cooling the fed

[buickfed]

the driver, my son, likes to do laps with any car i build including the rail. so the engine is kind of built nascar style. lol. how many of you use a radiator and what do you use?

john

[ricardo1967]

I think your decision will heavily depend on what fuel (gas or alky) you use. And also how lean (or fat) is tuned.

[buickfed]

we run gas. i try to keep it as simple as possible. but building a buick is not so simple sometimes. 

[GlennLever]

Right from the get go I knew I wanted to cool the engine so that I could run laps.

To that end I have a pump and a radiator



The first year out when I was running in the 9's it work quite well

Last year we stepped the HP up and to keep it cool and be able to run from the pits to the line, make a run and drive back to the pits we had to convert to alky (through a carb, not much of a change). With that set up it takes about 10 minutes in the pits with the pump and fan running to cool it all the way down to make another run. In my opinion worth it.

Now I'm going to a blown application with mechanical fuel injection and I'm going to keep the cooling system





I have taken some heat because of the extra weight it adds, and it's just not the "normal" way, but I like how convenient it is.

[Frontenginedragsters]

FEDs need to be towed back !!

[Cajuninjector]

We run water in the block but it doesnt circulate.
It's there to stabilize, not cool the motor.
Run with the block dry. Bet he wont hot lap too many more times. Lol

[buickfed]

"FEDs need to be towed back !!"... the kids job is to drive it. i'm not going to chase it. 

glenn, who makes that radiator and how wide is it?

[GlennLever]

"FEDs need to be towed back !!"... the kids job is to drive it. i'm not going to chase it. 

glenn, who makes that radiator and how wide is it?

It was custom built by Spike http://spikeradiators.com/ , he has a shop next to Roo Man. Roo Man and myself highly recommend him. You can confirm this with Roo Man in his "room" under the categor Technical in ths forum.

It is double thickness and measures 20 X 12 X 3 1/2

[bud]

Well what I did is run Alka and put a small elect water  pump on it with a trans cooler and fan combo dont take up much room, all because nhra made us do round so close without any cool down time. for years I ran a dry Block less problems of water getting on the track or get shutdown on the line.
But by running alka it takes a lot fuel, Just the burnout and run I use about 4 to 5 Gals, and nitro Is even more about 6 to 7 Gals, were as gas about 2 gals plus or minus. I hope this helps.



But I do not Run Water on The Blown motor at all.

[Mark Midler]

It really depends on wether or not the engine is capable of being cooled. If your build is really hot like fuel or a high output supercharged setup cooling isn't going to be easy.  My setup was designed into the build. I went to Universal Inc of Humbolt Iowa, told them it had to be 25 inches wide and not too high as it is going into a front engine dragster with a 360 Mopar that, depending on the class could run as high as 500hp. The unit they suggested they said could handle up to a high output 429 in a full bodied Mustang and should take care of my setup . The outfit works fabulous! It has a 185 thermostat and you can run it all day long and it runs 185. The electric fan that came with it comes on when it needs to and shuts off when it isn't needed. I hope this is a help. see you at the Nostagia Nationals at Denton TX, Mildsteel.

[GlennLever]

It really depends on wether or not the engine is capable of being cooled. If your build is really hot like fuel or a high output supercharged setup cooling isn't going to be easy.  My setup was designed into the build. I went to Universal Inc of Humbolt Iowa, told them it had to be 25 inches wide and not too high as it is going into a front engine dragster with a 360 Mopar that, depending on the class could run as high as 500hp. The unit they suggested they said could handle up to a high output 429 in a full bodied Mustang and should take care of my setup . The outfit works fabulous! It has a 185 thermostat and you can run it all day long and it runs 185. The electric fan that came with it comes on when it needs to and shuts off when it isn't needed. I hope this is a help. see you at the Nostagia Nationals at Denton TX, Mildsteel.

I posted Nostagia Nationals at Denton TX, Mildsteel on the event calendar
See this link
http://www.frontenginedragsters.org/forum/index.php?topic=219.0

[wideopen231]

One of many reasons I run alky,Don't need to mess with cooling systems. A little creative use of fuel system can keep motor cooled. Might have to change oil more frequent until get it all dialed in. But a few solenoids and proper jetting its pretty easy.