stony Posted February 26, 2002 Share Posted February 26, 2002 Ok i know a couple guys have removed the core supports in favor of a couple of tubes welded in place to hold the radiator, but is there any structural issues to consider. what i mean do you have to weld a certain way or just connect where the top and bottem of the old core support was ? I would like to do this as it would be alot easier to mount everything up there a little bit closer and have more room to run intake tubing. stony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 26, 2002 Share Posted February 26, 2002 I'm not sure that the OEM support offers that much resistance to any twisting that a large sway bar would present to the front of the frame rail forward of the crossmember. Crossbracing (X bracing in particular) would help a lot there. And with the sway bar mounts close to the crossmember anyway, this may be a mute point. My biggest concern with stiffness up front (after I finallized the triangulation of the tower/pick-up points plane), was that the new radiator did not experience any undue flexing that would cause it to eventually leak (tanks, etc). This was accomplished with 1/4" rubber foam weatherstripping lining a 3/4" square tube frame that was simply welded onto the sides of the engine bay where the OEM support used to be. Every point that the radiator made contact with the frame, I isolated it with rubber. This frame offers no real resistance to any flexing of the "box" up front though, and I've not seen evidence that what flexing exists is of any detremental harm to both the radiator, chassis, or the handling of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 26, 2002 Share Posted February 26, 2002 The front of the car around the radiator core support does move around under high cornering loads. Lots of guys find this out after solidly mounting their radiator and then seeing it gradually torn apart. The biggest help is to triangulate the area from the strut towers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aaron Posted February 26, 2002 Share Posted February 26, 2002 OK, this gave me a thought. We have had several discussions on these boards about the advantages of moving the engine toward the rear of the car for better weight distribution. Since the front of a v8 or v6 is further back than the old L6, how much advantage would there be to removing the core support and moving the radiator toward the rear of the car? Based on the pictures I have seen here (because I have never seen a converted Z in person) it looks like it could move back 4 - 6". Just thinking out loud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 26, 2002 Share Posted February 26, 2002 I don't have the math in front of me, but I do remember the scenerio of "moving the radiator backward a few inches" example in weight re-distribution on race cars. The one thing I do remember about it is that with the fairly small amount of weight involved, and the limited amount of movement available, that the practical advantages for even racing applications is almost negligible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted March 1, 2002 Share Posted March 1, 2002 If handling effects are important, and it's a high capacity and/or heavy radiator, it can have considerable mass when filled. And mass times the square of the distance of the radiator to the CG of the car is the effect on the polar moment of inertia (PMOI). A higher PMOI tends to make the car resist changing yaw attitude (turn). It's not just the weight that matters for handling transients, it's the distance of the weight from the CG of the car SQUARED that makes a difference too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stony Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 Ok I'm in the final stages of putting my engine compartment back together and I'm very seriously considering removing the core support in favor of being able to make all my own custom mounts for all the crap that will be installed in that area. Anyone have any pics of the core support removed with custom support installed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparks280zt Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106914&page=2 some pics in that thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 This is my set-up. Very light and not very rigid, but with the strut tower bracing that I currently use, this has successfully held my radiator for 15 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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