UPS Delivered Exquisite Fine Art

[zonker]

Thanks @Desert Dino for the reminder. I have it covered with switch at my fingertips that controls the power to fan relays. Also I have a very heavy nylon tarp that is sized to the grill.. the louvers in my hood and overlaps the passenger side headlamp area to help with water contamination of the intake to the air filter. No snorkel.. just not sure yet if I want one.

 

[Pierce]

Any updates you’re willing to share?

 

[Road Apple]

Beautiful craftsmanship !! Look forward to your write up and results.

 

[dsmud4u]

I believe these around 1600 depending on options.

Rad alone quoted to me four months ago was about $1,100.

 

[zonker]

Thanks for the query. Life got in the way for the last 3 or so weeks. Consequently I have been working completely in bits and pieces on the install. Along with the radiator there were quite a few other things that I wanted to attend to while I had the front of the engine bay stripped down.

I am in the process of reversing the teardown into a build up. I will post some of my thoughts on what I did and how it is going. Hopefully I will get to the posting in the next day or so. The good news however is that Ron Davis the owner of Ron Davis Racing Radiators is an amazing guy and wants to do everything to ensure that his radiator is completely perfect in every way. I have first hand knowledge of this support and I would only buy from him if something happened to my first Ron Davis. I appreciate that kind of approach from a business owner in every way as it doesn't happen enough in todays world.

Stay tuned.. more to come.

 

[zonker]

Wow.. I can’t believe the whole past week has evaporated. My apologies as I had promised at least a bit of an update. Life just will not stop getting in the way! Please stay tuned and I promise that my days of making excuses will come to an end shortly. At least I sure hope so. I know my 80 would like some love and attention.

 

[zonker]

Since I made promises that I couldn't keep in regards to writing some content for this post.. my apologies once again. I am just a "Bad" and sometimes thoughtless MUD member. Guess I can blame it on my career work.. my work I should do at home.. and a bunch of other stuff that just gets in the way of the fun stuff in my world. Where ever it comes from.. I am guessing that it is JUST life and we all deal with it!

Finally the Ron Davis radiator is in and living well in its new home. As a refresher I ordered the version with electric fans. My initial thoughts before I received the box.. it would be a no big deal install. Drop the radiator right into place.. hook up a couple of wires and I am off to the freedom of driving miles without the thermostat even opening. Almost true.

There is no just dropping this "big girl" into place and hooking up a couple of wires. This is a big radiator! The fans and what makes them run.. aka the wiring and such is beautifully done.. but you have to find a place for the 10ga wires to reside. They have to be safe and away from harm. Unless of course you don't mind lots of arcs.. sparks and going dark while driving down the Interstate. I am saying between the transmission lines and routing and installing the extremely well constructed wiring harness.. lots of attention has to be paid to routing.

I will go into all of the fun and foibles in regards to the installation in another post. It was interesting. Meanwhile I have a few simple temperature numbers that might mean something and then again maybe not. However I did find that "I was impressed!" and considering we are heading into winter I felt I had to offer something to the folks here on MUD. So hear goes.. nothing exciting.. nothing scientific.. just some numbers for conversation sake and to make me feel better.

Started the LX for the first time yesterday.. Saturday night. My garage / shop was 76º. It took bloody forever to warm up to the thermostat opening temp. Which ironically is when the fans turn on. Total time to temp.. a good 30+ minutes. I do believe that the T-stat is a 185º version. According to my infra-red temperature tool the upper hose was at 172º. The lower hose was at 92.6º. The fans had been running for about 1 minute. I thought that was a nice drop top to bottom. However I don't have anything to compare it to.. just that it seemed pretty cool (no pun intended).

Now it was time to run the temperature up in the radiator (verified with my Ultra Gauge}. With fans shut-off via my interior switch.. I let the temperature rise to an arbitrary 203º. Turned on the Spal fans and the temp dropped to 185º in 77 seconds. Dropped to 181.4º in 119 seconds. Next little test.. 208.4º to 185º in 81 seconds. Finally 212º to 185º in 149 seconds.

Of course I realize that my in shop tests do not tell the real story. So headed out today to run my Thermocure thru the cooling system and provide a little stress test at the same time. Headed up a highway that climbs from 5k feet here at home up to a good 8500 foot elevation. Summer time would have been a great test.. unfortunately we are headed towards winter here at the home base. Good news tho' as I headed down the street.. my very accurate VDO ambient temp gauge showed 72º. It is a steady climb not too long after leaving the house. After about 8 miles it starts the real climb. For those 8 miles I had the fans shut off and never registered any higher than 189º. That is driving directly into the sun.. no clouds and with no shade.

