Just curious, what's the advantage of using the SD rad in an OBS? I always though the OBS rad was way overkill...

 

Do I win anything?

 

^^^^want a cookie?

 

+1; to me, the cool fab would be one with a _smaller_ no-cap (to work with the degas bottle in our trucks) radiator, so we could use the IDI core support that's much more readily available in the aftermarket.

 

Nah, but I'd take a 6" skyjacker lift!

 

Chase, I'll send you a cookie if you want. LOL

I don't expect the SD radiator to help cooling too much, but hopefully it will help. Here's what I'm up to though..

One thing I'm doing is trying to get my oil temps down around 180-190* b/c my truck is dropping ICP like mad above 190*. It's not feasible for me to get dual Termys right now so it will quit dropping pressure, but my water pump went out last weekend so switching to the 180* t-stat from Joey should help me there. To do that I have to switch to the later model water pump which I'm doing right now.

The other thing I've been wanting to do for awhile and also the reason for the SD radiator is these...



I picked these up cheap, so I'm determined to get them working in an OBS and make the modifications something that anyone who can do an intercooler on an OBS can achieve. Once I'm done and they are working in the truck, I will try my best to do a write up with pics to show everything that was done. It still may not be a feasible mod for us since I'm changing radiators, but so far using this radiator has been EASY for the average Joe with a welder, grinder, and basic tools.

Also, the SD radiator core is about 2 1/2" taller than the OBS radiator core, so it should cool a little better, but I'm not sure how much better. I know when I'm towing, my coolant temps and oil temps will rise to around 225* at times and I don't like that. Some of y'all have even said that your temps get higher than that. Overall I'm hoping that the addition of the t-stat, larger radiator core, and fans will keep coolant and oil temps more stable. Currently my temps range between 200-225* depending on how hard I'm running it. I'd like to stabilize that a bit.

Oh and I should say that the easy way to do SD electric fans would be to cut the shroud across the top and bottom and shorten the shroud a bit and it looks like you could shorten them just enough to make them work and you would still have to notch the shroud for the upper radiator hose and the radiator drain valve for sure, but to do that correctly and without it looking like crap you would need a spool gun for a MIG welder or a TIG welder to mod the shroud and weld it back up. We have a TIG we could have done this with and done it right, but I went this route b/c I know not everyone has that option, so I wanted to see if we could do it this way. At least this way your not cutting up a set of $600+ fans hoping that it works.

 

I wish youd win the lottery man!

 

You and me both!

 

I know elec fans won't work for towing so how do think they will do when your running the chit of it ?

 

guess we will find out that fast when hes done because travis sure aint shy on gettin on the ol girl LOL

 

So the 203 degree t stat bad idea?

 

Had good luck running it in mine before the engine swap. Of course the truck was my DD and I don't really rail on the thing all that much. To each his own I suppose.

 

Electric fans WILL work for towing. How much? Not sure. These fans came off a good friend of mines SD and he used to tow around 10k-14k lbs with it almost everyday and had 400+hp. Never had a problem with cooling and could use the A/C whenever. No problems. So, if it will work in his SD, why won't it work for us? I'm very confident that it will not only work, but work well.

Anyone who knows me and judging by the comment below, even people who haven't met me face to face knows that I run the hell out of my trucks. Heck my F-150 has already burned half the tread off the back tires, burned some clutch, climbed some hills and hit some mud and the engine doesn't even have 100 miles on it yet. When I'm done I will load the F-150 up on the trailer and see what happens even though it has cooled off down here quite a bit now. A couple weeks ago with that load on a couple hills, my oil got up to 219* and that was it. Didn't get over that, but I have seen those same temps cruising at.... We'll just say 2800 RPMs rather than say how fast I was going... in the 100* heat here. That truck and trailer isn't a huge load, but that's about all I have to tow anymore.

You got that right. Unfortunately it's getting cool here, so the real test won't be until next summer. I will have several trips with my little truck lined up next year so the PSD will have tow duty to test the fans.

Not a bad idea. Being a '95, my truck has been running a 203* t-stat for almost 360k miles and never had an issue. I'm not changing it b/c it was hurting anything, just changing for personal preference. I don't like my temps getting that hot when I'm running the truck hard and I run it hard often... I'm probably not the only one who thinks this way either. The 203* actually makes the heater really nice and gets the truck warmed up a bit quicker it seems on the trucks we've swapped them into.

 

Do you know the cfm rating on them fans ?

 

The fans pull up to 6200 CFM and draw 28-36 amps according to the Flex-A-Lite website.