How-To Dove Nose your Sh!# Box 

10 years as a professional mechanic, I have never heard of grounding your radiator. I can only think it's like you suspect about some supposed electrolysis, but it sounds like snake oil to me. Nice work on the dovenose! The biggest thing I can say towards rubber isolating your rad is to prevent failure due to vibration. Also, no real issue with leaning it back either, as long as your fill is still the highest point in the system. It can start to impact airflow at speed, but since most of the airflow over your rad is drawn air from the fan, I wouldn't even think twice about it.

when it comes to grounding a radiator, there's no reason you can't. Your whole engine block is grounded, usually in multiple places, and coolant is flowing through it constantly. Or at least should be ha.

Best video in a long time. Didn't want it to end. As long as your not rubbing a hole in the radiator just send it. You're gonna be flushing the coolant out way to often to worry about electrolysis

I can see the Comancheep on the "Trail to SEMA" next year........

Great on the fly engineering problem solving skills are certainly your forte.

I have an 87 YJ and the radiator in it is mounted to the support, metal to metal. And the support is the main ground for all the lights on the front end. No rubber isolators on the sides where it bolts in, only on the bottom where the lower tank sits in the saddles.

Matt, I use clear lens filters to protect my lenses from debris when shooting storms, It should work well for your needs. Also, it adds water proofing to the front. Cheaper than replacing the whole lens.

Love the content... .Oh.. and on the lens (depending on camera), you could put a clear protective filter on it to save future lenses. And just replace filters (much less expensive).

Nice work Matt. You have a great knack for figuring things out as you go.

Hey Matt, awesome video! It looked like you started a war in the chat with your ending comment about the rad: to ground or not to ground. Thought I might try to help clear things up on that. You just need a decent understanding of how electricity works. Electricity will only flow if there is a difference in potential (charge) between two separate conductive objects exposed to the same electrolyte. If you have 12.6 volts on both sides, no electricity will flow. The same is true is you have ground on both sides. If there is no electricity flowing, electrolysis does not occur. So, if your engine block is grounded, AND your rad is grounded, there can be no difference in charge. Also, electrolysis is really only an issue where two dissimilar metals are really close to one another without physically touching where they are both exposed to the same electrolyte. This allows the two materials to act as a battery cell and generate their own electricity, and any external ground straps would act as a conductive path (basically a dead short) completing the circuit. This is the problem encountered with aluminum heads on an iron block. They require special head gaskets to prevent the ocurrance of electrolysis. And, yes, the heads and block are both still grounded in the end. Any dissimilar metal to your rad is not very close at all in terms of the coolant flow path. There are decent lengths of large rubber hoses between your rad and the water pump or thermostat housing. Also, coolant does not make a very good electrolyte in terms of creating a battery, it has many things like corrosion inhibitors added to it for the very purpose of prolonging the life of the cooling system components. Now, if you go to some effort to make sure your rad is entirely UN-grounded, you COULD actually run into potential issues. The likelyhood of any of this actually being a big issue, though, is quite low due to the aforementioned corrosion inhibitors, but the issue is there none the less. Think of this: If you scoot your feet across a carpeted floor in shoes, you build up quite a bit of charge, which gets released when you touch a conductive grounded surface, or one with a differing charge. Go barefoot and do the same thing; you won't build a charge. That is because you are connected conductively to the surface you are trying to use to build a charge, so no charge can build, it is evenly dispersed between you and the carpet. If your rad is ungrounded, the coolant growing through it could potentially build a charge in it, and eventually, if your coolant became dirty and degraded enough over time, it could conduct a small amount of this charge back to your grounded engine block/water pump/thermostat housing. This effect would of course be very small. The greater threat to your cooling system is coolant left neglected for too long in the system becoming acidic and corroding all metals in the system itself. Just look at OEM installations, they're always grounded. Usually top mounts are metal tabs secured with metal fasteners to a metal part of the body. The rubber isolators on the bottom are just that, isolators. Not insulators. The isolate the delicate metal of the rad from road vibrations and allow it to move a little due to thermal expansion.

