Update by Tim Suddard to the
Tornado Typhoon project car
May 12, 2015
Ar the top of the photo is our old radiator. Below is our new radiator from Ron Davis. Note the beautifully integrated fan and shroud. The fan is thermostatically controlled.
The new radiator uses the more modern tab into a rubber doughnut mounting system. While the rubber doughnuts came with the radiator, we would need to manufacture the correct brackets.
With simple tools and our HTP welder, we made these nice looking brackets to mount the radiator.
The radiator that came with our project Tornado Typhoon was old, heavy and ill-fitting. These were not the qualities we were seeking in our cooling system. We can only assume that this ill-fitting radiator was from the original Ford donor car.
We called Ron Davis Racing Products and sent them our old radiator. At the same time, we studied our frame and test fit the nose to see exactly what size radiator would fit correctly in the Tornado. We wanted something that looked right, fit right, but was still as big as possible to ensure proper cooling.
And when we say heavy, our old radiator weighed nearly 20 pounds. What we got back from Ron Davis was a beautifully fitting, nicely made little radiator that weighed about 8 pounds.
This new radiator used a more modern mounting system where the radiator sits on rubber mounts that sit in a hole in the mounting bracket.
We made our own brackets—top and bottom—out of some steel scraps we had lying around and quickly got the radiator installed in a way that looked original.
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