THE AUTO BUILDER
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February 27, 2025
ROLLING THUNDER
In 1992, Bruce Richards bought a new 5.0 Thunderbird. He wanted a spirited family car and daily driver, and he drove this car for 10 years before deciding that it had served its purpose. It now deserved a better, faster and powerful life. Richards liked the idea and wanted anything but a cookie-cutter T-Bird. He wanted a car that would run with the best of them, including Mustangs. The only problem was the size of the Bird. As it left the factory, the car weighed 3,940 lbs and made only 205 hp, so Richards’ decision was clear—he needed the car to have more power and weigh less.
ALMOST NEW
Some folks talk about the great muscle car wars of the ‘60s and early ‘70s, but it’s hard to find a car guy who experienced it, enjoyed it and still owns the same car. At 66 years of age, Mike Overly was able to experience the muscle car era during his twenties, which is the perfect time to go fast in a cool car. The car seen on these pages is a ’70 Mustang, one that Overly has owned since 1970. Less than a year old, the Mustang sat at a used car lot in Indianapolis, Indiana, wearing black paint and an asking price of $2,300. From his inspection, Overly knew the original owner had already upgraded to a Boss 429 hood and scoop, so it may have been raced in its short life—the 2,000 miles on the odometer were probably not the easiest of miles.
SMOKIN’ SS – Part 2
If you’ve ever built a car from scratch, then you know that getting the basic body and chassis together is not the tough part. What’s tough are all the details that eat up hours, days and weeks, but without this attention to detail, the project would suffer.
Spotlighter
CHILL OUT
Installing a Be Cool Aluminum Radiator and Module System
Author
Josh Kaylor & Casey Lyda
Story & Photography
Be Cool is no newcomer to cooling heavy metal. For years it has provided cooling solutions for some of the most impressive high-performance engines to rumble down the streets and dragstrips of America.
The folks at Be Cool understand that having the proper cooling components in any car or truck is vital to keep an engine safely within its operating temperature range. They also understand that to make cooling and installation easier, they had to design a full bolt-in system, a system that would fit hundreds of applications for classic cars and trucks, as well as more modern vehicles that also need cooling help.
What they’ve done is design the Be Cool module assemblies, created to offer a complete package without the worry of having to guess which parts fit and are compatible with other parts. The module assemblies include a beautiful natural or polished aluminum crossflow radiator, a high-torque European fan (or fans, depending on horsepower), aluminum fan mounting brackets, complete electric fan wiring harness, diamond-cut vented coolant recovery tank, billet Be Cool radiator cap and all the necessary hardware to complete the installation.
Each of the kits is designed to be a complete coolant solution, offering guaranteed temperature drops of 20 degrees or your money back! Hello, does that work for you?
Be Cool stands behind this guarantee because each kit is matched for peak efficiency. Depending upon your application and horsepower, the module assembly is available in ? 400-, 700- and 1,000-horsepower applications. The ’68 Chevrolet truck shown here is powered by a reliable, healthy Chevy small block that has always seemed to run a bit hot (in city traffic), and since high heat affects performance and causes extra wear on the engine internals, a new assembly from Be Cool might prove to be the perfect solution for this particular installation. This Chevy small block is backed by an automatic transmission; however, Be Cool offers these aluminum radiators with a built-in trans cooler, which is how this radiator was equipped.
When the owner purchased this classic truck the original radiator had been removed and replaced with a junkyard unit. The shroud was gone but the engine temperature ran okay, although it was marginal during the summer. With a little basic information and one call to Be Cool, about a week later the owner of this truck had a brand-new cooling system. Rather than to jump on the install, the owner wanted to do it correctly, so he gave the folks at LMC Truck a call for new, lower retainers and support pads, along with a set of original-style hoses. Once he began draining the antifreeze and removing the radiator the kit went right in, with no problems whatsoever. The wiring is straightforward and, thanks to the molded shroud and twin fans, the owner should never have to worry about running hot at blistering fairgrounds events, even while cruising. The complete installation took about three hours and required just a few simple hand tools.
