I have an 8ba flathead in a Model T I am building and I would like to keep a mechanical fan. Problem with my setup is the top rad hoses are too low for the original fan ***emble to work and the bottom rad hoses are too high for a crank mount fan to work. If thats even a possiblity on this motor. To center a fan in the rad it would have to mount close the cam shaft centerline. Any ideas? Right now its looking like an electric fan and an alternator are my only options.
You can make your own mount to space the fan up/down differently than Ford did. Maybe just longer legs on the stock-type top mount to lower it a bit more than original. Sounds like you have enough room front to back though? That's usually where guys run out of room.
If i can get it to sit in the factory location front to back it should be fine. I'll look at extending the legs. Thanks.
For my Avatar, one thing I did was to trim the fan a bit. I can't remember what particular flathead my fan came from but once I put it all together, I had the same problem you seem to have. (on this car my fan does not ride on the generator as it does on my '35 pickup). I was able to get away taking only about 1/2 inch off the blades. I traced the fan profile on a piece of plastic, cut the plastic then transferred this onto each of the four fan blades about 1/2 inch down and cut. Car seems to run fine and does not overheat. Hope this helps. Pete