Topped out at the summit and my highest temperature was 186.4º. To top that off.. I only had to shift down to second once. Normally at anytime of the year.. 3 downshifts to 2nd are the norm. Uphill pitches that you cannot gain any momentum for. There is no question in my mind that I had a bit more power. Has to be the fans. Normally my viscous coupling is fully locked up as my temperature is around 200º give or take. At times 212º. At that temp the viscous fan hub is super hot and solid.. if so then the engine is working really hard to turn it.

There you have my little snippet as to the early view regarding the performance of the Ron Davis. I will try really hard to write up a piece regarding the install. Well on second thought considering my checkered past for putting fingers to keyboard...

 

[zonker]

Took an hour long drive early last night. Outside ambient temp 60 degrees. Probably needed to cover part of the radiator in order to get the temp up to “normal”. No heavy engine load.. just out and about our local countryside. Nor very little stop and go. Highest coolant temperature 181.4. I am happy so far.

 

[Broski]

Took an hour long drive early last night. Outside ambient temp 60 degrees. Probably needed to cover part of the radiator in order to get the temp up to “normal”. No heavy engine load.. just out and about our local countryside. Nor very little stop and go. Highest coolant temperature 181.4. I am happy so far.

I am assuming that you had the fans off ?

 

[zonker]

I am assuming that you had the fans off ?

Ooops.. this is what happens when I try to wake up before 10am! Yes the fans were NOT on.

 

[Marco Lau]

My Ron Davis paired with a modified hub with thicker oil and adjusted timing on the spring along with 2 dual Spal pusher fan up front with a vented hood is more than enough for hot SoCal/Death Valley type wheeling. I can even run Full AC on 4Lo 100 degree heat and my coolant temp stays below 200F

 

[Broski]

My Ron Davis paired with a modified hub with thicker oil and adjusted timing on the spring along with 2 dual Spal pusher fan up front with a vented hood is more than enough for hot SoCal/Death Valley type wheeling. I can even run Full AC on 4Lo 100 degree heat and my coolant temp stays below 200F

Very impressive, this is the kind of feed back I'm looking for.
In my opinion totally worth the money if I can run the AC when I'm rock crawling and it's 100 degree out !!!

 

[HARDGEAR]

Wow, what a cool tread. My cooling upgrade was a new fan! Electric fans must give a 5hp crank gain. Nice.

 

[zonker]

I too have a vented hood. I installed the Poison Spider version insert a couple of years ago. There was a thread back then in regards to this large vented panel. Unfortunately you have to cut a fair amount of hood. But the good news.. it dropped my engine bay temps and coolant temps. On a hot day you could see the heat waves coming out of the vents when the engine was running. Lived in Oregon at the time and water intrusion via rain was never a problem. Thanks to all the waterproof connecters under the hood.

Don't have dual Spal pusher fans.. but I do have the shroud and Spal puller fans that Ron Davis builds. The shroud is beautifully made. With dual fans it pretty much covers the whole backside of the radiator fins and tubes. Also as a bonus it would be just about impossible to get a shortened finger because the fan got in the way of your blunder.

If I have my SPAL part numbers correct.. each fan moves 1350 cfm. That is a lot of air! With the fans on I can stand at the front of my ARB bumper and feel the air pulling me to my doom. At this time all indicators point to pulling our little RTT trailer (loaded about 1250 lbs).. our 3 Basenji's (28 lbs per dog).. all of our stuff that makes for an enjoyable journey.. plus our two older adult butts and not have to eyeball the Ultra-Gauge near as much when climbing the uphills that a journey throws at you.

I feel it was money well spent.. even tho' I choked when I gave him my debit card number. I am sure there are a lot of great radiators out on the market. Most of them substantially less expensive. But I know one thing for sure.. all Ron Davis builds is radiators. I could literally drive to his shop in Arizona to visit his operation and speak with him in person. In fact he told me to stop by sometime for an in-depth tour and he would love to see my LandCruiser.. LX that is! If my memory serves me correct.. he has been at it for 35 years. Also his client list is pretty impressive. Lots of Dakar competitors. Quite a few top racing teams. Drivers such as Robby Gordon spec his radiators. I came to the conclusion that if these radiators survived and worked really well in competitive environments.. they should do VERY well in a little old LandCruiser.

 

[desmocruiser]

Good to hear the success!

I am in the radiator research process and obviously these are at the top of the list, just looking for some feedback before I go the next step.

After a few weeks of operation, is the radiator upgrade to the RD the biggest improvement or do you feel the dual fans are also a significant contributor to the better temperatures?

