efficiency.htm

 

[Ugly1]

Nice choice on the motor👍. Go with a 2 core aluminum with 1"+ wide cores for a radiator. The Dodge Stratus fans fit quite well.

No issues with cooling? Where did you put the sensor for the fans? In the intake or in the head. Only other way is an aftermarket thermocouple in the fins of coarse. Also where did you place the relays under the hood or inside the cabin to stop the moisture corrosion? I can get my hands on those fans easily is why I ask.

 

[Ugly1]

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. I don't know exactly how many rows the original radiator has but my car is an original Olds 260 with factory air conditioning if that means anything. To be honest I don't want to spend over $300 on a radiator and fans because the building of the Olds 350 alone is definitely not on the cheap side of things.

My hope and plan is something I can take to Norwalk, OH and do some passes down the track and be able to cruise it in the summer while attending car shows.

The original radiator would have been a 26” 2 row copper and brass with that setup. I can look it up in my old radiator books but that was the most common.