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Boom's 68 fastback

I have the serpentine kit mostly installed. I had some setbacks. Mainly that I needed to get a new balancer as the the one I had made everything stick out too far. Fingers crossed everything works when the new balancer gets in.

Been working on cleaning up and finishing some of the welds on the underside of the car.

Looks like I'm going to have to scrap my 8.8" rear axle plan or change it. The company I was going to go with (AJE) changed their design and now they require removing the rear shock crossmember. I'm not wanting to do that so back to the drawing board. Might default back to my original plan of going with the Streetortrack 3 link set-up. The only real reason I changed from that was that the 8.8 was newer, different, and considerably cheaper.

The next big part to save up for is the radiator. I've been leaning towards going with MTF's radiator. Its a custom Griffin radiator and fan combo. I have one in the coupe and its very nice. I have looked into a few other options, but by the time you get a decent radiator and then find some good fans and the wiring its not far off the price of this. I am open to suggestions though.

http://shop.mustangstofear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7_220&products_id=432

1372138959-00.jpg
 
I'm pretty much a broken record on this subject. Go with ECP for the radiator and put the rest of the stuff together one bit at at a time and you can likely put together something for half that price that is at least equal in performance. Nothing against buying from Rich but personally outside his very cool custom made pieces you can spend money more wisely. Hell, spend the money saved on something else he actually makes himself!
 
They have some nice options. I sent them an email as they currently show out of stock for the 25" model and I also asked if they offer a fan/shroud kit for it.

I have also looked at Champion radiators. I can find decent radiators for good prices, but I can't seem to find quality fans at a decent price. I've read about the contour fan and even looked up the pricing at one time.

Space also starts to be an issue with some set-ups. I only have just under 7" between the radiator support and the water pump pulley. That 22" ECP combo requires 7". Thats why I'm looking at set-ups with dual fans since they're not as think in the middle.
 
I am pretty impresses right now. I emailed ECP asking those questions a few hours ago and already got a reply on a Saturday evening. The 25" radiator is in stock and they have a kit with dual fans. He said to give him on call on Monday. Fingers crossed it'll fit.
 
I talked with Frank at ECP. I think I'm probably going to get their set-up here shortly after I get the serpentine set-up finished. A problem that I hadn't thought of before came to me earlier while measuring for clearance, I Don't know if I'll have enough room for the fans. Even if I do have enough room, will I be able to put a bar on the tensioner should I need to change the belt without pulling the radiator/fans out? I'll most likely be losing the fancy cover on the tensioner. We'll see, all I can do is wait and see when i test fit the radiator assembly.

I got my Scott Drake monte carlo bar in today. Test fit looks great. Just have to get some bolts for the top holes.

20180305_234654 by Brett, on Flickr
 
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I realize you are a long way from there but when the time comes I'd invest in a larger air cleaner. The one pictured cannot process the volume of air your engine will want. I ran the numbers when building my 347 and found a similar piece wasn't up to snuff. Truth be told, the one I ended up going to was better but still a bit short as well but clearance issues kinda forced my hand.
 
I was wondering about that myself. They make a 4" tall version of my filter, I just have to wait til I get the hood on to check for clearance.
 
Pulled a fan out of a Contour today, cleaned it up and tested the fans. So far all good. I am going to order the ECP radiator tomorrow. I don't have much room to work with between the pulleys so this seemed to be the slimmest, best option.
 
I finally got my radiator in. They originally sent me a radiator for a 67 C-10 by mistake. Had to work this weekend so it wasn't too big a deal. The radiator looks great. Only issue I have is figuring out the best way to mount this thing in the car. Its too thick for the saddle mounts, even with no pads. It looks to be just the perfect size so that drilling and mounting it to the support isn't super easy. Dag nabbit.

Should I try and make some adapters and use existing holes or get some spacers and bolts and mount straight to the support? That was my original plan but the curved area around the opening is right where the bolts would need to go.
 
I have the radiator mounted using some nylon spacers and bolts, I'm going to have to figure something better, but it's in for now. You can see how little room there is between the radiator and the engine pulleys.

20180326_214513 by Brett, on Flickr

So far I have to honestly say I would have a hard time recommending ECP to someone looking for a radiator for anything other then a complete hot rod, definitely not an OEM application. I was really disappointed to find out that it physically can not fit in the factory mounts, top or bottom. I feel that this should have been noted somewhere on the website. Hopefully I change my opinion once I get everything installed properly.

EDIT: I ordered what look like wider lower brackets. Fingers crossed they do the job.
 
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Grabber70Mach said:
You thought about cutting the saddle mounts and welding a piece in the center to make them wide enough?
Click to expand...

I have thought about that or bending them and re shaping them. I found what appears to be a wider version from Scott Drake so I'm going to wait and see, hopefully they're here by this weekend. I'll still need to figure out the top mount, but I just want to get the lower situated first so I can mock up the fan assembly and hoses.

Here's what the OEM mounts look like:
radb2_1.jpg

Here's what the ones I ordered look like, so hopefully this works:
radb11_2.490.jpg
 
Hope it does for you. I had to split the top and bottoms when we put a Griffin radiator in my friends 67 several years ago. I looked for pictures to show you bit can't find them.
 
I mounted my Contour fan to the radiator, I did a simple write up in another thread.

I needed to remove the billet cover from the tensioner. Its still really close, hopefully those lower mounts don't push the bottom out far or I'll have to modify them.

20180331_120933 by Brett, on Flickr
 
I have the lower mounts on. They are quite a bit wider then the stock mounts as you can see. They will work great.

20180405_173229 by Brett, on Flickr

Unfortunately, they don't have a wider mount available for the upper bracket. Which I find odd, but it shouldn't be too hard to make one. I plan to take the stock mount and cut through the middle where the hole is and then using flat steel welded in the top groove to extend the bracket as wide as needed.

2018-04-05_11-22-11 by Brett, on Flickr
 
When I did the one for my friend I cut in the same place. But took a stock bracket and cut out a section the width I needed and welded it in.

_____________________________
Never argue with a Moron. They'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
 
I've been working on getting the radiator hoses. Of course nothing off the shelf fit :rolleyes: The fan assembly cleaned up pretty nicely.

I needed to cut the upper hose to install the Gano filter. I am a bit worried about how close 1/8" to the accessory bracket.

20180411_223152 by Brett, on Flickr

20180411_223215 by Brett, on Flickr

The lower wasn't too hard to fit. I need to get a spring to go inside it though. I'm not sure if it needs trimmed a bit more or not, seems that it's in a bit of a bind.

20180411_223237 by Brett, on Flickr

20180411_223256 by Brett, on Flickr
 
It all looks really good. That last pic shows the lower fit best and I agree you can lose maybe a half inch or so on the rad end and the hose might be a bit happier but looks like it would function just fine as is.
 
Had a box come in today! I had to order a bunch more parts to go with these though, so they won't be getting installed anytime soon. I also have to send the brackets to get powdercoated.

20180413_140647 by Brett, on Flickr
 
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