Dan it was the core thickness I was concerned with since the stuff I need to make room for (intake and winch) is only affected by the middle of the rad. I ended up buying a 2 row aluminum 24x19. It is a big bastard and could easily cool a V8. No A/C either.

What did you use to cut the hole for your shroud? I ended up buying .083 (14ga I think) steel instead of aluminum since it was cheap. I am building a jig to make my torch cut circles, but I bet a jigsaw would work.

I used a RotoZip with a circle cutting attachment. 14ga steel would be too much for it I think. An air body saw would work good too I think.

--Dan

Made some room in the engine bay for some long travel shocks. Cut about 4" from each inner fender.



Built a shroud for my Taurus fan. Got some ideas from Dan H's article located here. Of course threw out all the good ideas, haha.. Not the prettiest thing I have ever built but it should work.

I couldn't find any aluminum sheet, then again I didn't look very hard and just bought some scrap metal sheet, 3/32 (or 16 ga I think).

I cut the fan housing off and found preheating the plastic with a torch then heating a razor blade and cutting it through worked much better than a cut off wheel. Then I traced the housing on the sheet.


Now how to cut a circle... Too thick for any tools that I own except the torch. So I built a jig like I have seen used for cutting circles. .




It worked, but not very nicely. I had to use the grinder to clean it up. I really feel confident in most of the other metal processes but just can't get the torch to do what I want to sometimes...

1/8" x2" strip top and bottom




Bent up some scrap 26 ga in my vise for the sides.


Some construction sealant/adhesive on it and called it done. I tried a poly based one and a vinyl based one I had. We'll see if it holds up or falls off in time. Also riveted/screwed some brackets of 3/4" aluminum angle.





Not pretty but it should do the job. I'll throw on some weatherstripping when it fully dries but as-is the metal is very tightly sealing the fan to the radiator.

It looks like your shroud fits really nice. I hope you didn't forget to leave room for the hose to slip over the nipples???

The in/out of the radiator shouldn't be a problem with the shroud.

However, the thermostat housing might be an issue since I'm using that rubber elbow. In this pic it doesn't look like there will be a big problem but that is only because the elbow is rotated upwards. trying to make the intake have few bends as possible... Can you check if the older camaro 3.8 that you have has a different thermostat housing than the drive-by-wire one like I have?




The inset is a 3800 supercharged housing which looks like it would bolt up to my manifold and point downwards.

I think when it comes time to do your swap and you want to do an aftermarket radiator, it might be easier to plumb reverse setup radiator than mine. Might be easier to run the top pipe across the fan since there will be more room than trying to deal with the top pipe and the intake.

Let me know if they are different.

It looks like my thermostat housing is the same as yours, I may wind up finding one of the SC outlets like you have. From the looks of it, it should turn it downwards just about perfect to clear the intake plumbing.

Thanks for the warning on the piping, perhaps I'll have a "double pass" radiator built so I can run both inlet and outlet on the passenger's side where there's more room.

Do my eyes decieve me, or did you hack down your throttle body by chopping off the MAF portion??? I haven't really looked at mine for awhile, I've been distracted with other projects like setting up a lathe/mill/drill for doing machining on the 3800 project.

You're getting close and must be getting itchy to turn the key and make it run, I know I sure would be.

Cool, yeah I will put some pics up later of TB. I am rebuilding it with JB weld <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />. Might have to get a ring machined that is 3.5" OD and about 3.3" ID then fill in teh rest with JB weld but that is the next task.

Yeah crossflow radiators are pretty nice I bet you could run a tiny one with a nice fan and shroud and be all set.

Chris can you post a pic of the throttle cable bracket if your motor has one installed? I can't picture how it is setup since it seems you need to have the lines running straight down at the TB for it to work.

I can post a pic for you a little later today if you like. I just went and looked and the cables do run vertical to the throttle body. Not what I would exactly call a good thing for our application but it can always be worked around. How goes the JB weld sculpting???

The wise ass then says "Still need the pic of the bracket?"

I'll have to get creative with the throttle cables then... No the pic would just tell me what I already know now.