Preparing A Tiger To Live In The Arizona Desert
By Cullen Bennett
B9472658
September 15, 1999
Preface: - "In The Beginning"
Anyone who has owned a stock Tiger for any time, in an even "slightly" warm environment, will readily attest to the fact that they run HOT on the thermometer. This fact is further aggravated when additional modifications are made to "improve" the performance abilities. These include such items such as high performance cams, oversize cylinder bore, higher compression and the list goes on. The basic physics of more power generated, dictates that for a fixed efficiency, the power not utilized in the process of accelerating a mass (the car) is manifested in the form of additional heat. The more of this heat that can be dissipated the less the car accumulates or "heats up". The primary function of the cooling system in a car is to radiate this excess heat into the surrounding environment. Thus, the "radiator" performs just this task by radiating the heat from a higher temperature source (i.e. the engine) to the cooler surroundings. In my case this cooler environment is the Arizona desert where I have personally been in a 123 degree Fahrenheit ambient temperature. That’s when walking on an asphalt parking lot feels like you are walking on a mattress. Sort of spongy and soft. You can say all that you want about it being a "dry heat" it's just plain HOT! The heat transfer out of the engine is accomplished by passing ambient air through the fins of the radiator and then allowed to escape back into the environment.
In the Beginning, I had been using the stainless steel flex fan that the previous owner had left in the bottom of the trunk when he pulled the motor out. ( I bought the car with the engine sitting next to it on the ground. It had been that way for 13 years.) Also at that point in time the radiator was still the original three row brass and there was no shroud at all. I had an real indication that things were not going to be easy after the first time I drove the car around the block after rebuilding the engine and pulled back into the garage. I had only gone out for maybe a couple of miles and it wasn't particularly hot weather either. Upon shutting the engine off I heard the proverbial gurgle....gurgle...puke. All of the new antifreeze and distilled water was running out of the garage down the driveway. There was an immediate discount on my part that this episode was related to a "tight" engine, and things would get better. Well after about the fourth episode of this identical behavior, I was resigned to the fact that "Houston..., We have a problem".
Part One; "In search of The Radiant One"
My first reaction was to have the original radiator "cleaned out". Obviously it had worked at one time, cars just don't go around with the thermometer pegged all the time. I took it to the radiator shop and they boiled it and rodded the tubes out, all to no avail. Next, they said they could put a 4 row core into it, but that it "might" still have an occasional problem. At this point, someone suggested going with an aluminum radiator, but, that would be big bucks ($$$$). Actually compared to what they wanted to charge me for a 4 row make-over that "might" still have a problem, the differential cost wasn't really all that bad. I asked around and found a shop across town that is one of the best in the country for manufacturing aluminum radiators. It even has favorable acclaim from some of the big-rig 18 wheelers that haul heavy stuff across the desert on a regular basis. I figured if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
The radiator that I chose to go with was custom manufactured by:
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