I am looking at this air conditioning system for my 67 Impala 2 door hardtop.
I have had the car for 37 years and have been keeping it up to date..
The car is riding on a 68 Station Wagon Frame due to the fact the station wagon had disc brakes and the original
frame was severely rusted out.
The original 283 ran very well till one hot day in Toronto at the Jazz Festival traffic was completely stopped and I couldnt get any air through the rad. It was 90 degrees. That cooked the head gaskets, which I replaced and ran the car for another year when again I had a head gasket problem.
I took the car to Exeltec Auto in Markham and Doug Lamb put in a 350 Crate motor. Now I am continually looking at the temp guage. Maybe paranoid.
I have ordered and received an Aluminum rad and also am having the brakes upgraded with the stainless steel lines, new wheel cylinders and brake hoses. The brake shoes and disc pads are ok..
I figure it is time to go with Air Conditioning.
I have been impressed with the kit from Classic Auto Air.
Has anyone installed one of these units. Feedback please.
Check reviews. Google can be your friend. I like Vintage Air. Maybe time to get rid of the clutch fan and go to a manual fan. I got mine from Summit and air cond. will probably make your car run hotter. Nice looking impala.
If you've damaged a 283 twice because of cooling and now you're concerned the 350 will overheat, then why don't you fix the original problem ? A crate 350 with a properly installed aluminum rad should be able so sit and idle all day in 100f temperatures. You are running electric fans with a properly fitting shroud, right?
Go with Vintage.
-- Edited by Petebil on Sunday 18th of December 2016 03:53:26 PM
After the first overheating I bought an Edelbrock water pump and had a new rad installed with a shroud.
The photo shows the 17 inch flex fan to rad spacing. I made a couple of changes over time to get the fan spacing correct. Or so I have been told that it is correct.
I found that if I sat on the side of the road with the car idling for 10 minutes on a hot day the temp was above 210 pushing 220
The project for this winter is to solve the overheating problem so that it runs at a cool 195, when idling. On the highway everything is ok as far at temp goes.
I purchased a Champion 3 row Aluminum radiator for the project. So with the aluminum rad I should be able to install an A/C system.
Get rid of flex fan and get a minimum 6 blade steel fan. I used Summit AAF-all30100. This fan may or may not be suitable for your application but it solved the problem on my 1959 El Camino [350 cu. in.]
Your fan is also too far out of the cowl opening ,causing cavitation of air supply/movement. which will hold heat in not pull nor push it out at idle. Instead of moving the fan put spacers in the rad mount to move it back. Or better yet put a long water pump on er!
Also notice you have coolant weeping at the stat housing
-- Edited by Ground Pounder on Monday 19th of December 2016 07:41:18 AM
Why not just get an electric fan and your problems will go away. The problem with your fan in the above picture is not so much that the fan is far away from the rad, but the fan diameter is too small for the shroud opening. Unfortunately, this is an inherited design problem because the shroud is mounted solid to the chassis of the car and the fan on the engine needs to move.
-- Edited by Petebil on Monday 19th of December 2016 08:57:24 AM
I think you may be chasing a symptom instead of solving the problem here. The car should not need electric fans to run cool and most of the aluminum rads short of the Griffens don't even work as well as the stock units. I suspect the problem you are chasing is probably related to modern fuels in an old engine. The modern fuels burn slower than the old stuff did so if you are running stock timing, the flame is still burning as the piston heads back down the bore. This heats up 2 or 3 inches of cylinder instead of 1 inch as designed. The solution? Timing has to be advanced from the stock setting. You should have 32 to 36 degrees of mechanical advance at 3000 rpm which translates to about 15 to 18 degrees at idle. Its also more important than ever to run vacuum advance to prevent fuel contamination in the oil. Once you get it dialed in, I suspect you will not need the aftermarket garbage to stay cool.
Hard to tell by the picture but the fan should be 1/2 way into the opening .... it appears close ... looks like too much clearance on the diameter it should be between 1/2" and 1" depending how much give you have in the motor mounts. I agree with bob trash the flex fan and if possible up the size to fill in the gap.
