Cpriester123

Hey fellas, has anyone ever installed a VA system and afterwards your Cutlass would run high temperatures even without your air on? Mine never ran hot until now

redoldsman

Did you have air conditioning in the car before? The condenser could be blocking air flow through the radiator even when the AC is not on.

Cpriester123

The car originally came with factory air but when I purchased the car I had the vintage air system installed, but the condenser does sit right in front of the radiator....My thing is this, How can Vintage Air sell all of these systems and not know that the condenser could restrict air flow and cause high temp issues? I've heard of people installing these systems and not having any problems. I even installed a dual 11in electric fan and I still have high temps

Cpriester123

But to answer your question, no I did not have air in the car before

68-W46

If you do not have them already a shroud and clutch fan and HD cooling stuff will help...

hookem horns

I have had VA for a few years now and have not noticed any difference in engine temp when off. The factory had the condenser in the same place so I doubt that is the root cause on an original AC car, especially if the rest of the factory HD cooling set up (shroud, clutch fan, etc.) is still in place. My temp does creep up running the AC at idle, but it does that a little with it off too. I have the original radiator that may need flushing/recoring/replacement at some point.

hookem horns

Just noticed this, so the cooling system is not stock. That introduces a lot of variables, so what kind of radiator are you running and is it in good condition? Is the engine non-stock too? 455 or 350? What temp is it getting up to? A mostly stock engine with the factory HD cooling system used on AC cars should not really have any issues with VA installed.

MDchanic

You started out with no condenser to restrict the air flow through the radiator.

Then you added a condenser, which restricted the air flow through the radiator.

Since it is well established that the original factory cooling system was able to keep the engine cool with a condenser in front of the radiator, if you had a factory set-up now, we would know that it was adequate, unless some part of it was defective.

However, you do not have an original factory cooling system, so we have no idea what you have, whether its parts are adequate, whether its parts are working correctly, or whether its parts are working correctly with each other.

As Dane said:
What, exactly, do you have?
How, exactly are these parts connected to one another?
What condition, exactly, are they in? and
How, exactly do you know that they are in that condition?

Once we have that information, and a large number of photographs, we can begin to try to help you to figure out what is wrong.

- Eric

70cutty

I have Vintage Air installed in 2 of my cars. Cutlass has dual Spal electric fans and Chevelle has a clutch fan. Both cars have big blocks and aluminum radiators.

No issues whatsoever.

tmaleck

I installed the 68 style condenser in my 67. It is a universal parallel flow with universal type brackets. I found the driver side bracket to be a fairly large obstruction, blocking airflow to a little less than 1/4 of the radiator. I used a 2 1/2 inch hole saw and added several staggered holes to the bracket to allow air to flow through.

I never had an overheat except at idle with A/C on 100+ outside. That is mostly due to the cheapie radiator the P.O. put in it. I have a Champion all aluminum 3 row unit ready for use with the 403. We'll see how it does.

Tim

Cpriester123

I have a fairly new 3 row radiator that came with the car, very clean, flows great like is should, no rust at all on the inside or out. Brand new 195F thermostat after trying the 160F that didn't make a difference Brand new remanufactered 350 rocket engine (stock specs), only exception is a new mild cam from comp cam, new performer edelbrock 350 Olds intake, new ceramic flowtech headers, fairly new 600cfm edelbrock performer carb....before the VA system the highest it ran was MAYBE 190...now it gets up to 220 and causing the overflow on the radiator some times and this is without even running the new VA.

Cpriester123

I have a fairly new 3 row radiator that came with the car, very clean, flows great like is should, no rust at all on the inside or out. Brand new 195F thermostat after trying the 160F that didn't make a difference Brand new remanufactered 350 rocket engine (stock specs), only exception is a new mild cam from comp cam, new performer edelbrock 350 Olds intake, new ceramic flowtech headers, fairly new 600cfm edelbrock performer carb....before the VA system the highest it ran was MAYBE 190...now it gets up to 220 and causing the overflow on the radiator some times and this is without even running the new VA, I have dual 11in flex a lite fan that turns on by relays set by the temperature desired, so I have the fans set to come on at 180, and even tried about 190.

RetroRanger

timing can affect engine temperature as well whats your base timing and any mech and vac advance timing as well

Cpriester123

Cpriester123

Factory suggested timing is 8 but I went just a smidge past 8.

Cpriester123

And I've read great reviews like yours and can't figure out the problem

Cpriester123

Thank's 68-W46

MDchanic

With a good radiator and a set of aftermarket fans, my vote would be either the fans are not set up correctly (direction reversed, not well sealed) or they do not move enough air.

My advice would be to either find a different fan arrangement (add a pusher on the outside, get new fans inside, try one of those junkyard Taurus fans that everyone uses, etc.) or set it up like the factory did, with an adequate 7-blade fan, a good fan clutch, and a proper fan shroud.

