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Radiator

These cars run hot, they're old, tired, and most importantly, the front end doesn't really let them breathe very well. In fact, there's a small plastic deflector on the front, and it doesn't do much, but it also does everything. Plastic front deflector on the concrete with rusty screws, and the Z28 rocker Remove it and see how well your Camaro performs.

Another issue with some of these cars is the 3 blade fan, and the tiny radiator. Maybe these worked well when everything was new, but things wear down and efficiency is lost, so they're inadequate now.

At some point, someone swapped out the original radiator with this workhorse. It's a better radiator, but it's at the end of its life. While looking for a suitable replacement radiator, I came to discover that they come in many shapes and sizes, requiring different coolant hoses, and possibly also needing coolant lines Old radiator in the engine bay with a Motomas hose and clamp to be modified. Thankfully, after much searching, I found this, the exact radiator I'm already rocking. more here

Removing the radiator is pretty straight forward. It sits in a trough on rubber isolators and is held in place by a fan shroud at the top. My non-ac 305 doesn't get a full shroud, it gets a half shroud. Removing 4 bolts with a 10mm socket exposes the top of the radiator. The stock radiator hose clamps can be removed with a flathead screwdriver, and that leaves only the transmission coolant lines. These metal lines are best removed with the correct flare nut wrench. Be prepared to catch some transmission fluid that will definitely leak from the rad and the lines.

Radiator core and tanks on the garage floor beside the Camaro Camaro front end with the radiator removed and the engine exposed

Once you get the radiator put back in and hooked up, it's time to put the fan shroud back on. If we were using a stock radiator this would be much easier, but the shroud never fit properly on this oversized radiator and now it's the time to do something about it. So I grabbed my dremel, crossed my fingers, and started chopping. photos here

New radiator with a white core and black plastic tanks

Look, it's not perfect, but it's much better than it was. It does its job, and how perfect does it need to be? The car works, remember to stop thinking so much and try to have fun.

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