LS6 Swap 2nd Gen Build + New Tundra

Thanks! It’s the TE one

 

something like an MR2 scoop on either side of the 3rd brake light? or on top of the show tower?

 

Is the radiator only in the bed? I’d be curious if having anything up front (where the wind is blasting at it at 70+ mph) would have any benefit. I think I maybe remember you were having heat sink issues with rads up front through?

I agree that you probably have enough cooling fan/volume, it’s just not getting enough airflow to pull heat off the rad. Could you vent the front of the wheel wells to the front of the bed there to get some airflow below the radiator stack there? Are the fans in push or pull config?

 

Cut holes in the bed bottom below the radiator? Put wire mesh to block debris over holes but still provide more airflow up through the radiator maybe

 

So your fans are under the rad, are they pulling or pushing? The most efficient way is for them to be pulling, however then I think your setup is backwards. They should be pulling away from the cab.

Airflow in the bed of a truck is pretty dead, it ends up being a big low pressure zone with air kind of staying stagnant. If you flip the fans around so they are pulling away from the cab, the protected air between the rad and cab will actually get pulled through the rad.

If I were running rear rad, I would make a duct that pulls air from under the truck where air is much higher pressure as it flows between the belly and the ground. That's how the trans coolers on my truck will be setup.

 

Maybe swiss cheese that upper bash plate a bit....

edit: way to slow lol

 

scoops would be dope but idk how to make them look good, or how to make them in general

yeah all I have is the rad in the bed. It’s a huge ron Davis rad. With all the crap I have in the front and the way my LS is mounted, no room for a front rad. The fans are puller fans, pulling towards the cab.

I don’t think the issue is the fans getting enough air flow. They feel like they’re pushing hella air through it. I just don’t think it’s enough.

yeah they’re puller fans pulling towards the cab. I figured they’d be getting better bites of air in that low pressure non turbulent area. My current idea is to do a big pusher fan on the top of the rad to give it another 3000CFM or so of air flow.

which bash plate?

 

Air in the bed is actually very turbulent. It's basically doing big circles and creating a cushion that the air moving over the truck runs over. So the air in the bed is all buffeting at high speed, but not in the directions you want. Unless your fans can move air faster than the speed you're driving, they won't get much through the rad.

 

Will adding a pusher on the outside help? I’m kinda locked in to the rad setup I have. Kinda have to make it work.

 

I'm sure it will help a little, but I don't think it will make the difference you're hoping for.
You can leave your rad as is, and just swap the fans and condenser around and I bet it works a lot better than another fan

 

Maybe take a ride in the backseat with someone else driving and drop a smoke bomb out the back window and see if the air is just recirculating around the radiator. That location is definitely a low air pressure area. Still think just adding a big pusher fan is going to be starving for air to push at speed. Using smoke to visually see the air flow could be useful and an interesting video to post in here.

 

I guess what I mean is the Ron Davis rad has the fan shroud built in, and it only goes on one way, and to add insult to injury, it’s welded on. So it wouldn’t be easy to do.

 

Nothing's ever easy. Can try the easy fix of adding a fan and see what happens, or do the hard and annoying way of turning the rad around. You could probably make some sort of ducting setup work, but it will be harder to make than just turning the rad, and will look goofy.

Personally I'd be going through the effort of turning the rad around, and making some holes in the bed to pull more air from. If you really wanted to get crazy you could make some scoops under the truck that direct air towards the rad.

Fans can only do so much and are really just for low to mid speed. It's like if you stick your head out the window while driving, and look sideways and try to breathe, it feels like you're suffocating because you can't suck air in fast enough to redirect air that's doing 70mph past your face.

 

I agree. I wonder if there would be a way to orient stuff so your fans are pulling from the low-speed/turbulent flow in the bed to push it through the rad. That might be a decent in-between solution vs redesigning the whole rear area for airflow.

it’s also been a while since I did any of the fun flow dynamics math but I think most fans prefer to be pushing vs pulling — I think you get more static pressure, especially if I can see what the fan blades look like.

Either way though, this is a solvable problem. I know it’s been issues after issues for you but this is probably nothing terrible to go through. Tbf you are also only 100 degrees F over ambient which is pretty decent for a big ass engine.

 

As far as I understand pulling is better because you're sucking air through the rad, instead of trying to push it past all the fins.

That said @Pittsy you could just try swapping the wires on your fans so the push through the rad and see if that does anything. That would be very easy

 

This! And flipping the fan blades over in their housings, if you can, should convert them.

 

They’re brushless fans, so not as easy haha.

 

Okay so officially fuck this truck and this project.
The fans aren’t turning on when commanded. The relays are clicking and the fuses are good. The only thing I can think of are these Steele brushless soft start fans have a temp protect mode where they won’t turn on if the temp is too high. BUT HERES THE KICKER. THEYRE BASED IN TUSCON AZ. WTF. HOW ARE YOU GONNA SET SOMETHING LIKE THAY UP IN THE SWEATY ARMPIT OF THE EARTH THAT IS AZ.

so the truck left me stranded, again. Can someone read through this and let me know the amount of times I’ve been stranded or stuck because of some dumb shit?

so my happy ass, on the 4th of July, walked a mile and a half home in triple digit weather. Luckily I was that close lol. Time to get the trailer and tow this piece of shit to storage. I’m so done trying with this thing.

 

I would “like” this but a dislike button seems more appropriate. That sucks man, I’m sorry to hear it left you stranded again.