I would recommend, as a test, turning on the fans and sticking your head in the engine compartment - the factory set-up will blow your hair back pretty forcefully with the clutch engaged (if you've got any ), so I would expect the aftermarket fans to do the same thing.

- Eric

Cpriester123

So what do you think hookem?

Cpriester123

The aftermarket electric fans are definitely in th

Cpriester123

The aftermarket electric fans are definitely in the right direction. They are pulling away from the radiator and are blowing towards the motor. They blow pretty hard without a doubt. I believe they are doing the job. I event pulled them out a d put the 7 blade clutch fan that I have back on it and there still wasn't a difference. It seems to get hot around 5-10 mins after driving it and that's with open air and it should actually do the opposite when driving it

redoldsman

I put air conditioning in my 54. It immediately ran hot. I had already replaced the water pump with an AC water pump with 8 blades instead of 6 and put a 6 blade fan in place of the 4 blade. I then had the radiator re-cored from a 2 core to a 3 core (that is all that would fit in the stock tanks). I then installed an electric fan and shroud. Even with the air off, the car runs hotter than it used to. I have tried 160 and 180 degree thermostats with no change. I only have the factory gauge. It has not gotten all the way over to hot yet but the gauge has been almost 3/4 of the way over. It technically is not overheating but runs warmer than I would like even on cool days. There is nothing else I can do with it so I just keep an eye on it. It will be interesting now that the Texas summer is here.

Fun71

Be aware that not all radiators are made the same. Some aftermarket radiators have fewer tubes in each row and fewer fin-per-inch count. I can remember reading posts about folks replacing a factory 2-row radiator with an aftermarket 3-row radiator and the engine ran hotter with the new radiator. This was because the new radiator didn't have more cooling capacity than the original radiator.

68-W46

Sometimes an upgraded alternator helps with electric fans....

cjsdad

When I was installing A/C systems in Phoenix it was often a problem getting the air to go where it is supposed to so the vehicles would not overheat. Here are a few things I learned. I can see grass through the core support so the radiator is not properly sealed front to back. The factory cooling setup has rubberized canvas flaps that seal off the sides of the radiator to make sure air is forced through the radiator and not allowed to go around it. There should have been some foam strips that seal the new condenser to the radiator so that air flowing through the condenser will then be forced to go through the radiator and not divert to the sides and go around the radiator. You should also seal the core support to the sides of the radiator. Not with silicone or anything like that, but with the rubberized canvas or similar device to make sure any air flowing through the front of the car goes through the radiator. Also, anytime the A/C is on the cooling fans should be running. If the fans are not running with the A/C on the system pressure will skyrocket and generate a great deal of heat directly in front of the radiator. Try turning the fans on earlier because the factory fan is always turning and pulling air through the radiator. It just pulls a great deal more when the fan clutch gets hot and stiffens up. Your new fan system should operate in a similar fashion.

Cpriester123

It has a brand new Powermaster alternator. The fans arent dragging as if its not getting enough voltage and amps. These fans are pulling something serious. Fans are working without a problem

Cpriester123

Have any idea where I can find these strips to help seal the sides of the radiator. And heres something I was worried about....I noticed the fins on the radiator have bigger gaps than the condensor. As if it could flow more rapidily through the radiator than the condensor. The fins on the condensor are so close together that you can barely see through it. Its almost like the condensor is preventing airflow through the radiator amd causing high temps. I could be wrong but it just seems logical ftom the way the fins are set up on both the radiator and condensor. Its just ironic how i have such high temps now with a condensor with tight small-closed fins sitting right in front of
my radiator now. And the electric fans are set to come on at about 180-190 now, even if the AC is off.

Don R.

I do not have experience with a Cutlass but I did install a VA system on a 63 Buick factory air Riviera a few years ago. I got some interesting advice from the dealer I bought the system from. He said to ignore all the things you see on the internet and stick with as much factory engineering as possible. In my case that meant stock radiator, clutch fan, shroud, and 180 degree thermostat. Because my car was factory air it also meant a 4-core radiator and A/C spec water pump. I did seal my radiator to the core support using some old door weatherstripping cut to fit. I never had overheating issues and I live in Texas. One thing I see in your photo is that the fan housing you are using seems to be blocking quite a bit of the radiator core which may be an issue. If you convert to a shroud it needs to cover the entire radiator and also needs to be sealed so the fan / fans do not draw in underhood air. One last thought, once you have fixed the overheating issue you may want to install a coolant recovery system, this will eliminate overflow and increase fluid capacity in the system. Good luck!

Cpriester123

Cpriester123

Thanks Don I appreciate it because I do believe that's part of my problem so far. After doing some more research I've found that my cars ORIGINAL radiator seals are missing. Like between the core support and bumper there should be one on each side directing the air through the condenser to the radiator. Well they're gone, they came on the car for a reason when the car was made. Just like Ive ordered a shroud bc it came on the car for a reason. All for cooling purposes. I just need the original seals that came with the car.