Thanks for the vids Matt! Greatest Jeep content of the interwebs.

Hey, longtime big fan of your videos, Matt! Keep up the great work and if you're ever up in BC and want to go wheeling give me a shout and I'll show you the good stuff (none of the boring stuff). 😎🤘

The engine is grounded and has coolant going through it. So your all good to ground the rad as well. Keep up the awesome videos!!!

Love it! Can’t wait to see more of this

Dr. "JeepinStein" I presume ! Good stuff, keep it coming Man !

🤘😎👍 Awesome content as always. The hood fold timelaps was super cool!

Digging the way the front is turning out Matt!

Coming together very nicely

Harbor fright Hans pliers that are made for duct work that works great for this. They are like 4inchs wide

As always, an awesome video!

Love any custom fab videos. For a self taught mech/fab guy you’re pretty dang good. I’m a Mechanic myself but not so great on the fab.

Great project video loving it, Jeep looks wicked and cannot wait for the follow up. I want your final decision to the rad mount question, but sounds like 4Wdriver has it nailed. Keep these videos coming.

I have been waiting for this video!

Amazing work bro!! Looks awesome .

Looks great!

👍 slowly coming back together 👍

looks good adding strength is going to make it live longer. awesome video can't wait for your next build video

Outstanding! It looks more menacing then the scorpion crawler! Great content keep it up! Ameriaca!

Looks awesome.

I LOVE FAB. !!!! I think water is conductive so the radiator do-sent need ground or that it do-sent matter.Great vid.

Glad to see some fabrication back on the channel Matt.

Nobody: Absolutely Nobody: Matt: Using a Grinder on Top of a Tire. 😂

That looks great.

Danm Dude!!! I wanna be you when I grow up...No wait, I don't wanna grow up.. I just wanna be you ;)

Nice work, looks good

Looks great! Can't wait to see it tearing up trails. Thanks Matt

Oh man she’s lookin good 👌

Matt if you read the directions Novak sent you with that radiator it actually specifically says you have to ground it for any implied warantee from them to apply. So I'd say ground it for no other reason than those radiators ain't cheap lol.

Fender extension mounts .. 👍 and watching how you made them 👍👍

Looking good bud love the direction you are taking the duck butt

Okay, the coolant runs through the engine block, which is grounded and water flows electric current so the don’t care if f it is grounded or not. I have always heard the rubber is just to keep the aluminum or copper from having a hole rubbed in it from the steel around it and to keep it isolated from being bent or stretched with the chassis’s flex.

Great content.

The radiator is already grounded through the coolant passing through it to the engine. The rubber isolators are for vibration protection and to compensate for chassis flex and keep the radiator from cracking. Steel rubbing on aluminum will turn into a leak eventully, especially on a crawler that flexes as much as it does.

Love it bro. I understand not wanting to get rid of that nice front end, but this is going to look great too. Glad you're back in the shop making vids like this. Thanks for the Vid!

I know you did not want to do it, but dang, its lookin awesome!

I don't know if the radiator should or shouldn't be grounded but if your worried about it you could put some shrink tube over the bracket to keep the two from touching.

This is awesome I love it, you remind me of a 4x4 Mr. Roger's (the voice)

Have you just considered relocating the radiator to your cage out back with a good electric fan? I know you have had ongoing clearance issues this would solve. Great video by the way! 👍

This guy is a gangster. Lol. Amazing work.

Great video that thing is sick

I’ve used tape and wrenches to bend metal all the time. Works great for 90* or less angles. But you have to use a couple layers of tape.

Those Comanche decals are hard to get and highly sought for....

Looking good Matt.You would think the radiator would be grounded by the way it mounts to the chassis....