As a note, I am Currently running a TRD Supercharger with an oil improved blue fan clutch, aftermarket radiator, 3FE fan blade. I also plan to do the 100 series aux fan upgrade to help, sounds a a similar set up you had previously without the vented hood. I still get situations, such as crossing Vail pass or slow speed off roading in the Summer the temps get to a point of cutting off the AC compressor that I hope to eliminate.

 

[93yotasr5]

I’ll take the fan clutch off your hands if you’re getting rid of it.

 

[FJRanger]

Good to hear the success!

I am in the radiator research process and obviously these are at the top of the list, just looking for some feedback before I go the next step.

After a few weeks of operation, is the radiator upgrade to the RD the biggest improvement or do you feel the dual fans are also a significant contributor to the better temperatures?

As a note, I am Currently running a TRD Supercharger with an oil improved blue fan clutch, aftermarket radiator, 3FE fan blade. I also plan to do the 100 series aux fan upgrade to help, sounds a a similar set up you had previously without the vented hood. I still get situations, such as crossing Vail pass or slow speed off roading in the Summer the temps get to a point of cutting off the AC compressor that I hope to eliminate.

There's talk else where on Mud the orange diesel fan clutch along with the 1FZ's fan & shroud is the best non-electric option for the sc'ed rigs. I think Witsend sell them with Landtank's adjustments.

 

[zonker]

Well for the brief period that I have had the Ron Davis installed.. I am extremely happy with the cooling capacity with that radiator. I know it maybe winter.. but we have a pretty good elevation climb near our location and thru the whole climb the coolant barely gets above the thermostat opening temperature of 185 degrees. In fact I can do most of the climb with the SPAL fans shut off.

I do have some reservations as to whether I would install the SPAL fans again. With both of them running.. they are pretty loud. Not so much in the cabin.. but roll the window down and you know they are working. On the plus side they move one heck of a lot of air thru the radiator. In addition the cast aluminum inlet pipe from the head to the top of radiator has to be removed. Drilled and tapped for the Thermostatic switch. Not a big deal to do.. but that pipe is not the easiest to remove. The other part of the fans that is a bit of a bugger.. the wiring install. I used to have a sideline business of wiring cars for whatever need.. so I am pretty comfortable with wiring.. even if I am upside down. Well the install of the Ron Davis wiring for the fans could not be more straight forward as the harness is beautifully built.. but it is tough to get all of the 12g wires routed cleanly from the lower part of the radiator up to the battery and other locations. In addition I believe there is a bit of an calculation error in the GEP relay housing. The individual relays are solid state.. awesome. But the load fuses are 40a mini's. Bad idea for two reasons. One you cannot buy any additional 40a fuses in the Mini variety anywhere outside of possibly getting them thru an electrical supplier on the Internet. They are feed by 12g wiring in and out. ON a 40a Mini FUSE! The kit comes with two spares and it is stipulated in the instructions to not lose them. NO Kidding!!

After 6 weeks of the install both of my 40a fuses appeared to have overheated and of course decided to disconnect from each of their legs. This was exactly at the same time. I went over every inch of wiring.. I ohm'd every inch as well using a Fluke wire pin breach. No problems NO where. Okay.. maybe I missed something.. pretty much doubt it.. but I went ahead and replaced the blown versions with the extra 40a fuses. Of course not much confidence that life was going to be good. Used a Fluke clamp ammeter and measured the load being pulled by both fans. 22amps per fan.. well within the rating of a 40a fuse. 3 weeks later same thing.. slowly blown fuses. So I had to dredge up out of my truly old memory a solution to solve the problem.

My theory is as such. I ran the two individual fan power wires off of my AUX battery. This meant a reach of about 3 feet from the GEP housing to the battery. Should not be a problem as that is way less than an ohm of resistance. I verified the resistance from end to end and it was about .05-.06 ohms. Not as low as I would like it.. but definitely not to worry about.. but maybe. SO I yarded the whole harness.. complete.. out of the engine bay.. lined it out on my workbench and rechecked it again for resistance or any sign of heat on the plastic loom or breach of the wires from friction.. ANYWHERE. Nope none! So theory number two now that the harness is out and what I believe is the true story.. the 40amp mini fuses cannot in anyway handle the current needed to run the fans. You can buy up to a 30a.. but no 40's and there is a reason for that. The legs on the mini fuses look like my old cycling legs.. pretty skinny. The fusible bridge in the fuse is of a very small diameter and it is 12g wire feeding the fuses in and out.

