Which aftermarket radiator?

[turbofiveoh]

After installing a Whipple supercharger, with the large heat exchanger, the CHT has gone up significantly on track. Pushing the car at about 7-8/10 the CHT will climb to ~240F after 10 minutes on track. Half a lap cool down sees the CHT drop back to ~200F. Ambient air temp is ~60F. I have a PP model with an open grill, Trackspec hood vents, Reische 170 thermostat, and the FRPP M-8501-M52A "Gen 2" high flow water pump. Coolant mixture is ~80/20 per a refractometer. During normal street driving the CHT remains about 170-180F when the car is moving and the ambient air temp is ~100-110F. Given how low the CHT is during normal driving I am of the opinion that the addition of the supercharger has exceeded the capacity of the factory cooling system and I am ready to spend money on an aftermarket radiator. I plan to box the radiator as well and will probably do that after I install the new radiator.

What I am asking is for people to share their experience with the following products: Fluidyne (which I have read that Boardkat has had positive results with), DeWitt, and C&R. I have narrowed my selection down to the three, aforementioned, manufactures so I am respectfully asking that feedback in this thread stay to those three manufacturers. The are plenty of threads dedicated to Mishimoto, for example, so no need to rehash it here.

Thanks.

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[EFI]

All good choices, although the DW and C&R are quite a bit more expensive than the rest.

Personally I would do either the Fluidyne or Watson Racing, both high quality and much cheaper than those other 2.

 

[turbofiveoh]

Thanks for the feedback. Fluidyne was actually my first choice until I learned that the radiator is a triple pass. Fluidyne hasn’t provided cooling system pressure comparisons to stock. The limited testing I’ve done on other cooling systems with triple pass radiators shows cooling systems pressure, in one case, nearly double the comparative pressure of a single pass. I want to make sure that the fluidyne doesn’t introduce large system pressures that result in premature hose or sealing area failures.
Hadn’t considered Watson racing. Thanks for the suggestion. DeWitts has a coupon that brings the price down to comparable with Fluidyne

 

[EFI]

Fluidyne has 2 different types for the S550, one double and one triple like you mentioned.

 

[turbofiveoh]

I didn’t see the dual pass version. Normally dual pass has the inlet and outlet on the same side of the radiator so some portion of the cooling hose routing had to be modified.

 

[turbofiveoh]

So after doing some more homework there are two Fluidyne models that will drop into the S550, one a single pass and the other a triple pass (denoted by "3" at the end of the part number).

 

[TeeLew]

The C&R is beautiful, but probably too expensive.

 

[turbofiveoh]

The C&R is beautiful, but probably too expensive.

It's difficult to justify the C&R price point when Fluidyne and DeWitts, both good names in the industry, have competitive offerings at a lower entry point.

 

[Ewheels]

So after doing some more homework there are two Fluidyne models that will drop into the S550, one a single pass and the other a triple pass (denoted by "3" at the end of the part number).

Correct. I emailed them with the same concerns. They said the triple pass is for prepped and dedicated race cars. For dual purpose street cars, get the "regular" version and it will work fine with the OEM equipment.

 

[TeeLew]

It's difficult to justify the C&R price point when Fluidyne and DeWitts, both good names in the industry, have competitive offerings at a lower entry point.

The deal with the C&R/PWR is that we really can't take advantage of what it has to offer. If we were running a 5 bar cooling systems with the nose all taped up for 1 hero lap of qualifying on an oval, it would do that without turning into a balloon in the process. Others wouldn't. We don't do things like that, though, so the juice isn't really worth the squeeze.

 

[turbofiveoh]

To those that responded in the thread, thanks for the input. After much deliberation I opted for the dual 1.25" core from DeWitts. I went that route for the following reasons:
-Largest dual core option that I could find
-Limited lifetime warranty
-Subsidiary company of Afco
-Lots and lots of positive feedback from the Corvette community on DeWitts solving cooling problems on high horsepower engines
-Excellent phone support. The tech guy (Jesse) at DeWitts spent a lot of time answering my questions and was more concerned about my application than trying to get me to buy a radiator.

For those who are considering buying a radiator DeWitts will be having their Black Friday sale in a few weeks (the week of Thanksgiving) and will be offering 10% (possibly 15%) off plus free shipping making the price pretty reasonable. After that, for those that want to buy a radiator, I was told that DeWitts would support a group buy which I am happy to kick off if there is interest.

 

[Adamone92]

To those that responded in the thread, thanks for the input. After much deliberation I opted for the dual 1.25" core from DeWitts. I went that route for the following reasons:
-Largest dual core option that I could find
-Limited lifetime warranty
-Subsidiary company of Afco
-Lots and lots of positive feedback from the Corvette community on DeWitts solving cooling problems on high horsepower engines
-Excellent phone support. The tech guy (Jesse) at DeWitts spent a lot of time answering my questions and was more concerned about my application than trying to get me to buy a radiator.

For those who are considering buying a radiator DeWitts will be having their Black Friday sale in a few weeks (the week of Thanksgiving) and will be offering 10% (possibly 15%) off plus free shipping making the price pretty reasonable. After that, for those that want to buy a radiator, I was told that DeWitts would support a group buy which I am happy to kick off if there is interest.

do you have a link to said radiator? i might pick one up.

 

[turbofiveoh]

do you have a link to said radiator? i might pick one up.

It is the HP version:
https://www.dewitts.com/collections/mustang-radiators/products/2015-2018-mustang

 

[turbofiveoh]

Correct. I emailed them with the same concerns. They said the triple pass is for prepped and dedicated race cars. For dual purpose street cars, get the "regular" version and it will work fine with the OEM equipment.

The triple pass requires that there be minimal restriction in the cooling systems and I didn't want to deal with increasing flow rates to the point that the increased pressure drop through the radiator caused premature failures elsewhere in the system. A properly sized single pass should get the job done.

 

[turbofiveoh]

The deal with the C&R/PWR is that we really can't take advantage of what it has to offer. If we were running a 5 bar cooling systems with the nose all taped up for 1 hero lap of qualifying on an oval, it would do that without turning into a balloon in the process. Others wouldn't. We don't do things like that, though, so the juice isn't really worth the squeeze.

Agreed, we're not competing in NASCAR and most of us have dual purpose (street/track) cars that aren't dedicated track rats.
It's terrific that C&R made a drop in unit for the Mustang, it's just unfortunate that it's overbuilt for what 99% of people are doing. I think Fluidyne and DeWitts hit the sweet spot. I didn't want to do a 3 core and dual 1.25" cores provides the capacity without the 3rd core.
I am pretty confident that just the increased cooling capacity will help tremendously.

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