help with correct radiator for 1st gen 396
 

Is there a specific radiator for use with the big block chev in the first gen Camaros?

My 68 started life with a small block. I bought it with a 66 396 installed on the small block engine mounts.

I dont know much about the radiator types that were used in these cars. Were they year specific, model specific, or engine specific?. I have am OEM style in now, but I doubt it is the original radiator from 1968.

Any views on the best radiator for this car and engine combination? I am looking for superior cooling as I live in a dry temperate climate with hot dry summers. No problems with freezing in winter, it doesnt get that cold.

I see a lot of aluminum radiators being used with eletric fans, are these so much better than OEM types? Any maintenance or durability issues with either?

any input appreciated

Les

first off how did they get the big block to fit with small block mounts? as far as i know you cant do that. you have to change the mounts to big block.

second do you car about original looks? if not then an aluminum unit would be the way to go for better cooling. i dont see a need to run electric fans if your current mechanical one works fine. the best mechanicals are the flex fans. all of our cars except one run mechanical with no problems. our 33 ford has both mechanical and electrical due to the hood sides dont allow heat to escape so the electric pulls air then the mechanical pushes it over the motor. the electric is also on a switch to turn on only when needed witch is in traffic.

yeah, the mounts. now I think about it they may have been a hacked up set of big block mounts, but they had been bolted to the subframe, and the engine was set back about an inch and a half, which had the distributor just touching the firewall. I obtained a new set of big block mounts and welded them into the correct position. It shifted the engine forward, and I got a new trans mount, fitted that to set the engine and trans properly, factory settings. It was a bit of a hack job by the previous owner. I have replaced a lot of things that were not correct on this car, over time.
I am not restoring it to factory spec for 68, so I dont care about the appearance of the radiator, I only want the most efficient cooling system. What I dont know is how the aluminum radiators perform in comparison to the OEM, and if there are durability problems. I have an original style mechanical fan and shroud, and it seems to work fine. I dont know if there is a particular size or core spec for a radiator for a big block. I doubt the fellow who put the engine in my car bothered to match the radiator, as so many other things were done in a shoddy manner, like the engine mounts.
The aluminum radiators are available, so I am asking if anyone has done the swap and had any words of wisdom from the experience. If they run the cooling system more efficiently, and reduce some weight, all the better.

aluminum radiator will fit right in place with out any mods,having a big block in a camaro with a hot cam i would suggest electric fans for sure, you will never have to worry about over heating, i had to do the same
www.griffinrad.com
www.dewitts.com

if going to electric fans i would rig up some sort of light indicator or something that shows (hopefully) that the fans are working. thats the last thing needed it have the motor overheat casue the fans didnt kick on. that happened this summer to a buddy in his 32 ford coupe. the electric fans never kicked on the car shot to 230 in a matter of seconds waiting to get into a car show. it got hot enough that once he shut the motor off it would not refire untill it cooled. so putting in some sort of indicator would be a good idea. I would run a mechanical clutch fan personally on the car

Interesting to find that 1st gen Camaros wont allow a big block to bolt into the smallblock motor mounts. 2nd Gens allow a big block to bolt right in with no mods needed to the smallblock mounts.

A good aluminum radiator will cool better than an OEM style, and they make direct pop in ones like the ones shown above. I prefer electric fan(s) and converted mine from belt driven for a few reasons; less swung weight on the water pump, less h.p. drag on the engine, no worries about breaking a fan at high rpm's, and no danger "under the hood" with a belt driven finger grabber. I have my fan mechanically switched, and only need it when in traffic. The rest of the time, the fan and engine are free-wheeling. I have a two fan setup yet to install, and it includes a temperature switch to kick the fans on at a preset temp (just in case you are the aforementioned type that doesn't pay attention the your gauges).

It can at certain times, provided the valve covers don't get in the way of your brake booster, or the headers in the way of the power steering box. As he also mentioned, the distributor was against the firewall. The BB mounts not only rocks the engine over to the right a little, they also slide the engine forward for more firewall clearance.

thanks all, very good information. I checked on Griffins site, and de Witts. It seems a 2 core aluminum radiator has superior cooling over the brass/copper, for street setups and I do have a big block, so I am leaning to an electric fan setup, since it gives most of the protection when idling in traffic, and that is going to be unavoidable where I live. I will have the electric fans triggered by a temp sensor, but I will have a manual switch as well, just in case.
I have installed a/c, and a moderate cam, and will be putting some alloy heads on in Jan/Feb, so I need to cover the increased heat with a better cooling system. I have a aluminum big flow mechanical water pump, and also got the March serpentine system with 'increased cooling' as opposed to 'increased hp' I guess it ups the mechanical fan speed by using a larger drive pulley dia.
Pretty much trying everything to ensure I avoid overheating issues. I coated the headers with ceramic to get some more heat out of the engine bay. Not sure if that really works, it seems to me the headers are still plenty hot.
Thanks for the replies. I will be hunting down a good radiator today. 2 core ally, trans cooler lines, thermo-electric fans.
Les

A 2 core aluminum is what I have in my BB Camaro, but be sure it's two 1" cores, and not two 1/2" cores! ome of the smallblock rated radiators have two small cores. The two 1" cores work better than four 1/2" cores. I see some sellers offering 4 row, but those are the 1/2" rows.
Mine runs 165 degrees all the time!