Radiators, heat exchangers and condensers...oh my

[jhcolli]

Situation: LS3 with Whipple and AC, in Atlanta heat and traffic.

I installed an Entropy heavy duty radiator with the 5600cfm mega fans. Fit almost perfect. I have an AFCO ZL1 heat exchanger with dual fans which will fit nicely in front of the Entropy after I make some mounting brackets.

Now the hard part. I have a Vintage Air 14x24” condenser that came with the ac kit. I know a smaller condenser will not exchange as much heat, but for small space like a truck cab, will it make a huge difference? I’d like to go down to a 12x20” or 12x24” condenser. It’s going to be pretty tight behind the grill with the heat exchanger and condenser. Has anyone used a smaller condenser or relocated condenser to different location?

[jhcolli]

Never mind, we figured it out. I stepped down to a 14x20 vintage air condenser and used 3/4 aluminum spacers to set it off the heat exchanger. We made brackets that kicked the bottom of the heat exchanger out so the hose fitting would fit and be easier to get on and off. Happy to provide lessons learned to anyone that is interested or needs to do something similar. I'm obviously not using the factory hood latch now!

[siggyfreud]

Looks really good. What are you going to use for hood latching? I'm going to run into a similar situation when I eventually do my LT4 swap and add AC I believe.

[jhcolli]

My buddy told me about AeroCatch hood latches and I’m looking into those. No decision yet though. Whatever I choose, it has to be flush.

[weq92f]

.
FWIW...

I have what appears to be the exact same condenser installed in my setup a few inches forward of the radiator, just like you have there. My puller fans, mounted on the engine side of the rad, were not able to pull enough air through the condenser due to all the gaps between condenser and rad.

I had to reduce those gaps using rubber sheets from SummitRacing so that air could be directed through the condenser rather than being sucked through the gaps.

This was really only a problem during very slow travel and at idle when the fans were primarily responsible for all the air flow. The A/C did not perform well during those times until after my ducting/air flow redirection work.

EDIT: D'oh...I see now your heat exchanger has fans too. Those may pull hard enough to over come your 3/4 inch gap before the condenser there but you'll want to trigger one or both of those fans when your A/C is in use!

Hth,

-klb

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by jhcolli

Situation: LS3 with Whipple and AC, in Atlanta heat and traffic.

I installed an Entropy heavy duty radiator with the 5600cfm mega fans. Fit almost perfect. I have an AFCO ZL1 heat exchanger with dual fans which will fit nicely in front of the Entropy after I make some mounting brackets.

Now the hard part. I have a Vintage Air 14x24” condenser that came with the ac kit. I know a smaller condenser will not exchange as much heat, but for small space like a truck cab, will it make a huge difference? I’d like to go down to a 12x20” or 12x24” condenser. It’s going to be pretty tight behind the grill with the heat exchanger and condenser. Has anyone used a smaller condenser or relocated condenser to different location?

With all the LS3 and ZL1 lingo, I had to check and make sure I wasn’t on Camaro5 where I spend another fair amount of my online time! Looks killer that truck is gonna run really good. The whipple is a really good package with the right pulleys and such. I’m planning twins on my Camaro from Huron speed but if not it would likely get the whipple. Can’t wait to see this one done.