Project 1977 F100 - New radiator + electric fan!

[ecomodded]

Originally Posted by bobo333

Be interesting to see what kind of mileage you gain from this, good job !

[bobo333]

Hi guys,

Got a new radiator and thermo fans from the wreckers yesterday, the stock rad is looking pretty sorry for itself and the mechanical fan is loud and obnoxious and power robbing so im giving both the boot for a setup from a Holden commodore (Pontiac G6?)

Out with the old:


Old vs new, pretty similar area but the Commodore one being newer, aluminium and with twin thermos it should cool better:


A lil bit of trimming was needed before i could make some brackets out of some chunky spare angle iron (slightly overkill lol)


Stock bolt to hold it on, and a hole drilled for the rubber mount on the bottom of the new one:


In she slides and locks into the rubber mounts:


Fills up the grill opening perfectly (grill block and airflow guides going in soon):


Bent up a couple more steel brackets to hold the top mounts (still need to put rubber grommets in these)




and voila!


While i had the engine bay apart i replaced the senders for the oil pressure and water temp gauges:




Next i have to put a couple of switches and relays in and wire up the thermos, then sort out some piping and shes good to go!

Thanks for looking

[Sporty Modder]

Very nice, loving your truck.

[Big Dave]

Nice work, but I'm afraid you won't see much MPG improvement until you address your rear axle ratio.

[ron]

1st, you rely on the truck(all mechanicals)2nd where you live(the cab)3rd How it looks rust repair /paint , 4th aero/mpg, For what its worth I always start with the mechanics of the beast (1). then its what ever you want next and in this day and age its fuel economy.In my mind you are doing it correctly. nice build, good going.

[bobo333]

Thanks for the kind words guys, Im going to look at a friends F100 tommorow for a potential gearing swap, his is a '75 ex ambulance and has a 5 speed gearbox of some kind so if its ok and if the rear end ratio is higher then mine i will swap them over.

Continuing the radiator swap today i found that the stock top hose conveniently fit on the bottom of the new rad, just needed a lil extension to get it over the bigger inlet on the water pump (steel sleeve inside then hose clamp on top to hold it together)


Then went to the local parts store and found that the bottom hose from an earlier model Commodore was close enough for the top, i also noticed that there was no thermostat when i pulled the top hose off and the gasket was just silicone so i got both of them too. i had to relocate the coil to fit the new hose on as it wasnt quite tall enough but no biggie.


After getting it all together and filling it up (just tap water for now to make sure everything was good) i started it up and found that my oil pressure and water temp gauges work perfectly with the new senders.

Unfortunately the engine wasn't quite running right though, i thought i must be low on fuel so i babied it to the servo and filled up, but then it ran like crap still on the way back, coughing and spluttering and stalling








i opened the bonnet to figure out what the hell i did wrong and found out why there was no thermostat...


Stupid LPG system had completely frozen up, after a lil while warming the engine up and pouring hot water over the vaporizer to defrost it everything came good and there was hot water running though all the places where it should

After that i wired up 2 relays for the thermofans, the smaller one i hooked up to the ignition so it comes on when i start the car and the other i wired to a switch in case it gets hot in traffic or something:


Now i need to take it apart again and pull the thermostat out, paint all the brackets holding the radiator in, clean it all up and put it back together, this time with proper coolant (once im sure there are no leaks or anything)

Thanks for looking

[bobo333]

Hi guys,

The other day i pulled everything back out, removed the thermostat and the mounts, then painted the mounts:


Put some rubber grommets in the top mounts, and reused the rubbers on the bottom mounts:




Then gave it a good flush before filling it up with coolant and distilled water.

As i expected it takes a fair bit longer to warm up with no thermostat, especially with the small fan going constantly, but after refilling last night for my second worst tank ever i decided that no thermostat is a bad idea with the new much more efficient radiator.

I have been talking to a few people and researching LPG setups and looking into way of running the piping so that there is hot water running through the vaporizer constantly to stop it freezing up, hopefully i can get the thermostat back in asap without freezing up the vaporiser.

Im also going to hook up a temp controlled switch to the first fan so it only comes on once its warmed up, the second fan il leave on the switch to use in case im stuck in traffic on a hot day or the temp switch screws up or something.

Today i also pulled out all of the dash wiring to tidy it up and add a few more wires for the thermofans and some other bits and bobs.

Thanks for lookin

[ron]

try running the heater hoses to the LPG system and put the thermostat back in, then you will have the best of both worlds and a control valve on the LPG system

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by ron

try running the heater hoses to the LPG system and put the thermostat back in, then you will have the best of both worlds and a control valve on the LPG system

Thats what I was going to say.

[vacationtime247]

After reading through these posts, one thing is clear. You definitely need to fix the suspension, alignment, brakes and tires. This is where you'll currently see the most gains. Perhaps invest in some lower springs that can also help carry a load.
VT247