[Fot] cooling down a tr3

[EDWARD BARNARD]

I think one good point that Mike made is the opening of the "hole" in the apron. No matter what media is used for the radiator the stock TR2-3 apron blocks airflow to the lower third of the radiator. On Randy W's car I cut the sheet metal in the apron the width of the radiator and angled it down to allow the air to flow to this lower third. I fabricated triangular metal pieces to fill the ends and spotwelded them in. The only down side is that it does away with having the ability to use a handcrank :o( (that's a joke folks). I'm also surprised nobody has discussed the role that the bypass is playing. 
  Thanks - Ed -

Bill Babcock <Billb at bnj.com> wrote:
  My reply got bounced for being too long.

I don't understand why racers would focus on having a radiator that's 
the same size as the one designed for a 80 horsepower street car that 
rarely saw full throttle. The GCRs don't require it. Engines generate 
heat as a direct result of the horsepower they develop--they are about 
35 percent efficient, so if you double the HP you triple the heat 
load. Why have a marginal radiator? You get more power, better 
component life, and fewer worries if you have a radiator that will 
give you an adequate cooling margin. It's a trivial thing to fit and 
you never have to pay attention to it again (unless there's something 
wrong with your car). You're not reducing wind resistance with a 
smaller radiator. I can't think of a single advantage except you 
already have it. Radiators are a couple of hundred dollars. A racing 
motor costs many thousands.

Just as a wild guess, but I'd expect that neither Kas nor Bob Tullius 
or anyone else that seriously raced these cars in the day ever 
contemplated using a stock-sized radiator unless the regulations 
required them to.

On Jun 8, 2008, at 5:02 PM, Mike Jackson wrote:

> I partially disagree. I have a modern core between original 
> headers. Glen opened a hole below the shelf to allow air to the 
> portion of radiator below and did really good shrouding. The oil 
> cooler is mounted alongside the radiator, not in front of it. With 
> a gutted thermostat and a clean block/head interior our TR3 never 
> overheats, even in the Florida heat in the summer. Maybe some of 
> ya'll are producing a bunch more power than we are but the last time 
> I asked Glen how much HP our motor was producing he wrote a number 
> on the side of the valve cover that was pretty impressive.
>
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Babcock 
>> Sent: Jun 8, 2008 7:00 PM
>> To: KENMUN at aol.com
>> Cc: fot at autox.team.net
>> Subject: Re: [Fot] cooling down a tr3
>>
>> You need a mo biggah radiator. There COULD be some other problem,
>> like too much advance or some friction someplace, but basically the
>> stock radiator is for an engine making about 80 HP and rarely using
>> that. A five row core isn't enough. You need as much radiator as you
>> can squeeze in and then you can use either an orifice or a thermostat
>> to control the temp. I've talked about this before, but my cheater 
>> TR3
>> made a lot of ponies even with just a nitrided crank. I had a 
>> radiator
>> made that mounted using the original mounts (that's what the GCR
>> requires) but filled pretty much the whole nose. You can get an
>> integral oil cooler or not depending on how you feel about that. It's
>> actually a really good thing though, when the car is standing still
>> the water gets hot first and heats the oil, then the oil is cooled by
>> the air over the radiator when the car is moving.
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