Major screw up with my fancy new radiator, any suggestions?

[doublekrossd]

So I've been working on a new drive line for my 66 belvedere for quite some time now. RB stroker, fancy new cope transmission, huge fuel system, all the good stuff. I was struggling trying to figure out how to keep this all cool because it will make a good amount of power and be 100% street driven, that's when I came across Scott at wizard cooling. These guys seem to really know their stuff! He asked me a few dimensions and we came up with one bad *** radiator that is supposed to bolt right in. Well, like an idiot I measured off of the crank pulley (because that's all that was on at the time) to the core support for thickness of radiator and gave him that number never thinking that the water pump would stick out another 1 1/2".

Well my uber expensive non returnable custom built radiator was delivered yesterday and to my surprise, it didn't fit. My stomach dropped, what the hell happened?! At this point, I don't know what to do. My only thought is to have someone cut the core support apart and move the rad forward and re-gusset the core support. Is this possible? I originally thought I'd order a remote mount pump but realized that wasn't gonna work since I still needed to mount the power steering and alternator on the water pump housing.

I have yet to talk to wizard, since its the weekend but I'm pretty sure there isn't much they can do, this is 100%my dumb *** mistake.

As far as quality and craftsmanship, this radiator looks like a work of art! Its awesome! 1.5"tubes, bolts right to factory locations, (well kinda), self sensing and adjusting brushless fans, built in recovery tank, built in shroud, oversized internal oil cooler, polished all fancy, just gorgeous.

Any help or body guys in my area (Michigan) would be greatly appreciated as I don't know what else to do.

 

[493 Mike]

DK,
Can you still use the remote mount pump and water pump housing with a flat blank-off plate in place of the pump?
Mike
White Cloud, MI

 

[doublekrossd]

Oh, yeah, maybe that would work! Ill check. Thank you

 

[doublekrossd]

If I just blocked off where the pump goes into the housing, would the coolant flow properly? I'm thinking that the pump itself acts as a flow "diverter"as well as a pump... remove the "diverter" and the water wouldn't be forced through the engine?

 

[493 Mike]

If you feed the pump housing through the suction/return where else can the coolant go? It will have no other path to return to the external pump inlet.
Mike

 

[doublekrossd]

I will certainly try it, thank you!

 

[mmissile]

PM sent. Call me.

 

[YY1]

Can you mount the rad on the other side of the core support?

I've seen that done several times.

 

[doublekrossd]

No, rad is way too thick to mount on the front of the support

 

[not so famous bob]

No, rad is way too thick to mount on the front of the support

what are the dimensions of it ?

 

[doublekrossd]

Little over 7"

 

[bm02tj]

cut out and remake supports donot alter the rad
or return and pay to have rad modified

 

[Fran Blacker]

Would radiator fit if you moved it so it's close to hood latch? If moved up that fat will you be able to close the hood without smashing the top of radiator? You'd have to cut the upper cross piece. Then fabricate how to mount it. Haven't seen a picture of this massive radiator .
Radiator I wonder if it would flex and fail with no cross bar. You could make braces from where cross brace was cut to fender panels to stop flexing.

 

[doublekrossd]

So as an update, I'm currently working with wizard cooling to try to figure a solution to the problem. If it had to be done, I could run a flex lite fan with the fans and shroud system removed from the radiator. It's not ideal but it may get me on the road. Thanks to everyone that had put in their 2 cents