Final Installation of Radiator – 4 Hours

Also this week, the 2nd batch of panels was powder coated, including the radiator shroud. This meant that the radiator could be permanently installed and the coolant hoses, cut, fitted, and bent to shape.



Ideally the radiator mount should account for vibration and not be a sold connection to the frame as this can lead to premature failure. To account for this the fan was mounted to the shroud using rubber washers, a 1/8” thick by ¾” wide rubber strip was used between the shroud flange and the radiator, the same rubber strip was used between the radiator and the fame.

The Breeze lower radiator support uses rubber hose to provide a vibration mound at the base of the radiator. As per Breeze instructions the radiator angle was set at 51 degrees to the horizontal.

Factory Five provide a length of corrugated stainless steel hose which requires cutting to length, and formed to fit. The upper hose needed bending into a simple S shape to accommodate the vertical displacement between the radiator and the billet coolant filler.

Routing of the lower hose is more involved, first clearing the chassis and then running the hose under the X member and over the 4” round chassis cross member before connecting to the engine. As this is a long run and a customer cushion mount will be manufactured to connect this hose to the underside of the X member.

TIP of the week: Many complain that the corrugated hose does not seal with the rubber joint, the hose should go into the rubber joint about 1 ½” the hose clamp needs to seal on the outer corrugation, by measuring the pitch the distance between 3 serrations is ¾” using this the hose clamp can be positioned correctly. Of course this won’t be validated until first engine start!

Test Fit & Install Radiator, Shroud, and Fan – 4 Hours

Although the shroud and fan had been test fit and assembled, this assembly required attaching to the radiator, and the radiator mounted to the frame.

What was not anticipated was that the shroud required modifying to clear the radiator inlet pipe (see picture).

The shroud and fan are bolted to the radiator in four places with ¼” stainless bolts, the Factory Five frame has mounting lugs pre-welded, but require drilling.

Note: the radiator needs offsetting approximately 5/8” from center to easy the routing of the lower radiator outlet pipe. The three aluminum front nose panels reflect this offset and are not cut symmetrically.

As the radiator flange already has holes and slots pre-cut I decided to use the slots as this would allow some left to right adjustment of the radiator assembly during final assembly.



Factory Five relies on zip tie’s to hold the bottom of the radiator in position until the body is fitted, the aluminum panels mentioned above are then screwed and riveted into place to support the radiator. Not being keen on this idea, the Breeze “radiator chin strap” was installed.

The Breeze strap is simple to install but effective, as it easily allows the radiator to be installed at the 51 degrees from horizontal suggested.




All the above will be removed for engine installation, the shroud will be powder coated black, and strips of rubber will used between the shroud / radiator and the radiator / frame to absorb vibration, and allow some movement following expansion contraction of the radiator through various heat cycles.

Started work on the cooling system – 2 Hours

Living in Texas with 100 degree plus temperatures, engine cooling is of primary concern for any high performance vehicle. The standard Factory Five kit does not maximize the efficiency of the fan / radiator combination. Basically with the standard assemble the fan bolts directly to the radiator assuming vehicle speed to force air through the corners of the radiator.

To improve efficiency I have decided to use the Breeze radiator shroud. The shroud bolts over the whole radiator, a cut out is made to mount the fan, which in turn draws air across the whole surface of the radiator, well at least this is the theory.