RADIATOR INLET AND OUTLET REVERSED WILL IT BE OK?

[9secondz28]

its funny that a few of you say the pumps pickup has to be on the bottom because the stock radiator the pickup is on top and the one from the thermastat is on the bottom (4th gen camaro)

[Lucky13]

its funny that a few of you say the pumps pickup has to be on the bottom because the stock radiator the pickup is on top and the one from the thermastat is on the bottom (4th gen camaro)

That may be true, but its also true those cars have the worst track record for cooling problems. Also the system is designed in certian ways to help it work like that. A normal system would have to have some things setup just right for it to accomadate a reverse flow. A bleeder system right off, and the inlet, even though its the upper hose, would have to be designed so that its under water at all times to work properly.


This is one of the reasons why the 4th gen Camaro has many cooling problems, even the smallest amount of air gets in the system and its in trouble. If it gets even a little low on fluid, again you have probelms. And of course with the Camaro even the air flow has problems sometimes if the air dam gets mess up on them.

Most systems set up this way will have a sealed radiator with a remote mounted fill bottle and cap ( no cap on the radiator). Without it, well you end up with problems like the Camaro.

A reverse flow system does work quite well when designed right though. Hook a old school system up like that and it will be toast pretty quick without modifying the system.


Jess

[9secondz28]

I can tell you this jess I was making around 550 rwhp 160 thermastat and an electric water pump and set fans to come on at 160 never ever got hot stock everything else now I'm as you can see doing a custom setup for my turbo stroker and all to fit my one single question on this forum is .... WILL THIS RADIATOR WORK !!! Please anyone know for sure that knows cooling systems you can tell me the geomatry and phisics of water and cooling I just wat a yes or no thanks

its funny that a few of you say the pumps pickup has to be on the bottom because the stock radiator the pickup is on top and the one from the thermastat is on the bottom (4th gen camaro)

That may be true, but its also true those cars have the worst track record for cooling problems. Also the system is designed in certian ways to help it work like that. A normal system would have to have some things setup just right for it to accomadate a reverse flow. A bleeder system right off, and the inlet, even though its the upper hose, would have to be designed so that its under water at all times to work properly.


This is one of the reasons why the 4th gen Camaro has many cooling problems, even the smallest amount of air gets in the system and its in trouble. If it gets even a little low on fluid, again you have probelms. And of course with the Camaro even the air flow has problems sometimes if the air dam gets mess up on them.

Most systems set up this way will have a sealed radiator with a remote mounted fill bottle and cap ( no cap on the radiator). Without it, well you end up with problems like the Camaro.

A reverse flow system does work quite well when designed right though. Hook a old school system up like that and it will be toast pretty quick without modifying the system.


Jess

[ZIGGY]

Sorry, 9second, I think many of us missed that it was a 4gen Camaro since you didn't initially say so. Only know (or think I know) enough about reverse cooling to agree with Lucky13's comments. In your case, my guess would be you would pull from the top and return to bottom as with your stock, and that to which side wouldn't matter. Have you asked the radiator manufacturer?

[jsgarage]

I work mostly on Panteras which have an undersized radiator to begin with and run mid-engined 351-Cs as well so there are 5 foot long in & out pipes to the radiator. I've hooked the in and out pipes to the rad backward a couple of times as a test, and on 500-mile road trips in our high-desert summers, there's no difference in cooling.
On how to rig your Chev's plumbing: if you feed hot water to the bottom of a rad and let cool water overflow out the top back to the waterpump, that tends to chase air out of the system with the water. Rigging it the other way, air bubbles in the core want to go up but water is flowing down. So it's harder to bleed all the air out of such a system. Once all air is out, they both work about the same, in my experience. Nice adaption, by the way.

[drz]

its funny that a few of you say the pumps pickup has to be on the bottom because the stock radiator the pickup is on top and the one from the thermastat is on the bottom (4th gen camaro)

Bit of a misconception in here. It was the GM LT1 that had the reverse cooling configuration only. The GM LS engines (LS1, etc.) have conventional cooling direction, but the thermostat is on the inlet side of the water pump housing. All GM engines pull water from the bottom of the radiator.

I wouldn't think it should cost you more than $50 to have the radiator bungs moved around, any decent radiator shop that services 18wheeler radiators can do it for you. That said, having the hoses hooked up backwards shouldn't make much of a difference until the radiator water level drops below the outlet height, and flow to the pump stops.

[9secondz28]

thanks everyone i did learn alot more about cooling systems but still dont know for sure if it will work or not with my rev cooling setup so im just going to sell on ebay uless anyone is interested? ill get the other radiator when i can get all the cash up i just dont want to over heat a brand new motor

[9secondz28]

just to let everyone know i took it to a welder and moved the in and out locations and added my steampipe/crossoverpipe an bung as well it cost $80 to do so but i decided to buy some argon and aluminum wire and start to to it myself im good with steel so we shall see for future stuff...

[Mpcoluv]

How about this
http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/itemdy ... y=EMUSTANG
There is an adaptor metal hose that adapts 5.0 ford motors with the opposite side water pump outlet for use with early mustang radiators.

[RCJ]

The reason the cap is on the suction side off the rad. is to take advantage of the pressure drop across the rad.By putting the cap at the lowest pressure piont in the system the block will see higher pressure thus raiseing the boiling piont of the water.Will it work with the cap on the high pressure side of the rad.?I've seen them work good like that if everything else in the system is work properly.I would run a high pressure cap in 24 to 27 lbs range.

[cv67]

Old post but why not do the pipe/hose thing as recommended?

Or use a reverse rotation pump...Id imagine the pump is better off being gravity fed