Personal Techniques for Cooling and More Air Flow

Hey guys, I ran across an interesting video from Dodge featuring Steve Mags. The gentleman's car has an interesting feature that I have never thought about before and was wondering if any of you have or know someone who has done this. Were the results there for more airflow? Also, any advice on inexpensive ways to keep my engine compartment happy on the way to Carlisle this year? The last time I went my car was dripping coolant after I parked it. I have returned most of the car to stock with the exception of some long tube headers, but NOS radiator from a 71 charger. Any ideas on cooling and more air intake?


Go to 1:30 on the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wZ8AJiNJdU

MP thermal clutch fan with the most blades properly spaced into a schroud. 8 blade pump with anticav plate added. overdriven pulley ratio. catch can. 3 or possibly 4 row alum radiator. with a good setup you can feel a tornado whipping thru there. EDIT Most of this is needed for low speed operation, for a long drive if your timing/mixture is in the ballpark then a catch can and or a recovery cap and a catch can will take care of you at the end of your destination

i'm gonna pony up with my friend Robert on 90% of what he said. i've got a stock re-cored 3 row radiator with shroud, 16lb cap, MP clutch thermal fan, stock water pump with the plate and a 195 thermostat. i've never ever had a cooling issue. still working on a catch can but i only 'burp' if i've over filled the radiator.

good airflow isn't a problem. i've got a 6 pack hood

I've seen that back in the early 90s when in So Cal we had to smog these cars. Guy had transplanted a stock 68 340 motor air cleaner to oil pan into a 69 4 door belvedere. The smog machine had a tailpipe sniffer that measured rich vs lean for idle adjustment.

For the heck of it they stuck an aftermarket open element air cleaner on there. The smog machine computer readout showed the it got leaner. That narrow band air gap opening around the base was actually restrictive.

The video was NOT talking about cooling system airflow but air cleaner airflow......

The best thing to do for air is to feed it cool air that has not been thru the radiator.

To increase airflow efficiency to or from the radiator you can do a few things to keep air from bleeding off from where you need it to go.

Do you currently have the factory type hood to radiator support seal? without it, air goes over the radiator and it equilizes the pressure from the air in front of the radiator to the engine compartment behind the radiator. You want less pressure behind the radiator.

Also, you can add close cell foam between the radiator and fan shroud.

And make sure the radiator is sealed to the radiator support. Factory setups are pretty good but sometimes there are gaps that could be filled with foam. Aftermarket radiators can be really bad. I know my cheapy Chinese aluminum radiator had massive gaps.

Another thing is to close the air between the grill and radiator. Think of the direct air-box in a Daytona and Superbird have that allow it to have that tiny grille opening.

Think anybody is paying attention?

thanks for all the advice everyone!