Hey matt you have to rubber mount the rad keep metal away from aluminum they don't match your rad will rot from the inside out . it will over time start getting pin holes from the two metals contacting were copper and plastic don't

Regarding Galvanic Corrosion and Electrolysis: What you're referring to with Aluminum radiators and steel parts touching is galvanic corrosion. If you have dissimilar metals, such as Aluminum and steel, and they touch in the presence of an electrolyte (coolant or water or pee or Dr. Pepper), the aluminum will corrode faster. So, if you ground your radiator you will set up a path for galvanic corrosion and electrolysis. Electrolysis occurs when electric current passes through metals in the presence of an electrolyte. Your LS there has many circuit paths and high and low voltages and currents. If you ground the radiator, you are are creating a path for that current to follow and therefore increasing corrosion. However, in a rock crawler, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If your rad springs a leak in a few years, you'll know it and you'll simply do an epoxy field patch then replace it and move on. Best case scenario, don't ground your rad with a wire or through dissimilar metals touching the rad. I.e., your first instinct was correct; isolate, do not ground.

I heard grind the radiator, will be waiting on the video

Wow, I envy your drive, you get an idea, and you just do it. I would've been afraid of all the missing steps, all the little mistakes along the way, and just never get it done. You remind me of a phrase from "Interview with a Vampire", where the journalist (Christian Slater) asks the Vampire (Brad Pitt) "How did you do that?" (After the Vampire moved through the room at super speed, turned on the light, and returned to the table, all within a fraction of a second). The Vampire replies "The same way as you would do it, a long series of simple movements, just a little faster than you." (I'm paraphrasing, from memory). That's how you dove-nose that Jeep. Same way as anyone would, just a lot faster! :)

Epic!!!

You're like the Bob Ross of Jeep's

You should have any electrolysis issues if you have clean fresh coolant. When coolant gets old it will become acidic and then electrolysis will start to happen. You can check this with a volt meter. One probe in the coolant and the other one a good ground, I can’t remember the threshold voltage, I think 🤔 it’s .200 volts or .020 volts. It’s been forever since I’ve used this technique to check coolant.

Looks 10/10 better

In my experience if there is no metal touching it will cause electrolysis but also it needs some type of rubber to keep from rubbing a hole in it

That's s a beast

Matt technically the coolant will conduct power. Take a multi meter and check it out. I doubt think it matters if it grounded.

As long as you make sure you’ve got at least two really good grounds from your block to the frame the cooling system shouldn’t be a problem

Use a heat gun next time. Help soften the paint for when you bend. Really helps with preventing cracks. As for grouding. It's not going to harm anything. My Yukon and wrx both have factory grounding straps on the rad. And the hosees wont hold even of a static charge to do anything. Older houses used the cooper water pipes for grounding. Way back when.

Its the CommanCHEEP. send that radiator grounded bud

My bronco 2 radiator has rubber mounts on the bottom but is bolted right to the core support up top....

Got me thinking bout doing the same to my xj🤔

Matt I would be most concerned about vibration doing damage to radiator . I would at least use a heavy type woven fabric between metal contact points . This is how older tractor manufacturers did it years ago .

You are amazing! These are the videos I like.

instead of using crescent wrenches, a hand seamer is a much better tool for bending sheetmetal like that

Every Kenworth or Peterbilt radiator i've ever changed has a ground wire to it. But I would be more worried about allowing a bit of flex there to prevent cracking or fretting

nice

Matt you need some sheet metal pliars for duct work

The engine and radiator should both be grounded. The radiator should not be touching any other kind of metal. The aluminium (or any metal) will corrode if in contact with a dissimilar metal through a process called "Galvanic corrosion". This is common on ships because the salt water speeds up the process. The same thing happens if you use stainless nuts on mild bolts. This problem will probably not manifest for years, but it is sped up by any conditions that lead to corrosion.

the engine block is grounded... coolant runs through the block... I dont think it matters. id just run some rubber around all the areas metal is touching so it doesn't rub.

