Camaro Cooling
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From: Ottawa, Canada
Camaro Cooling
I know much has been written about improving Camaro cooling sytems but thought I'd share my experience. I have a 67 with a potent 496 with 13 to 1 compression that was always hard to keep cool in mild weather and in limited traffic conditions. Yes I had the prerequisite aluminum rad and twin cooling fans and all the ususal "tricks" to keep cool.
I wanted to upgrade the an even more potent 582 cu in with nitrous so I thought I'd contact most manufacturers of water pumps and radiators and not only ask them to recite the info that I could read on the internet but what made their product more suitable for my circumstances.
Without going into the details from everyones input I'll keep to what brought me to my end result. When I contacted one of the reputable electric water pump manufacturer which makes one of the higher flow pumps they recommended I contact Ron Davis Racing Radiators. This was the best advise anyone could have given me.
I must have spent over an hour on the phone with Bill at Ron Davis. The short version of my research was that advertised water pump flow has little to do with cooling. Flow and pressure is what is important. The comparison he made was that the stats are with no pressure or resistance. Add pressure and internal resistance in the engine and the flow capacity of electrics drops drastically. He recommended either the GM high performance mechanical or the Edelbrock mechanical.
When I questioned the use of mechanical versus eletric he came up with two good points. Right or wrong, you decide. One, electrics were originally designed for racing at high rpm and high mph. Valid or not I`m not going to argue. Two, almost every car manufacturer uses electric fuel pumps but have sticked with mechanical waper pumps. They have the technology but do not use it for a reason. Ron Davis had nothing to gain as they do not sell water pumps.
What really impressed me was they offered for radiators. Many things impressed me. 15 cooling fins per inch versus the average of 9 for most others. Full aluminum welded with large capacity tanks and a shroud construction second to none. Full one inch tubes. Thirteen inch cooling fans versus 11 inch on most others with over 3000 cfm of air flow. I was not looking at price but I was pleasantly surprised that they were priced over $1200.00 LESS than a competing product that shall remain nameless. I want to be cool about this.
I ordered the rad, see attached pictures. Once I received the rad I knew that I would have paid much more regardless. The quality is way above and beyond anything I`ve seen. The shroud is built to have 0 air leakage. ALL of the air must go through the rad instead of bleeding by air gaps. The overflow tank which is also aluminum and fitted between the two cooling fans is a beautifull piece of engineering. The whole package is a work of art and the welds and fittings perfect. All this and it cools a 1000 hp engine and bolts right up to the factory mounting holes.
Right or wrong, like it or not this is my two cents.
I wanted to upgrade the an even more potent 582 cu in with nitrous so I thought I'd contact most manufacturers of water pumps and radiators and not only ask them to recite the info that I could read on the internet but what made their product more suitable for my circumstances.
Without going into the details from everyones input I'll keep to what brought me to my end result. When I contacted one of the reputable electric water pump manufacturer which makes one of the higher flow pumps they recommended I contact Ron Davis Racing Radiators. This was the best advise anyone could have given me.
I must have spent over an hour on the phone with Bill at Ron Davis. The short version of my research was that advertised water pump flow has little to do with cooling. Flow and pressure is what is important. The comparison he made was that the stats are with no pressure or resistance. Add pressure and internal resistance in the engine and the flow capacity of electrics drops drastically. He recommended either the GM high performance mechanical or the Edelbrock mechanical.
When I questioned the use of mechanical versus eletric he came up with two good points. Right or wrong, you decide. One, electrics were originally designed for racing at high rpm and high mph. Valid or not I`m not going to argue. Two, almost every car manufacturer uses electric fuel pumps but have sticked with mechanical waper pumps. They have the technology but do not use it for a reason. Ron Davis had nothing to gain as they do not sell water pumps.
What really impressed me was they offered for radiators. Many things impressed me. 15 cooling fins per inch versus the average of 9 for most others. Full aluminum welded with large capacity tanks and a shroud construction second to none. Full one inch tubes. Thirteen inch cooling fans versus 11 inch on most others with over 3000 cfm of air flow. I was not looking at price but I was pleasantly surprised that they were priced over $1200.00 LESS than a competing product that shall remain nameless. I want to be cool about this.
I ordered the rad, see attached pictures. Once I received the rad I knew that I would have paid much more regardless. The quality is way above and beyond anything I`ve seen. The shroud is built to have 0 air leakage. ALL of the air must go through the rad instead of bleeding by air gaps. The overflow tank which is also aluminum and fitted between the two cooling fans is a beautifull piece of engineering. The whole package is a work of art and the welds and fittings perfect. All this and it cools a 1000 hp engine and bolts right up to the factory mounting holes.
Right or wrong, like it or not this is my two cents.
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