Now that my work travel has subsided a bit, I get to work quite a bit on the Cobra. Which also means I need to buy a lot of stuff...darn there goes that end of year savings.
The stock radiator had seen better days and I have plans to do...something...to the engine in the future, so upgrading and buying an Al 3-core radiator seemed like a good thing to do. Plus, I believe I would have to take the fiberglass body off the car in order to swap out the radiator (not sure tho) but it seems like that may be a possibility. I decided to go with the FactoryFive (FF) radiator as they have already done some modifications with it that make it easier to fit in the cobra. They have removed the radiator cap filler neck, put a bleed valve on the upper tank and welded the top intake at an angle that makes it easier to plumb it up to the engine. Actually, it was about the same price as others I looked at.
Since the radiator is mounted at an angle of about 54.3 degrees, you really need a fan shroud to help the electric fan pull as much air to keep the cobra cool. Dad had bought a new stock must fan shroud because he was planning on using the donor radiator. Well, the instructions say that you can't use a stock fan shroud with the FF radiator. Let's see about that. The only problem I could see was because of the angled top intake was in the way. Let's see, so you mean all I have to do is cut a small 2"x2" section of plastic out of the way? Not sure if I have the skill to do that....ha! Done...fan mounted to shroud and shroud mounted to radiator. Done.
The bottom mount was a bit more complex. I bought a 1/2" diameter rod, welded some nuts to the ends and created some brackets to bolt into the nuts on the rod. Then I slid on some rubber heater hose onto the rod at four locations, so the only contacting points are the heater hose.
Thus, now I have vibration dampeners at the top and bottom of the radiator. Nice, hopefully I won't have to have this radiator repaired due to vibration cracks.
The next task was to find appropriate pre-bent radiator hoses to connect everything together. Luckily, FF has included one of the bottom hoses and an Al pipe to attach to the stock hose coming off the water pump. Since I am using an aftermarket radiator, I have to install an in-line filler neck (this was planned). Trying to find the correct upper radiator hose, in Ford's brilliance, the upper radiator hose at the intake is 1.75" diameter and at the radiator it is 1.5." Hmmm, the in-line filler cap adapter I have is 1.75"x 1.75", plus the new Al radiator has a an upper intake diameter of 1.75" as well. Thus, the stock radiator hose will not work. Off to the autoparts store I go. I have found it very helpful to go to the same O'Reilly's Autoparts store which is run by a Bosnian family (STL has one, if not the largest Bosnian populations outside Bosnia). They have gotten to know me very well, so I almost have free reign of the store (which I understand since I used to work at AutoZone in former life). After an hour of searching, I find one that looks like it will work, with trimming of course.
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