November 10, 2010 - I've been thinking about the radiator.
My current one is huge - 20" high and 26" wide. It was the smallest one AFCO had that would work for me without going to a miniature Scirocco setup. I managed to squeeze it into the car, obviously, and it does still have 5" of ground clearance. But it came at a cost. The air intake is up against the top of the radiator and I'm having trouble figuring out how to mount a fan shroud that will sit far enough away from the core to be useful. Since it sits so low, I'll have to run the Special Tuning air dam instead of the original MG nose. That's probably a good thing for high-speed stability, but I'd prefer to have the choice.
Meanwhile, Flyin' Miata just came out with a radiator intended for Miatas with LS3 engines. It has the correct fittings on the correct sides of the rad. It's 25" wide by 15.5" high. The core design is more efficient than my current radiator so it will cool better, and there's a bolt-on fan kit available. I'll be able to mount it so that the bottom of the radiator is higher, the top of the radiator is lower and I might even gain a bit of room for an overflow tank.
It'll add to the cost - I need to buy fans anyhow, but I already have a radiator of course - and I'm going to tweak a couple of fittings on it, but I think the end result will work better.
tags: radiator |
THE DIARY