So what's a LandCruiser geek supposed to do in an event like this.. PUNT! I clipped the wires going up into the really nice GEP housing for each fuse. Installed waterproof 12g Littelfuse holders with ATC 40a fuses. At least I can buy them anywhere.. probably even in Timbuktu! The harness came out looking really sanitary given the surgery involved. Then I wrapped up the whole process by running the main power from the starter battery. Within 12" of where the GEP housing is mounted.

So far so good. I am trying to drive the LC as much as possible to test it out. Each day to wrap up my journey's end.. I pull the fuses which are easy to access and inspect them for any signs of discoloring or any other amperage induced malady. Nothing.. fuses look like brand new each and every time I have checked them. Fingers are crossed with strong optimism as we plan on leaving for a bit of an extended trip within the next few weeks.

There you have it.. my unrelenting ramblings.. with hopefully a little bit of insight included!

 

[desmocruiser]

Well for the brief period that I have had the Ron Davis installed.. I am extremely happy with the cooling capacity with that radiator. I know it maybe winter.. but we have a pretty good elevation climb near our location and thru the whole climb the coolant barely gets above the thermostat opening temperature of 185 degrees. In fact I can do most of the climb with the SPAL fans shut off.

I do have some reservations as to whether I would install the SPAL fans again. With both of them running.. they are pretty loud. Not so much in the cabin.. but roll the window down and you know they are working. On the plus side they move one heck of a lot of air thru the radiator. In addition the cast aluminum inlet pipe from the head to the top of radiator has to be removed. Drilled and tapped for the Thermostatic switch. Not a big deal to do.. but that pipe is not the easiest to remove. The other part of the fans that is a bit of a bugger.. the wiring install. I used to have a sideline business of wiring cars for whatever need.. so I am pretty comfortable with wiring.. even if I am upside down. Well the install of the Ron Davis wiring for the fans could not be more straight forward as the harness is beautifully built.. but it is tough to get all of the 12g wires routed cleanly from the lower part of the radiator up to the battery and other locations. In addition I believe there is a bit of an calculation error in the GEP relay housing. The individual relays are solid state.. awesome. But the load fuses are 40a mini's. Bad idea for two reasons. One you cannot buy any additional 40a fuses in the Mini variety anywhere outside of possibly getting them thru an electrical supplier on the Internet. They are feed by 12g wiring in and out. ON a 40a Mini FUSE! The kit comes with two spares and it is stipulated in the instructions to not lose them. NO Kidding!!

After 6 weeks of the install both of my 40a fuses appeared to have overheated and of course decided to disconnect from each of their legs. This was exactly at the same time. I went over every inch of wiring.. I ohm'd every inch as well using a Fluke wire pin breach. No problems NO where. Okay.. maybe I missed something.. pretty much doubt it.. but I went ahead and replaced the blown versions with the extra 40a fuses. Of course not much confidence that life was going to be good. Used a Fluke clamp ammeter and measured the load being pulled by both fans. 22amps per fan.. well within the rating of a 40a fuse. 3 weeks later same thing.. slowly blown fuses. So I had to dredge up out of my truly old memory a solution to solve the problem.

My theory is as such. I ran the two individual fan power wires off of my AUX battery. This meant a reach of about 3 feet from the GEP housing to the battery. Should not be a problem as that is way less than an ohm of resistance. I verified the resistance from end to end and it was about .05-.06 ohms. Not as low as I would like it.. but definitely not to worry about.. but maybe. SO I yarded the whole harness.. complete.. out of the engine bay.. lined it out on my workbench and rechecked it again for resistance or any sign of heat on the plastic loom or breach of the wires from friction.. ANYWHERE. Nope none! So theory number two now that the harness is out and what I believe is the true story.. the 40amp mini fuses cannot in anyway handle the current needed to run the fans. You can buy up to a 30a.. but no 40's and there is a reason for that. The legs on the mini fuses look like my old cycling legs.. pretty skinny. The fusible bridge in the fuse is of a very small diameter and it is 12g wire feeding the fuses in and out.

So what's a LandCruiser geek supposed to do in an event like this.. PUNT! I clipped the wires going up into the really nice GEP housing for each fuse. Installed waterproof 12g Littelfuse holders with ATC 40a fuses. At least I can buy them anywhere.. probably even in Timbuktu! The harness came out looking really sanitary given the surgery involved. Then I wrapped up the whole process by running the main power from the starter battery. Within 12" of where the GEP housing is mounted.

So far so good. I am trying to drive the LC as much as possible to test it out. Each day to wrap up my journey's end.. I pull the fuses which are easy to access and inspect them for any signs of discoloring or any other amperage induced malady. Nothing.. fuses look like brand new each and every time I have checked them. Fingers are crossed with strong optimism as we plan on leaving for a bit of an extended trip within the next few weeks.

