Tiger Cooling Mods

64beam · Oct 27, 2008

Hi,

I was reading through the cooling article written by Tiger Tom and Chuck King and it suggests using a Fairlane water pump pulley which increases the pump speed and is stronger than the Tiger's pulley. For those that have done these mods, is the Fairlane pulley made from thicker metal or is the design different? Has anyone experienced problems with the standard pulley?

Regards, Robin.

mikephillips · Oct 27, 2008

The actual Fairlane pulley is smaller in diameter and a 2 groove design. I'm not aware of any problems with the original, the Fairlane one just drive the pump a bit faster.

George Coleman · Oct 27, 2008

Why would you need the water to flow faster? To extract more heat you would need to slow down the flow!

alpinegt · Oct 27, 2008

The purpose of the smaller pulley is to turn the fan faster not to increase the water flow. The two fairmonts which were sold in Georgia have long since been crushed. When I was addressing the cooling problem on my Tiger, I could not locate a Fairmont pulley. I bit the bullet and had an aluminum pulley turned. The Fairmont pulley is 12% smaller. I had my pulley turned 15% smaller.

This modification gave good improvement in cooling. I have turned the engine 6500 rpms a number of times with no problems The nose of the pulley (at the bolt holes ) was left 1/2 inch thick.

Russ

P.S.

I am running a 15" Derale flex fan. Engine had to be raised 1" at front to clear the steering rack.

Duke · Oct 27, 2008

I also have the smaller pulley and am very happy with the cooling. I also have the 15" Derale flex fan. I just shimmed the engine 1/2" and have good fan clearance.

To get the pulley, I searched for on-line salvage yards. I gave all the info on the pulley and got one for $24.

Ken Ellis · Oct 27, 2008

Here's an email I got from George Barton in Ohio, with news that Bob Wooldrige here in Columbus had a run of these made, if you can't find one in a yard. I'll put the text of the email below, but I'll delete his email and phone details, as he may not want these details in the clear on the web. If you PM me, I'll send you the missing contact information, as well as the picture that was attached to the email.

Haven't seen the parts in person, but I do know Bob and he's a good guy.

George's email cut & paste:

Bobby Woolridge, long time Sunbeam aficienado and Tiger owner (he was a wash
boy at Sports Car Forum when Donn Sussler was beating A Production Corvettes
with a Tiger at Mid-Ohio in the 60's) is making the following available for
those who may be interested. Hope the picture opens for you. I had some
difficulty at first.
For Sale
Aluminum water pump/fan pulley hub. Patterned after the 78-82 Fairmont and
Mercury Zephyr, 5 3/16" diameter hub, as noted in the March 2008 edition of
the Roots Review. This hub has only one groove, 6061 aluminum, and can be
anodized or painted. Hub will increase fan speed, and in conjunction with
other modifications improve your tiger cooling. The appearance is as
original, when painted or anodized. Call Bobby at 614-XXX-XXXX ( leave
message ) or Email XXXX@XXXX.XX.com $120.00 add $15.00 for anodized
and add $6.00 shipping.

Ken in Columbus.

alpine_64 · Oct 27, 2008

64beam said:
Hi,

I was reading through the cooling article written by Tiger Tom and Chuck King and it suggests using a Fairlane water pump pulley which increases the pump speed and is stronger than the Tiger's pulley. For those that have done these mods, is the Fairlane pulley made from thicker metal or is the design different? Has anyone experienced problems with the standard pulley?

Regards, Robin.

Rob,

Are you having cooling issues? Doesnt your car run thermo fans? There is a guy on ebay USA who seels these pulleys often and they go for approx 25-50... but i would not change it unless you are having issues.. and if the thermo fans are working they are a better option anyway

64beam · Oct 28, 2008

alpine_64 said:
Rob,

Are you having cooling issues? Doesnt your car run thermo fans? There is a guy on ebay USA who seels these pulleys often and they go for approx 25-50... but i would not change it unless you are having issues.. and if the thermo fans are working they are a better option anyway

Hi Michael,

I'm not having cooling issues with the Tiger, I was more curious as to the stress fractures that some Tiger owners had with their fan pulley. It is something that would very rarely get checked if they do have issues. It would be interesting to find out if it was the original fans or after market/modified fans that were causing the stress fractures. I do have supplementary electric fans to help keep things cool in traffic.

