88 YJ-CJ Grill-Radiator-Shroud

I've been procrastinating on this part of the project - I was waiting for a great solution to come to mind, but that never happened.  My best ideas involved buying an aluminum TIG welding setup.  Spending that much money just didn't seem wise, but I do hope to get a TIG machine at some point.  

Back to it!

Transmission Cooler

I've been planning to use the transmission cooler inside the radiator, but have been re-thinking that idea for a few reasons.  Most important is to prevent overheating.  Extra heat into the radiator from the transmission will reduce the amount of cooling available for the engine.  

I first looked at completely remote coolers like this one, as it would totally remove all the transmission heat from the front grill area:

I found a box that was almost a perfect match to the size of the fan.  I tried the box in a couple of different locations in the Jeep, but it wasn't going to fit anywhere without a lot of extra work.  The best two locations were under the battery or underneath the tub on the driver's side opposite the muffler.  This idea was scrapped pretty quickly.  I don't think I would be happy with it under the tub.  And there really wasn't enough room to mount it under the battery - there are a lot of supports and brackets under there that I didn't want to modify/replace.

Shroud Clearance #1

I had to hack up the Jeep 304 shroud to get it to fit on the SBC radiator.  I marked it, cut, cut more, then cut more.  Finally, it fit around the radiator inlet and outlet, and also cleared the steering shaft:

Radiator Relocation

The corner of the radiator was only about 1/4" away from the steering shaft, and the radiator mounts are not very secure (Becool Radiator #62030).  I didn't feel comfortable with so little clearance, so I moved it up an additional 1/2".  There was plenty of hood clearance to do this.

After a lot of measuring and layout, new holes were drilled.  Old holes were welded shut and ground flush.

New holes were also drilled for the four shroud bolts - 2 on each side.  These also capture the radiator, so I am happy with this solution.  The radiator will be held much more secure.   

Here the radiator nut clips are also installed:

The radiator test fit went perfectly:

After some more cutting on the shroud, it also fit nicely:

I still need to test fit all of this in the actual Jeep, of course. But I expect that to go smoothly - I was pretty careful with all the layout and measurements. 

Transmission Cooler Lines

I also still need to figure out the transmission cooler.  Here are the ports for the transmission cooler in the radiator.  

My next step is to make a decision on the transmission cooler.  Either use the one inside the radiator or add a passive cooler in front of the radiator.