Factory Five Roadster Cooling System Install - Project Snake Charmer: Part 10

When building a Factory Five without a donor, there are a lot of things to consider, such as fasteners, brackets, and other items that are supposed to come from the donor disassembly. One item you are supposed to use is the Mustang's fan shroud. Since we didn't have one, we had the option of purchasing a replacement shroud from a Mustang vendor or Ford dealer (or finding a used one), or going another route. When we saw the So Fast fan shroud for the FFR aluminum radiator ($99 plus $10 shipping) on the ffmetal.com Web site, we thought it was the perfect answer and would look the part on a Cobra. We even had it powdercoated to match our other engine-compartment parts. The shroud is easily installed with rivets or screws. Here, the kit-supplied electric fan has been installed to the shroud, which we are riveting directly to the radiator mounting ears.

The radiator we're using is an optional all-aluminum piece sold by Factory Five (PN 14031; $220). It is manufactured by Afco to FFR's specs and has the inlet and outlet fittings properly sized and positioned for the Roadster. The radiator is attached to the frame at the top and to the aluminum panels at the bottom. We used a floor jack to carefully hold the radiator in place for marking the mounting points. Note we temporarily clamped the aluminum nose panels in place to determine the proper radiator angle.

The radiator top mounting is usually comprised of a couple of tapping screws through the radiator mounting ears and into the frame. We decided to go one better and install riv-nuts into the frame, and then use 1/4-20 stainless bolts and washers from Totally Stainless.

There's more than one way to configure the cooling-hose routing, but with the radiator so deep into the nose of the Roadster, you will have to use some sort of filler neck or degas tank to properly fill the cooling system. We love the clean look and fit of this Forte's Parts Connection degas tank ($150) for the Roadster. It mounts on the passenger-side F-panel and allows easy filling of the cooling system and even has a 31/48-NPT hole in the bottom for a cooling-fan thermostatic switch or other sensor. The hose from the water neck to the degas tank is a stock 5.0 Mustang upper hose, cut down. The hose from the tank to the radiator is a Dayco (PN 70965), also cut to fit, and the routing is clean. Later, we'll cover our hoses with more of Mr. Gasket's G-Sleeve for some fancy looks.

The FFR instructions state to attach a standard 5.0 Mustang lower hose to the water pump and then to the company's provided lower hose via the 4-inch aluminum coupler tube that comes with the kit. We purchased said hose from our local auto-parts store, and we weren't crazy about the fit/routing of it. With a little research in the hose department, we came up with this Dayco (PN 70557) that fit much better and had a much better routing.