[1965gp]

I just put a cold case radiator and 12” fans in my 70 GTO. Extremely happy with the product, this is the second rad I have ordered from them.

Here is my question- what temp are you happy with driving around?

As a test to see how it did I took it out today since it was 95 and I went through a chick fil a drive through. I figured that would be a great test for it.

Quickly went to 180/190 then when I sat in the drive through it got to about 205, 210 by the time I was done. Drove a few miles home and it stayed at 210.

I guess since it didn’t go down on the drive home with additional flow I should expect it to peak around 210.

Being that I live in Houston I have the fans wired up to be on with the ignition. At a humid 95 deg I’m pretty happy with 210 in a drive through.

What are your thoughts?

[PunchT37]

Mine stays at 185 or less here in south Louisiana with the A/C on. 175 or less without A/C. 160 thermostat in a 463 cube. Cold Case with 19" clutch fan.

[Tom Vaught]

a 160 T-Stat for me with two 1/8" holes in the ring to get rid of trapped air.

Tom V.

[MUSLCAH]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

a 160 T-Stat for me with two 1/8" holes in the ring to get rid of trapped air.

Tom V.

Got a pic of that… sounds good !

[Chris65LeMans]

Before you start throwing money and parts at it, work on the stuff you can do for free by turning wrenches:

A. water pump clearanced?
B. What does your tune look like?

[geeteeohguy]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

Before you start throwing money and parts at it, work on the stuff you can do for free by turning wrenches:

A. water pump clearanced?
B. What does your tune look like?

Excellent advice, and A is the place to start when you have ANY hot running concerns. Eliminate/verify pump clearance problems before you do anything else if you want to save a ton of time, and a ton of money.

I run 160 T stat's in both my GTO's as it is over 100 degrees many, many days a year where I live. Since I got a Lectric Limited temp sensor, my '65 GTO runs 185-195 with the original Harrison 4 row tripower radiator, fan shroud, and upgraded 19.5" GM clutch fan. My '67 Convertible about the same, with the original Harrison 4 row HD radiator and an 18" GM flex fan off of a '69 Caddy. These cars will run tens of thousands of miles at 220 degrees with no harm at all....as long as they don't detonate. I've found Pontiacs running at 180-190 are less likely to rattle than ones running 210-220.

[Formulajones]

Just an FYI with that cold case dual electric fan setup....

Even running on the highway wouldn't cool the car down. Once it heats up, it stays up there, the fans come on and never shut down.. That was my experience when dad tried that setup. I had the fans set to come on at 185, they would come on, even on the highway, and the temps would push 200 and stay up there going 65 mph.

Once those electric fans came off, the stock shroud went on with a stock 7 blade clutch fan, all that stopped, now can't even get the car hot.

To put it simply, the only conclusion one can come to with a back to back test like that is the Cold Case dual electric fan setup just did not allow enough air to pass through the radiator, even at highway speeds. I even tried cutting rectangular holes in the aluminum shroud, covered with rubber flaps that in theory should open at highway speeds, and suck shut when the fans come on.

No dice, didn't work either. I simply couldn't cut enough holes that were big enough to do any good without being a total eye sore to look at.

[GTOGEORGE]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

I just put a cold case radiator and 12” fans in my 70 GTO. Extremely happy with the product, this is the second rad I have ordered from them.

Here is my question- what temp are you happy with driving around?

As a test to see how it did I took it out today since it was 95 and I went through a chick fil a drive through. I figured that would be a great test for it.

Quickly went to 180/190 then when I sat in the drive through it got to about 205, 210 by the time I was done. Drove a few miles home and it stayed at 210.

I guess since it didn’t go down on the drive home with additional flow I should expect it to peak around 210.

Being that I live in Houston I have the fans wired up to be on with the ignition. At a humid 95 deg I’m pretty happy with 210 in a drive through.

What are your thoughts?

I’m thinking at 95 your good, that’s about what my wife’s blown ta runs at.


GTO George

[1965gp]

I may swap out the thermostat with one that has some holes drilled in it.

Thanks for the input.

How do you get your car to keep running at 175? That seems very cool in southern LA?

[ZeGermanHam]

Those temps aren't wildly out of what I'd expect to see while idling in 95F ambient weather, but it would be nice to see the water temp come down to under 200F once you got moving again. I generally don't like electric fans, though. Probably about 95% of the time I see people installing them in such a way that at best they won't make any cooling improvements over a properly set up clutch fan + shroud, and at worst they actually hurt cooling performance.

[GTO JONES]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

I just put a cold case radiator and 12” fans in my 70 GTO. Extremely happy with the product, this is the second rad I have ordered from them.

Here is my question- what temp are you happy with driving around?

As a test to see how it did I took it out today since it was 95 and I went through a chick fil a drive through. I figured that would be a great test for it.

Quickly went to 180/190 then when I sat in the drive through it got to about 205, 210 by the time I was done. Drove a few miles home and it stayed at 210.

I guess since it didn’t go down on the drive home with additional flow I should expect it to peak around 210.

Being that I live in Houston I have the fans wired up to be on with the ignition. At a humid 95 deg I’m pretty happy with 210 in a drive through.

What are your thoughts?

