Have any of you guys ( especially '69 owners ) replaced your radiator with a"B" Cool radiator? What I am looking to find out is:
do they actually fit in without modifying anything?
are the clamp on electric fans worth the money?
do they REALLY run 20 to 40 degrees cooler?
I saw a complete set up, radiator and fans in either Eckler's or MidAmerica for a grand. I can not seem to find the same set up in Summit.

Hi Glenn. I'd go with a Dewitts reproduction radiator in aluminum. Virtually the same as original equipment and you get the cooling advantages. That price sounds kinda high for a be cool. I think Dewitts sells them as well. Either them or Griffin. See you at Thoma on Friday

Bill,
I'll have to check them out. Sorry I did not see the post earlier cause I did see you at Thomas. You should have mentioned it :-)
Anyhow, see you at Faulker this Friday and we can discuss it.

I have a 1968 vette and I installed a Be-Cool radiator with no modifications needed what so ever. When comparing the radiators look closely at the construction of them. I chose the Be-Cool unit since it is able to be repaired. Some units are Glued togather (Griffin) and are not able to be repaired.
The Be-Cool is designed to cool very well, it may not look like a "Stock" radiator unless you paint it black.
The brackets made by Be-Cool for mounting fans are pure genius but not cheap ($75) Simple with no drilling needed.

As far a electric cooling fans go be very careful as to their quality. I used a unit I purchsed at a local Pep Boys and it lasted about 6 months. I am now using a singe 16 inch fan made by a company called "SPAL" who makes O.E. radiator fans for Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, Volvo and the likes. Their fans are not as cheap but they work.... By the way the fans that Be-Cool shows on their cooling modules are all SPAL units. I have seen the SPAL units advertised in the Corvette magazines.

I have a CSI Temperature guage/fan actuator (from Summit) that allows me to set the points that turn on and off the fan as well as accurately monitor my cooling system's temperature.

Good luck!

Chris McCloskey

P.S. Take a Buffer and some good metal polish and polish that radiator's tanks...they look great all buffed out!

Thanks for the info. I finally received a response from BeCool this morning and was actually given a phone number to call them. I agree that $1000.00 sounds kinda high for a radiator, electric fan and some brackets but that is about what it comes out to. I wanted to get my e-mail response from them before my 10% Ecklers coupon ran out but the response was just a BIT too late.

Hello again and I am sorry I couldn't have helped you earlier.

You are right, $1000 is a LOT of money to spend on the Be-Cool "Cooling module". The modules are priced strangely but they include the $105 expansion tank made by Be-Cool and other things that you might not need.

The Radiator you need for a 1969 Corvette from Summit is a Be-Cool part number BCI-60029 or a BCI-62029 which list for $495 and $549 repectively, the expensive one is for the Automatic cars. The Spal fan I purchased is the single 16" unit and it was less than $200. When I bought my radiator I was happy to see the Summit people charge me $5.95 for "handling charges" but they pay the expensive and risky UPS or Fedex shipping of the radiator.

One other thing you might consider are the Be-Cool brackets (unless you know someone with a metal shop nearby who can copy them) after having installed cooling fans in a few cars they are a no-brainer for me, I will use them from now on, simple but effective and NO-Drilling or mods needed.

$700 is still very expensive but it does simply, quickly and permantly solve any overheating problems. If you do order one be sure it gets there without damage, the packaging is fairly light for such an expensive item and with its size the shippers like to stack things up to save room.

I never seem to find the original GM Aluminum radiators like the one my Cousin from New Jersey found at Corvettes at Carlisle for his wife's 69. He paid $10 for it and went home and had it repaired for another $10.

You may want the originality depending on your car and then you should look at "CORVETTE FEVER" and "VETTE" magazines for the many ads for people selling reproduction units for our "habits".

Like I mentioned earlier, you can paint the radiator if you use a special Radiator paint like the ones from Eastwood Company and then it looks like the original and doesn't lose it's heat transfer capability.

Good luck with your project and I hope that you can find a way to supercool your car without overheating your budget.

Best Regards:

Chris
P.S. That is one beautiful car you have there!

Chris,
Thanks for the kind words about the car. You bring up another question. Will the be-cool mounting brackets and their 16 inch electric fan mount to the stock radiator that is in the car? Maybe there is a way to save the price of the radiator??