There you have it.. my unrelenting ramblings.. with hopefully a little bit of insight included!

Thank you for the detailed response and glad to hear you are enjoying your Cruiser and the radiator and fan combo, did exactly (after a bit of personal design improvement) what you had hoped!

My next steps are to give Ron Davis‘s shop a call and work through my goals and make a decision between just the standard RD radiator with fan clutch and aux fan mod or with the electric fans.............if I had your knowledge, understanding, and wiring ability it would be an easier decision to go with your ultimate set up!

 

[Broski]

Well for the brief period that I have had the Ron Davis installed.. I am extremely happy with the cooling capacity with that radiator. I know it maybe winter.. but we have a pretty good elevation climb near our location and thru the whole climb the coolant barely gets above the thermostat opening temperature of 185 degrees. In fact I can do most of the climb with the SPAL fans shut off.

I do have some reservations as to whether I would install the SPAL fans again. With both of them running.. they are pretty loud. Not so much in the cabin.. but roll the window down and you know they are working. On the plus side they move one heck of a lot of air thru the radiator. In addition the cast aluminum inlet pipe from the head to the top of radiator has to be removed. Drilled and tapped for the Thermostatic switch. Not a big deal to do.. but that pipe is not the easiest to remove. The other part of the fans that is a bit of a bugger.. the wiring install. I used to have a sideline business of wiring cars for whatever need.. so I am pretty comfortable with wiring.. even if I am upside down. Well the install of the Ron Davis wiring for the fans could not be more straight forward as the harness is beautifully built.. but it is tough to get all of the 12g wires routed cleanly from the lower part of the radiator up to the battery and other locations. In addition I believe there is a bit of an calculation error in the GEP relay housing. The individual relays are solid state.. awesome. But the load fuses are 40a mini's. Bad idea for two reasons. One you cannot buy any additional 40a fuses in the Mini variety anywhere outside of possibly getting them thru an electrical supplier on the Internet. They are feed by 12g wiring in and out. ON a 40a Mini FUSE! The kit comes with two spares and it is stipulated in the instructions to not lose them. NO Kidding!!

After 6 weeks of the install both of my 40a fuses appeared to have overheated and of course decided to disconnect from each of their legs. This was exactly at the same time. I went over every inch of wiring.. I ohm'd every inch as well using a Fluke wire pin breach. No problems NO where. Okay.. maybe I missed something.. pretty much doubt it.. but I went ahead and replaced the blown versions with the extra 40a fuses. Of course not much confidence that life was going to be good. Used a Fluke clamp ammeter and measured the load being pulled by both fans. 22amps per fan.. well within the rating of a 40a fuse. 3 weeks later same thing.. slowly blown fuses. So I had to dredge up out of my truly old memory a solution to solve the problem.

My theory is as such. I ran the two individual fan power wires off of my AUX battery. This meant a reach of about 3 feet from the GEP housing to the battery. Should not be a problem as that is way less than an ohm of resistance. I verified the resistance from end to end and it was about .05-.06 ohms. Not as low as I would like it.. but definitely not to worry about.. but maybe. SO I yarded the whole harness.. complete.. out of the engine bay.. lined it out on my workbench and rechecked it again for resistance or any sign of heat on the plastic loom or breach of the wires from friction.. ANYWHERE. Nope none! So theory number two now that the harness is out and what I believe is the true story.. the 40amp mini fuses cannot in anyway handle the current needed to run the fans. You can buy up to a 30a.. but no 40's and there is a reason for that. The legs on the mini fuses look like my old cycling legs.. pretty skinny. The fusible bridge in the fuse is of a very small diameter and it is 12g wire feeding the fuses in and out.

So what's a LandCruiser geek supposed to do in an event like this.. PUNT! I clipped the wires going up into the really nice GEP housing for each fuse. Installed waterproof 12g Littelfuse holders with ATC 40a fuses. At least I can buy them anywhere.. probably even in Timbuktu! The harness came out looking really sanitary given the surgery involved. Then I wrapped up the whole process by running the main power from the starter battery. Within 12" of where the GEP housing is mounted.

So far so good. I am trying to drive the LC as much as possible to test it out. Each day to wrap up my journey's end.. I pull the fuses which are easy to access and inspect them for any signs of discoloring or any other amperage induced malady. Nothing.. fuses look like brand new each and every time I have checked them. Fingers are crossed with strong optimism as we plan on leaving for a bit of an extended trip within the next few weeks.

There you have it.. my unrelenting ramblings.. with hopefully a little bit of insight included!

Thank for taking the time to post, I really like the RD rad. and this info is very valuable.