If you could funnel air from the uncarriage via a lip in front of the radiator. You'd sacrifice some ride height, but it would help with cooling if that's what you needed. What I would personally do is try to keep the heat low that is coming from the engine itself. Wrap the headers and the cats that's directly in the engine bay that would keep the engine temps down. You can also wrap the intake if you have an aftermarket one in heat reflective tape as well as use a heat shield. It just would take more time than anything else.
I've used header / exhaust wrap on other applications including motorcycles and
the problem I ran across was that you moved a tremendous amount of heat downstream
and the rest of the exhaust would run way too hot , especially for a street vehicle.
I'd think the 4.0 builders would run across a very similar problem of cooling the radiator.
I removed these DTR lights " even though I really liked how they looked " and replaced them with some smaller LED ones. I'm not a fan of the blue LED light color.
These lights blocked about half of the SE lower grill opening.
The temperature gauge runs just a needle width over 1/3rd , where before it would
run half way between 1/3rd and half.
I also installed an front valance under panel to keep the air from going out the bottom.
The SE grill seems to be much more restricted than the ES / RT style.
If time or money " ha ha " wasn't a factor I'd put an ES nose on it.
The biggest difference I've seen in temperature reduction is to get more air flow to
the upper half of the radiator. I drilled six 1.25" holes in the upper radiator
support and made sure the hood had at least 1/8-3/16" clearance above
the front valance when closed.
Kind of crude but made a good 10 degree difference at 70 mph.
Note : You HAVE TO remove the upper support to do this or you'll damage your a/c condenser.
Just amazing how many of these cars you still see on the road, especially since they havn't
been in production for almost 11 years.
I'm also running an in-line thermostat in the upper hose on this car.
Works good but the additional air flow made a bigger difference.
I agree ugly but functional. Can't see with hood closed
This pic is as high as the gauge goes unless your stopped in traffic and then it stays half way between 1/3rd and 1/2
kinda ugly but it looks like it would work with the 1.25" holes....I thought about cutting some rectangular holes and maybe putting mesh in there and painting it....never got around to it...and to be honest after my wreck I re did the entire cooling system and used a pressure washer to clean out the engine from the thermostat side out the front radiator hose hole....then did a wash with prestone coolant system wash and installed new thermostat, hoses, radiator and correct Zerex fluid.....runs below the 1/2 way mark on temp guage and never goes up higher than that anymore.....u should of seen the nastiness that came out of the engine when I washed it...geezus....and my car only had 116k on it....and I babied it....geez
I agree, but in doing so the engine runs cooler, you also sacrifice longevity of your exhaust because wrap holds water. What I say would be best is a radiator lip, wrapped intake with heat shield, and either the hood scoop or the hood lifted like ricers do on the windshield side. Could also think about upgraded radiators as well
A two core radiator would do wonders. I havn't been able to find much
info about the Interceptor cooling package as most radiator suppliers
say" except HD cooling ".
I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the ac condenser as it had more build up
than I thought .Lots of small embedded pebbles . I also reinstalled some side skirting on both sides of the radiator.
The car is still very ambient air sensitive as it ran mid 170 -178 this morning " 170 degree thermostat " and ran 200-211 this afternoon when it's probably close to 90 degrees outside.
" with the high speed fan circuit turning on at 203 "
Not so much sensitive, your running a wrong temp thermostat. If you had the 195 OEM then you would more stable temps vs a wild swing depending on outside temps. I have always used the stock 195 and I can promise my little 3.3 gets worked out harder than most LH cars and never have I come close to overheating.
However, this may also be helped due to the fact the Eagle has the Largest ( 1G Concorde to maybe) open front end for air cooling.
I've tried it with the stock 180 thermostat , " 2nd Gen. " and the temperature increase is the same.
It probably should have a new AC condenser and never had removed the side plastic
guards around the radiator.
In the perfect cooling system world , the cooling system is over sized so that the thermostat
controls the temperature. " but then some engines don't make enough heat at 20 below so have to use a cold front / cardboard "
The reverse effect of this would be if you turned up your house thermostat and your boiler / furnace ran for hours and never raised the temperature. Basically because it couldn't surpass the heat loss of the house.
I've tried it with the stock 180 thermostat , " 2nd Gen. " and the temperature increase is the same.
It probably should have a new AC condenser and NEVER remove the side plastic
guards around the radiator.
In the perfect cooling system world , the cooling system is over sized so that the thermostat
controls the temperature.
The reverse effect of this would be if you turned up your house thermostat and your boiler / furnace ran for hours and never raised the temperature. Basically because it couldn't surpass the heat loss of the house.
I'll admitt I overthink and get a little red neck but I have the high speed fan on a
Saab in line coolant temperature sensor that turns on at 203 and off at 195.
That seems to be helping the temperature rise on hills quite a bit.
Of ALL the changes I've made over the last few weeks ,
the O2 sensors made the biggest difference.
On the same test run , the car ran 5-8 degree's cooler just from
replacing the original O2's with a new set of NTK's.
I had suspected from looking at the plugs , ect. that the car was
running on the lean side. Which dirrectly makes more heat.
Also on this last run , we were cruising at 75mph and stepped on it
and the temp rose by only 2 degree's. Before it would have been 10-15.
But again , I believe all the small things added up
The low speed fans run constantly and the high
speed turns on at 203 , vs 227 stock.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
DodgeIntrepid.Net Forums
2.2M posts
41.9K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to Dodge Intrepid owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, specs, parts, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!