Get rid of the cold case shroud and fans, the radiator with 1 1/4" tube is great. I went through the same thing, put the stock shroud and a clutch fan back on. I have 571 cu in Pontiac and run a 160 thermostat there shroud is flat against the radiator and fans can't move enough air. I was running 190 to 200 + put the stock shroud and I think its a 19" hd clutch fan back on and now its 165 to 175.

[Scott65]

Short answer, I think you won't hurt anything at 210. All the modern cars run over 200 it seems, and they achieve long life. Also being in Houston, I understand your concerns. Mine won't top 194, and most of the time stays below 187. I went to a 170 degree thermostat so that in the winter it doesn't drop down below my warm up enrichment settings, which is 160. With a 160 thermostat it would drop to 155 in the winter... I have an aluminum radiator, with 2 1" tubes, and dual electric fans. I don't remember their diameter, they're mid 90's Dodge Intrepid fans. Most of the year low speed will keep it 185 or less. But high speed is set to come on at 194, and that will happen occasionally in the hottest part of the year. High speed takes it back to the mid 180's and then it cycles back to low. The ECU has made a difference by allowing timing settings that wouldn't be possible with a distributor, and the ability to control the fans optimally.

[PunchT37]

Modern cars do run at 200 to 210. BUT, they don’t have carbs with low pressure fuel boiling problems. These carb’d engines need to be run cooler these days with pump piss.

[padgett]

Sure sounds like a clogged radiator to me, what does an IR gun say ?

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by PunchT37

Modern cars do run at 200 to 210. BUT, they don’t have carbs with low pressure fuel boiling problems. These carb’d engines need to be run cooler these days with pump piss.

Modern cars run at 210 because that's what the fan controller is programmed for.

The fan "controller" for the original poster comes on with the ignition. There's no excuse for engine coolant temp to be much higher than the thermostat rating AT IDLE OR CRUISE. (It would be higher under load.)

If the engine has already maxed-out the thermostat and cooling system under light load, there's no reserve capacity for operation under heavy load.






It takes a big-deal electric fan system to keep up with a pretty common OEM fan, clutch, and shroud system. Good electric fans do exist, but they're either taken from OEM-engineered vehicles at the Treasure Yard, or someone paid big money for an aftermarket system. Typical aftermarket fan setups are on the skimpy side; and the shrouds tend to either not fit well, and/or block airflow at higher speed.

[roger1]

I think GTOJones proved that the Coldcase shroud isn't a good design. He's convinced me to go to a Coldcase and use a stock shroud and clutched fan.

I am also not a proponent of drilling holes in a thermostat. Even two 1/8" holes are going to make it slow to warm up in the winter and potentially never get up to temperature. I've done it in the past and that was my experience.

[389]

455 Pontiac 160 Stant Super Stat with a 1/8" hold drilled into the base to let the air out when filling the radiator. I use a clutch fan with a top and bottom tank Champion all aluminum radiator. Never had any issues in 10+ years.. My engine stays between 160-180.. It has a 041 cam...

454 Chevrolet 160 Stant Super Stat 1/8" hole in the base, Champion side to side tank radiator. No shroud. Temps stay between 160 to 170 and never fluctuate rapidly. This motor is very stable and smooth. Being a Pontiac guy all these decades, I have to say, this Chevrolet big block is truly an amazingly well thought out engine...

[Formulajones]

What my father said in post #8 is right on the money. The Cold Case radiator is an excellent piece, we've used a few of them now. The dual electric fan setup however we struggled with. I came to the conclusion the unit was too shallow and it blocked too much radiator to allow air flow through the unit while moving. Once his car heated up it would never cool back down. Stock clutch fan and shroud back on the car and now it just doesn't get hot at all, never over 175. For an engine of that size and the HP it makes, that says something about the quality of that radiator and how well the stock fan setup will work especially here in Arizona.

As far as running 210, on a classic car that's just too high for my comfort zone. Our cars for starters push the pump gas limitations for the compressions we run. So it's imperative engine temps are kept under control.

Also at carburated fuel pressures, and todays fuels, vapor lock can be a real issue so again, keeping engine temps under control is a big player in keeping that in check.

Because of all that, and since we daily drive them throughout the year in the AZ heat, and can't have those types of issues, I keep our cars running on the cooler side of things. Typically, all the cars here either run a Cold Case Radiator or a Griffin radiator, they all have 160 stats, stock type clutch fan setups and factory shrouds. This seems to keep all the cars running in the 170-175 range even in the peak of summer when temps are 110+, whether it's a SBC, a BBC, or a Pontiac engine.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

Drove a few miles home and it stayed at 210.

Was the drive home on the highway, or on surface streets with stop lights and traffic? If it was the latter, the short distance combined with lower airflow at lower speed probably were why the temp didn't come down. I'll bet that if you were driving at a faster speed for more miles it would have dropped. Does the car have a/c? Of course that will make it run hotter too.

[1965gp]

I am going to take it out again and see what it does, perhaps I didn’t drive it far enough for it to cool back down.

The 210 makes me a little nervous as well (reason for the post), I’m okay if it gets to 210 sitting in a drive through for 15-20 min, but I want it to come back down.

What you are saying about the electric fan shroud makes a lot of sense- I may try that.