Oh ⭐app🥰

Good fab skills. I think I would have liked the front end square as well, but what's you gonna do...

If your worried about grounding get a bike inner tube and cut it up and will slide right under that

this is what i found: You should never ground an electrical device to a radiator but you should ground the radiator to prevent current from flowing thru

Could you guys do a full build series on stock jeep or some other 4x4, would really like to watch

Hey Matt. Are you going to use the hood pop hood pins you sell. That is what I used. Not sure it matters but I work at John Deere tractor place. And on some of the aluminum radiators they are grounded with a wire some are not. At the schools we have been to no one ever can give the correct answer. Love my dovetail front. Needed room for the 42s to flex. Keep up the good work

Vertical LED's in the outer grill slots would look cool for headlights. \ ||||| / 😁

TECHNICALLY your radiator is always grounded via the coolant since it's traveling thru a motor block that is grounded you should be fine with having a grounded radiator

I figured out who you remind me of....Your the Mr. Rogers of offroad. Need to start your videos s putting on a brown hoodie and get some puppet friends. Lol. It would be great i promise.

What's cookin good lookin

Looks good but definitely would have been easier to relocate the cooling systems to the rear with individual fans for each individual system just would have had to get longer lines which would be easy with AN Fittings

Question did your transmission cooler reside in the radiator? I don't believe the transmission lines were isolated. Food for thought?

Aren’t all radiators grounded by the fluid running through them? Never heard that grounding deal before.

This was cool to watch you come up with a well executed solution to a tough problem! I think it would help to put a tube running in front of the grill between the two dovetail runners.

22:40. Might be worth tightening down those vise bolts.

Hey matt. Did toy make those hood vents?

Never heard about having concerned with the radiator being grounded or not but I would have different concerns. My concerns is if the radiator is not mounted in way to isolate any flex or vibration of the chassis from the radiator you will end up cracking it. Second question for me is does the radiator need to be allowed to expand as it gets hot. In 20 years of my time as a Ford tech every radiator I touched was always mounted via some form a rubber isolator and never once seen any form of grounding. In regards to the engine block being grounded I will challenge every body to explain in a standard/stock battery setup what is the flow of voltage to the battery. How does the battery get recharged.

Build in extra and then extra and then extra grounds on your engine. Make sure your lights, winch and other electrical components have excellent grounds. Your coolant also makes a difference. Use high electrically resistant coolant ie Evans Waterless Coolant. I'm surprised #ProjectFarm hasn't done an electrical test on coolants. I'm currently converting my ZJ coolant to Pink or Asian Coolant as I switch the radiator to an aluminum radiator. Otherwise, you're not building a daily driver; so, the less you start it, the less you run it, the less electricity will flow thru the radiator, the longer it will last. Think of the coolant as just another potential wire and that will help you solve the problem. Give electricity a lower path resistance back to the battery or alternator and not use the coolant as a path.

Isn't the motor grounded? Also the motor has cooling fluid running through it, so wouldn't the radiator be grounded via the fluid? I would just make sure that it did not rub through some where.

Was gonna wait, but you had us at shit box

Well seems to me that the coolant is running through the engine and the engine is grounded. So not sure why they would be worried about electrolysis.

As far as grounding the radiator I see no reason why it should not be. It looks like it is aluminum vs brass so it will corrode more easily but NOT if you have neutral PH coolant (i.e. coolant formulated for aluminum radiators, heads, etc.). What you do not want it to do is flex with the movement of the body. Usually radiator mounts go to the frame and they are very solid structures. You might want to think about, considering the amount of extreme body/frame twist which it will see maybe make it a separate from the roll cage? But you will have to account for engine movement also. It looks like you are pretty close to the front pulleys. You don't want to damage a fan or the radiator. I think that you will need more clearance. Perhaps a 2" panel between the leading edge of the hood and the grill. Or perhaps your separate radiator mount could act as that filler?

Well would you look at that. Just have a look at it