Holy Clogged Radiators Batman

Just reminding you to clean your radiators...... I have cleaned other before but this car had more than I had seen.

Wait until you split the two rads and wash out the remaining debris, you'll wonder how he cooling system actually worked. I make a point of removing the bumper and splitting the radiators every 2 years......

Tim split the condenser away from the radiator. That's where you will find the most crap. A few bolts and it slides to the side and hangs there exposing the crap. You might want to check my previous postings re protection over the air scoops now you have the bumper off the car.

When I cleaned mine, I found about a dozen cigarette butts and an entire wrapper from a 20 oz. bottled water along with the usual leaves, sticks, bugs, etc. It's amazing how much stuff gets in there.

Yeah, that is today's task (splitting them). Dennis, no wrappers but several CIG butts. I am installing a new TA bumper. And it has new duct work. I will look at seeing how I can cover them. Maybe with some mesh.

By installing a mesh, you are blocking air flow to the radiators.

I Use this attached to a shopvac and vacuum it out once a month - I know not as thorough as removing bumper etc but allows me to do it more frequently Amazon Amazon

Imo, I hear you. But so it the debris. The good thing is Colorado does not have the leaf volume of back east etc. This was a south Texas car and the leaves in there we hard as wood. And on my drivers side there was a wad of fur. I almost wonder if a small animal was hit at one time. It was like an archeological dig. HAHA

I found a dead bird in mine once. Another time, I found foam insulation in one side and a hunk of tarpaper in the other. It's impressive how much crap they can accumulate.

Was cleaning some stuff on my old M Roadster and found this. The front of the car is to the left. How he got there is anyones guess.

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BS to that statement. ROADSESSION.. That attachment cannot remove the crap that accumulates between the rads and Condenser. That is impossible. They have to be split.

^^ drive a car down the road and stick a window screen out the window...hold on to it if you can. That's increased air resistance, which is to say reduced airflow through that screen. The size of the screen mesh determines the restriction to flow. In order to be an effective filter, the mesh would need to be fairly small, resulting in a measurable resistance to relative airflow. Basic aerodynamics. A larger mesh pattern would offer less restriction, but not catch as much debris.

http://www.customcargrills.com has various styles of mesh and thicknesses available in different sizes. They have them powder coated or not. Another nice feature is they give you the air flow restriction of the mesh as a percentage of open area. I used the Diamond XXL Mesh as it is the thickest gauge for strength with the largest openings, i.e. most air flow. I still get some garbage but its limited to small stuff that the shop vac seems to be able to suck out easily.

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Good site. I've always pondered the grill mesh for the air openings for the radiators. The problem is that even the one with the most airflow still cuts down air by 23% - according to the page above - and living in CA I'm not sure if I could live with that.

23% restriction does not translate to 23% less air flow. The major restriction is the radiators themselves. As long as the restriction you are adding is a small fraction of the total restriction, you will see little effect in the total flow.

Of course the main "restriction" is the radiators themselves...placing the largest possible surface area into the air intake provides the maximum heat transfer, which is the whole point, after all. The act of "radiating" ( the desired function) shouldn't be confused with restricting the airflow through the plenum (air intake ducting). One is a desired effect, the other reduces the overall transfer potential of the radiators by reducing the CFM through the duct itself. It is what it is.