The install began by lying the radiator on top of the box so as not to scratch the finish. Be Cool supplies these two brackets to attach the fan to the radiator.
The way the bracket works is that it wraps around the edge of the radiator and attaches to the fan.
The Be Cool kit features all the hardware needed. Begin by installing the six supplied bolts through the backside of the brackets and up through the fan shroud and starting the locknuts.
Next spread the fan and brackets apart and lie the assembly over the radiator. Be sure to center the fan shroud assembly over the radiator.
Tighten the lower bolts and pull the shroud until both sides of the brackets are tight against the radiator. Tighten the top bolts securely.
With the radiator still out of the truck, the new temperature sending unit for the fan assembly was installed.
Now that the radiator is ready to be installed in the truck, we can begin removing the terrible-looking OE radiator. The new assembly looks great!
Start by placing a pan beneath the radiator petcock to drain the antifreeze. Be sure to discard the antifreeze accordingly, not beside that oak tree in the backyard! While the antifreeze was draining, the upper radiator hose was removed.
With the radiator now drained the lower hose can be removed and tossed. We decided to pick up a new set from the local parts store.
The first piece to go is the finger guard. We will no longer need this piece since we are installing electric fans and shroud.
Since the Chevrolet is an automatic, the cooler was built into the radiator. The new Be Cool unit also has the built-in transmission cooler upgrade. The lines were disconnected, both from the transmission and the radiator, and discarded. New lines will be purchased for this install.
Next to go was the mechanical fan. This was tossed into the swap meet pile.
Everything is now out of the way and disconnected, and the radiator can be removed from the truck. This will go to the recycling center for some quick change (cha-ching)!
Since this truck had leaked a little in the past, the rubber insulators on the bottom had deteriorated. LMC Truck provided us with new, high-quality mounting hardware for the radiator.
The radiator core support was cleaned and prepped, and the new rubber insulators were positioned for the radiator. These are very important, as the vibration within the truck can rub a hole in the bottom of the radiator.
The new Be Cool unit was then positioned into the core support and mounted using the new brackets and rubber insulators from LMC.
In order to hold the top of the radiator in place, Be Cool offers these upper straps. The billet straps bolt between the fan and bracket and the core support. These straps are cut to length.
We pulled the radiator tight and marked the strap so that the excess overhang could be cut. A small cutoff wheel made quick work of removing the extra aluminum.
After the strap is cut it is reinstalled on the assembly, drilled and mounted to the core support using the supplied hardware.
New coolant hoses and transmission lines were purchased and installed on the truck.
Since vertical space is limited beneath the hood, the polished overflow can was bolted on the opposite side of the core support. A small hole had to be drilled through the core support to route the hose.
Before starting the wiring, the hot side of the battery is disconnected to prevent any sparking or shorts.
Each fan comes complete with a harness (from Be Cool) that is preterminated and features a built-in relay and inline fuse.
The two fan power wires were plugged into the harness and routed down and along the bottom of the radiator to keep them out of sight. The two black wires route to a ground.
The yellow 12-volt power wires route to the positive side of the battery. The kit includes all terminals to complete the install.
The two relays are then mounted to the inside fenderwell. These will allow simple access to the relays in case of a problem in the future.
In order for the fans to kick on and off, a temperature sending unit is located on the side tank. Each harness has a gray wire that routes to the TS unit.
Route the fan power wires (red is the positive wire) to the fused orange wire, and then splice and heat shrink. This will keep the wires safe from oil and other contaminants. The two small orange wires link to an ignition power source.
Reconnect the battery once you have finished hooking up the harness.
The radiator is then topped off with a quality antifreeze and distilled water. It is capped with this great-looking Be Cool polished cap.
Looking at the beautiful Be Cool radiator is a treat. Best of all is the peace of mind you’ll have knowing how cool this classic truck will run in the summer. The Be Cool radiator fills the opening nicely to ensure that it is receiving the maximum amount of cool air possible.
ARTICLE SOURCES
Be Cool Inc.
310 Woodside Ave.
Essexville, MI 48732
888/515-6075
LMC Truck
Box 14991
Lenexa, KS 66285
800/562-8782