Regards, Robin.

64beam · Oct 28, 2008

alpinegt said:
The purpose of the smaller pulley is to turn the fan faster not to increase the water flow.QUOTE]

Hi Russ,

If the pulley is turning faster by 12%, surely the water flow will also increase . I read that you also had to raise your engine by an inch, where as others only raised theirs by half an inch. Are there different motor mounts around? Did it cause clearance issue with the bonnet/hood?

Regards, Robin.

alpinegt · Oct 28, 2008

cooling mods

Robin,

Sorry, I mistakenly indicated that I raised the front of the engine by 1/2". I actually installed a 1/2" spacer between the motor mounts and the block. This of course raised the front of the engine approximately 1". Changing motor mounts is not necessary. I used 1/2"x1" aluminum bar stock.

Just measure the distance between the bolt holes and drill away. Drill the holes over sized . This will aid in installation. If you don't have a spare block or motor mount available, I will be happy to measure for you. Additionally, you will need to use bolts that are 1/2" longer.

I too have read in the cooling article that increased water flow was detrimental. This could be true. I do know however, that anything lost with increased water flow was far overshadowed by the increased fan speed.

I am presently working on another mod which I hope will furthur help idle temps. I just purchased a detmar 4" blower which fits nicely on the right side of the engine (attached to the body brace). It will direct heat from the engine compartment down past the headers and underneath the car. This blower moves 240 cfm and is similar to those used on racecars to cool brakes.

Summers here have average daily highs of 90 to 100 defrees f.

I am also running a 302 block that is bored to max. (over 300 horsepower) Of course horsepower generates heat. I must play all the angles.

Russ

Bill Blue · Oct 28, 2008

The question of flow came up a few years ago. Increased flow helps until the flow rate through the radiator reaches about 10 ft/sec. At that point cavitation starts and the resulting bubbles destroy the water to cooling tube contact. Heat transfer drops and overheating occurs.

Bill

alpinegt · Oct 28, 2008

cooling mods

Robin,

Sorry, I neglected one of your questions. I have no bonnet clearance problems with my setup. I am using an Edelbrock performer manifold, a Holley 4150 600cfm carb and a stock oval air cleaner. I did shorten the stud which holds the air cleaner in place. I now have approximately 1/2" clearance between the bonnet and the air cleaner.

Russ

George Coleman · Oct 28, 2008

Just a note! I ran the smaller pully and a 3 row tiger rad. for ten years, I used a a Flow restrictor washer instead of a thermostat, but after I went to a griffen rad I had to go to a thermostat. The flow washer helped pull more heat out of the block and tranfered it to the radiator.

64beam · Oct 29, 2008

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Just on a bit of an off shoot, I purchased a new thermostat housing to suit my new inlet manifold that will be going on very soon. On reading the special note on the back of the packaging, it states that the housing is actually a sacrificial component

(a sacrifical anode so to speak). I was not aware that the housings had two purposes. I just found it interesting.

Regards, Robin.

mikephillips · Oct 29, 2008

Yep, I noticed that when I went to replace my thermostat the last time, the inside of the outlet housing was fairly pitted. You might want to toss a second one in the drawer in the garage to have for that eventual day you'll need to replace it.

MikeH · Oct 29, 2008

64beam said:
On reading the special note on the back of the packaging, it states that the housing is actually a sacrificial component.

Is this typical with (I assume) aluminum intakes?

64beam · Oct 30, 2008

MikeH said:
Is this typical with (I assume) aluminum intakes?

Hi Mike,

I would think so, as most of us would have a cast iron block with an aluminium intake being dis-similar metals something has to give. At least with the thermostat housing, they are easy to replace.

Regards, Robin.

alpinegt · Oct 30, 2008

I have several Alpine thermostat housings which I have accumulated over the years. All are aluminum and the necks are so badly deteriorated they could not be used. On a couple of them the neck is eaten away in places.

Russ