I need to know the exact diameter of the three-blade fan on my '53 8BA. Because of its design, it's difficult to measure on the engine. Anyone have that number?
The three blade Ford fans are prone to fail and throw one blade. It has been sugested before to replace any three blade fan with a more modern four blade fan.
Measure from the center of the fan to the end of the longest blade and multiply that by 2 and that should be how big the circle is . Jim
I'm considering the same thing, just to get more flow through the radiator... but the fan/pully looks like it's actually pressed on to the shaft, which looks pressed into the cast iron "two-bolt" bracket that hols it to the block.... How do you get around that even if you do find a new fan???
You'll have to dismount the fan bracket, drill out the four rivets, and do whatever else is necessary to attach the new fan to the four-hole hub.
I think I have seen conversions for that too . You could also use a good electric fan . You can get them in a push or pull so mounting them on either side of the radiator is easy to do . Just a thought . Jim
And FlatHat has it right,my first stock car was a '50 Ford we ground the rivets off and modified a 5 blade fan from an A/C car to work, we used grade 8 bolts and tacked them in place so they could not come loose.
Got it. That's kind what I thought it might entail. Now I know. Think I'll start poking around for something and do that. Electric is a good option too. Just run an electric one with some sort of therostat switch on it I would guess. Now if Flathat, or myself, put an electric fan on, would we just leave the stock fan in place as well since we need that pully to run one water pump? Things I haven't really pondered before...
I would just grind the rivets off eliminate the OEM fan and go all electric it's going to work better anyway but there is a hitch if you are still running a generator the electric fans draw more current and the generator won't be up to the task,this is why some flatty motors you see are running alternators.
There is an adapter made now that you bolt onto the water pumps and you use , sorry for this , a Chev 409 water pump . I read about this and it's really a nice deal with much better flow and only one water pump . It's not cheap but for the price of two new water pumps you can get the set up . I know it won't look original but it's a lot better that the 2 water pumps you have now . If you would go with a electric fan you would have to upgrade to a alt BUT the new alts for flatheads look like a generator ! Nothing cheap when it comes to a flathead but the fan swap will be the cheapest and best solution right now . Just a thought ! Jim
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