Is a closed cooling system possible???

[midwestls]

Alright, heres a question. I want to use a radiator out of an Intrepid (if possible). They don't have a cap on them, you fill them from the overflow bottle. I've got the bottle to use, it has two aprox heater hose size hoses comeing out of it and I'm sure I can figure out where to put a bleeder or two. Question is, can we do this??? I've got lotsa Intrepid parts laying around so it's pretty easy for me to screw around and try new things and a radiator and cooling fans just happen to be handy and almost exact dimentions of my factory radiator except with almost twice as many cores.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

You will need to be sure the fill cap is the highest point in the system. However, I would just get the radiator out of a 3rd gen Camaro if you want to save weight. It's the same size, so you can use your Intrepid fans, but it's a bolt in and will probably be simpler and cheaper in the long run than the cost of making the Intrepid radiator work properly.

 

[midwestls]

Sounds simpler. Thanks. Does anyone need a good intrepid radiator? lol

 

[joe_padavano]

Alright, heres a question. I want to use a radiator out of an Intrepid (if possible). They don't have a cap on them, you fill them from the overflow bottle. I've got the bottle to use, it has two aprox heater hose size hoses comeing out of it and I'm sure I can figure out where to put a bleeder or two. Question is, can we do this??? I've got lotsa Intrepid parts laying around so it's pretty easy for me to screw around and try new things and a radiator and cooling fans just happen to be handy and almost exact dimentions of my factory radiator except with almost twice as many cores.

Actually, your concept is perfectly fine. The problem is that you can't use a plastic overflow tank for the fill. You need a pressure tank. Lots of cars use this system. Corvettes in the 60s, for example, had a pressure tank with the normal radiator fill cap. My 93 Allante is the same way. As noted, you just need to keep this pressure tank as the highest point in the system.

 

[Tony_SS]

Go to ricerZone and ask for a Radiator out of a 91 Z28. Or cross reference a Modine 951. They are all alum and are a drop in for G-Bodies. I ran one in an 84 Monte SS with a 406 and I never had an issue - worked out great.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I just weighed my Camaro aluminum radiator, and it is only 9.8 lbs. Compare that to a copper-brass 3 core which is almost twice as heavy.

 

[Tony_SS]

And it looks like one wide core that equals a typical 3 core brass.

 

[R/T kota]

On my dakota, there is a filler cap on the upper rad hose.
You could adapt one like that to your car and be able to use that intreped rad.

Not my truck, just a pic a stole from the web

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

And it looks like one wide core that equals a typical 3 core brass.

I was thinking the same thing. Only, it looks like the one core aluminum may hold more volume because end to end the core may be the same width, but it is not broken into 3 sections, so it may be more efficient.