Track Day 'Cuda

[CJD Automotive]

Let's cool this thing. I will have a pretty big heat load due to the water to oil cooler, water cooled turbo's, and water cooled waste gates, so a big radiator is in order. Time to see how big of a radiator will fit. I started mocking up with just cardboard:





To get the size I wanted, clear the stock grille, and allow for another intercooler radiator in it's own air stream, I needed to lay the radiator down.
I had to cut the frame tails back to squeeze out as much space as possible. I built a removable bar that connects the frame tails to make servicing easier. The rectangular aluminum box is the C&R water to oil cooler:



When I found the shape I liked, I built a mockup radiator with the correct dimensions from some scrap square tube aluminum. I also built the mock fans to dimension so I could see if anything interfered:



The plan is to duct and feed the radiator/condenser from the lower valance opening, and the intercooler radiator ducted from the grill opening. Both will converge on exit and pass through a duct out of the hood:





I had the car rendered (more on that in another post) and here is the hood setup.



Now that I had a size, I contacted C&R and had them run a heat load calc and verified I was good. They worked up a radiator and sent it to me for approval:





I had them add a flange to the inlet side to make attaching and sealing the duct easier. And this is the final product:





Couple things to note, I spec'd this with 3 12" brushless fans. My ECU can control the PWM (speed) for each fan independently.
I also have a bleed port at the very top to plumb back to the surge tank. The -12 fitting is the oil cooler return.

Time to make it fit. I want the cooling stack removable as a module, I still need to figure out a bumper bar (bumpers are carbon, so need something behind them), and a place for a tow hook. Let's see if I can make something that can do all that.

The radiator sits below the front frame rails, so I needed a mount dropped down that was strong enough to also be a tow point. This bar also attaches to the drop down sway bar tube, adding structure to both:



I had them put 3 grommet bungs on the top and bottom and two on each side. This would allow me to mount the radiator with isolators. So made 3 for the bottom:







These get a grommet and weld to the new lower radiator bar:



With the tabs in place, I removed the lower bar, epoxied it, and set it up to weld in place:





Now that the lower is attached to the frame, I slid the radiator in the bungs and propped it into place. Now I can build the sides and front of the mount. This part can unbolt to allow removal of the radiator and entire cooling stack:



The side pieces that bolt to the radiator bar and frame:





This mount also becomes the bumper bar:



Welded it up, put it in epoxy, and bolted it in place to check fitment. This first pic you can see I finished off the frame tail angles where the crossbar mounts. Second pic I haven't done that yet:





Took it back off and added the radiator:





With the radiator in, I put the fenders and header back on to see how the intercooler radiator was going to fit. Once I was happy with it, I started building the mount: