Ah-ha! Now I know what I'm looking for. Thanks, bro' ... I'll be gettin' back to you on this.

PS - If it's a stock radiator, do you think it would be a good idea to install a new radiator with the trans cooler and steel lines?

Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

If your radiator is in decent shape your radiator shop can install a cooler in it. Lot less expensive.

Well, you were right, man. Stock radiator; no tranny cooler.

So what should it cost me to have one added? Couple hundred?

Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

that sounds way too high. I would be surprised if it was $100. But then I get surprised a lot lately.

I have a friend that does radiators. He usually charges about $35.00 to go into a radiator. Other than the cost of the cooler itself, I wouldn't expect it to be much more than that. They will only have to take the one tank off, put the holes in it, install the cooler, and put it back on. For me that would be a days work, and still leak. For someone that does radiators, it shouldn't take an hour total.

Very cool! Sounds like a "must do" to me!

Thanks, guys.

Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

Very cool! Sounds like a "must do" to me!

Thanks, guys.

PS - The weather is suppose to whack out this week and get real hot and humid here, so I'll be running the AC ... I'm wondering if this will cool things down enough -- the AC gets my temp up too high (or it did last time I was running it around town).

If not, then I'll be looking in the scrap yard for a shroud to install around my fan -- any tips about that? It's a simple install, right? What do I look for? Do I just measure things to match?

Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

I doubt you will find a shroud that fits. If you do, let me know - I'll be needing one soon myself.

As far as the heating problem with the air conditioning condenser goes, why not put in a remote condenser? That's what I do on all my cars so there isn't the extra radiator coil blocking and preheating my engine radiator. Foreign cars usually have an AC condenser coil located remote from radiator with a fan already mounted on it. Thus you can mount it anywhere in your car. On my '53 Chevy pickup I am going to try to mount it under the big pan behind the front bumper. May cut a hole in the pan and suck the air from thru the grille.

Re : The Shroud -- Can't find one that fits??? Why not? Isn't there something from the scrap yard? Or couldn't we make one somehow? I mean, it's just a "visor" kinda thang ...

Re : The Condenser -- Yeah ... I definitely don't want to take anything away from my engine radiator -- oh! I get it. The condenser for my AC sits in front of my radiator >> is THAT what makes the temp go UP when the AC is on??

Here's a photo of what's cooling my tranny ... you know, now that I look at it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to move it further away from that exhaust pipe, eh? And what about turning it more "into the wind" - every little bit helps, doesn't it? :



Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

The AC will definitely cause your engine to run hotter. AC compressors put out a lot of heat (several horsepower of pure heat) which all goes into the cooling stream of the air going thru your radiator. It raised the air temp probably 40F over ambient. The AC system (Rankine refrigeration cycle) MUST have the coolest air possible to prevent over pressuring your compressor and lunching its bearings. Conversely, your engine can usually withstand 30F or 40F rise in air temperature but it cuts down the margin of error. Auto engineers just took the easy, cheap way out by putting the condenser in front of the radiator but it sure isn't the best way. Foreign car engineers took the best approach by putting the two radiators side-by-side with their own fans and coolest possible air stream. By installing one of their remote condenser/fan modules, your engine and air conditioner should both work better. Probably can do away with the need for a shroud which is a hassle.

The reason you probably can't find a junk yard shroud that fits is that the shroud must closely fit the outside of the radiator core to allow air to be pulled through the entire core and the fan must be located exactly where the fan is on your truck. Blind luck if you find that. Plus Detroit designs a bunch of ugly into their units. If you decide you need a shroud, your best bet is an after market 'universal' unit like the one offered by Walker Radiator. See link below. These are vacuum-formed boxes that fit the radiator perimeter but don't have a fan hole cut in them yet so the installer can cut it in the proper place.


http://www.yogisinc.com/results.cfm?Brand=70

I put an auxillary tranny cooler on my cars using a ~10" x10" B&M radiator with a 10" puller electric fan attached. Put a 160F thermostatic fan switch in the feed oil line to the tranny. Your cooler could definitely be better positioned to catch cruising air flow but will still be ineffective at stoplights.

So now theoretically, could you rig some type of tubing or ducting to provide a constant flow of cooler air (while cruising that is) to run over your AC compressor? I know I could rig it up, but if what you are saying is true, doing this could lower the temp and give you back some HP while you are cruising. It still wouldn't do anything for stop and go traffic though.

No that wouldn't work. The surface area of the compressor is way too small to reject much heat. The high heat transfer surface area of the condenser is the best place to do the job. The problem is not the temperature in the compressor during compression; that is only a symptom. The real problem occurs when considering the difference in pressure and temperature ACROSS the compressor and that is almost totally controlled by the condenser. If you have an inefficient condenser, the flow going from it to the pressure drop valve is relatively high temperature. When the pressure drops across the valve, the cold fluid is also relatively high temperature. Your evaporator absorbs heat from the air in the car interior into the fluid evaporating it which goes back to the compressor hotter than it should. Thus to get the same cooling effect in your car, the compressor must work harder to compensate for the poor condenser performance.

Any AC shop will tell you to spend your time making the condenser as efficient as possible. Everything else is relatively less important.

Horvath.... Have you considered one of the electric fan set-ups. Some come with shrouds and would likely pull, or push more air thru the radiator and condensor. I have known people that have mounted smaller fans(Liek used on foreign cars) on the front of the condensor. You can make it come on when the A/C is on to force more air thru. Tou can get them fairly cheap, and they are easy to mount.
Just thought.

Looks like the easiest way around this is to do as you suggest, adtkart ... but I wonder how effective that is -- I've heard a lot of guys say the electric fans don't do much ... although they were talking about cooling the engine with an electric fan vs a mechanical fan.

Also, are any of these electric fans quieter than others?

This is a great thread for me -- I'm learning a lot!

Alan
54 Chevy Pickup

Just about any stock fan is better than an electric. Supplementing the stock fan with a small electric in front of the condenser is just a band-aid on the cancer. IMHO moving the condenser from in front of the radiator is the best solution - Lets the radiator radiate (actually it convects but that's splitting hairs) and the condenser condense at their best efficiencies.