Well, now that G-zilla was running again it was time to find out the weak parts of the system.  While fine around town and even OK on the lower altitude trails, she wanted to overheat on the highway climbs through the mountains and on the trails once I got there.  It was really miserable and after a mud bath the G was pretty much crippled.  I ordered a bigger dual fan setup and cleaned the radiator back up.  In the back of my head I knew that it wouldn't help because it ran hot on the highway where there is plenty of air.  There was no way around it, I needed more radiator.

After doing some research I came to the conclusion that when it comes to cooling, nothing beats a Be Cool radiator.  I called them up and spent some time talking with Mitch about my options and took many measurements of the front of my truck.  I discovered that there was some dead space up front as the engine bay tapered near the front.  You can see the space between the opening and the headlamps.  My plan was to reclaim that space for the new radiator.   I ordered a radiator with an integrated oil and tranny cooler and managed to loose those two pieces.  The tranny cooler was really blocking air into the radiator so loosing it improved air flow.    It also meant I could move things forward.  The radiator on it's way I started cutting out the body.  Here are some before/after pictures of the front of the G.  You can really see the difference.

Here's my buddy ( and co-clubgwagen webmaster) Dave working away.  He's logged plenty of hours on G-zilla over the years.

After getting things cleaned up we stitched in some new panels.  I fabricated them to run under the radiator to protect it from being blasted by grime from underneath.  Here they are pained up and awaiting the silicone seam sealer.

We actually had to hack out a bit of the frame supports to squeeze it in.  The new radiator sits a few inches BELOW where the old body mounts were.  We also couldn't reuse the stock supports that went across behind the grill.  I built this cross bad to strengthen the body and also to tie it back to the frame. The vertical tube in the center runs down to a body mount now located on the front cross member.  This is how Jeeps come, and it seems plenty strong.  It also acts as a support for the radiator.  It's hard to see in the dark picture, but there is a ton more room between the radiator and engine than before.  I included the only decent picture I had of the old complete engine bay for a before/after look.  About 4-6 inches.

Here's the final before/after shot of the old and new radiators.  It doesn't look as dramatic in the photos, but trust me it's a whole bunch bigger!!  

Here she is buttoned back up.  You can hardly tell I changed anything except for the fact that when you really look there is now nothing but radiator up front!  The hood pins let you in that there might have been a little change too.  The bottom cross piece isn't in yet, but I'll be putting it in soon to cover the bottom part of the radiator.  If you look close you can see it's exposed right now.

Did it work?  Oh yeah.  I've got a dual fan setup on it but haven't gotten them hooked up to the computer yet.  I have one on a switch, but driving back with the fans off it ran right at 160 (I have a 160 thermostat I put in from before to help with the overheating) when moving and even in stop and go it would rarely top 180 and then drop right back once the vehicle started moving.  Since the fans turn on at 180 and 190 respectively, those things are rarely going to need to be on.  Money well spent!