Another one bites the dust.. :( alum...

[ntsqd]

Somewhere you mentioned that the engine cage structure defines the max size of the radiator, did I read that correctly? Can we have a pic of this?

By radically offsetting to the PS I determined that width-wise I could get the radiator from a Square Body GM truck in the Bronc-up. The RS tank would end up slightly behind the headlight bucket. Height was still the unknown, I needed to remove the existing radiator & it's mounts before I could determine if the height would work. There are two heights of those radiators. My sample is the tall version, of course.

 

[nvrstuk]

Moving the axle forward only an inch and a 1/2 and not running full width, really limits with 40 inch tires
what, if anything can stick out past the frame rails.
 I was already rubbing the power steering box and pitman arm on the driver's side, so that's how close I am.

i am working on some other stuff right now as I can run around town without any issues without the cap down tight creating 13lbs of pressure. That is helping for now.

all of the radiators have failed on the passenger side between the tank and the core, whether it be down at the bottom, our up towards the top.

Rad hangs over the inside of the frame rail on the DS 3/4" (towards the ps box) now & on the PS it is flush with the outside of the frame rail with the rad reservoir squeezed btw the rad tank & hdlight bucket and it just clears the PS tire at full stuff & turn.

i am thinking of adding a hoop at about the same radius as the headlight and see if I can fit it below the headlight between the vertical tube next to my radiator in case I am getting some flexing in my radiator support.

 

[nvrstuk]

The frame is not mounted to my
Tubed front end, except in the middle at the top, which should allow the frame on either side when flexing to move up (if it does) and not push up against a top corner mount since there aren't any.

The radiator slides easily side to side appr 3/16".

Maybe the 3 inch by 2 and a 1/2 inch upper mount should have more soft foam underneath it, so if either frame rail moves up or down it would allow the frame to twist and the radiator could rock without putting any bind on the tanks on either side. Just picture a triangle with the bottom line of the triangle being the solid mount of my radiator and the very top point of that triangle being the pivot with more soft foam underneath it.
i'll try a short video.
I'll have to do two short videos.

 

[nvrstuk]

Here's some more video.

The bottom mount for the radiator is channel iron attached to both frame rails and then of course, the upper mt you saw in the video which is attached to the tubed front end. Wow, 37mb of video. Thx Jon!

 

[Yeller]

With all of the failures being in the same general area I wonder if your getting some twisting motion on the tank between the hose, tube Suport and frame. I have the next size down of the unit you are running and it’s been happy for over 10 years, and has been leaned on vertically enough to bow the core, my fault, I crashed the truck. But the chassis is that truck is extremely rigid. The truck that I had issues with taught me that radiators are very sensitive to any twisting or racking motion, killed 3 of them before I figured out a solution that works, it actually rattles around a small amount. It is better secured but reminds me of a worn out Chevy clam shell mount the way it moves, but only has 3 points of contact that are slightly loose

 

[nvrstuk]

Got my local buddy Tim is using the next size down and he hasn't had any issues... yet.

I was wondering about any twisting hence the short video about the tubing under the headlight to possibly stiffen stuff up AND possibly making the upper center mount on the radiator shorter so it would if needed, allow either side of the radiator to pivot up a 1/4" or so more than it can now. Thicker sponge at that narrower point of contact would help also I would think.

I do twist this up a bit and I would imagine the fact that when I play around with a full 16" of travel that would add additional stresses to the frame compared to 12" let's say. (edit: that's 33% more). Maybe that's a contributor on mine in conjunction with other factors in the tube design, etc. hmmmm

 

[Oldtimer]

How flexible (not) is upper radiator hose when system is at 15psi?

 

[nvrstuk]

Never grabbed or checked the upper hose when hot & pressurized to check it's flexibility. Should be the same as every other upper hose on a SBF Bronco engine and like you said, probably not very flexible. Griffin and Ron at Ron Davis both said that the hoses "will keep the radiator in place" and both said they used my proposed way of mounting the radiator since there aren't any welded on brackets or custom mounts already welded into the tanks. That adds appr $150-200 to the cost.

 

[Madgyver]

i'm done with aluminum radiators. they all fail a week after the warranty expires.

 

[rocknhorse76]

Brian, come get that radiator from me and take a look at how mine is mounted. I used UHMW and foam on the top and bottom mounts. My radiator moves quite a bit. I have the next size down from yours in mine, but the other one is the same as yours.

 

[ba123]

Brian, come get that radiator from me and take a look at how mine is mounted. I used UHMW and foam on the top and bottom mounts. My radiator moves quite a bit. I have the next size down from yours in mine, but the other one is the same as yours.

I like how you mounted that. If I ever have any probs with my setup, I might try how you have it but so far so good.

 

[nvrstuk]

Ben, that's the same basic 3 pt mount design that I built in '17. Tim has more bracing in the headlight area than I have so I think I will try that as Tim's is working great and so is Steve's and mine isn't lol .

They have the narrower rad which in theory wouldn't move as much vertically for the same amount of frame twist but there's is working and mine isn't so.... I need to change something. I'll go look at Tims again after I pick up his radiator and see what I can do. The design I came up with works great but the only thing I can think of is I must have some flex that after a couple yrs of twisting up stresses the PS core to tank welds. All my failures are on the pass side but one was within an inch of the bottom, this one failed 1" from the top and the 2nd one failed I believe about 3" from the top (I can go to my build thread but at this point I don't think it's critical).

So road trip... least the front fenders and grill come off quickly now.

 

[ba123]

Yeah, I know it’s kinda the same but his rad top looks more like mine and mine is kinda too big for the top brackets I have on it and prob hold it too firlmy.

Here 's an old pic from while building but shows it well.

 

[rocknhorse76]

I like how you mounted that. If I ever have any probs with my setup, I might try how you have it but so far so good.

Let me know if you need more pics and/or measurements. Oh, and my radiator is a Griffin just like Brian’s. Just a few inches shorter in width.