I need some opinions... I'm in the process of installing air in my 39 Chev, the car has a sbc/350, 4 core US rad . The question is do I run an electric fan or a manual seven blade fan? I do not have enough room for a shroud with a 16 inch electric but one could be built for a manual fan. What have you ran with success in your fat fender Chev's? Thanks WD40
Pop had the same setup in his 47 with an electric fan, and the thing ran hot all the time, so he swapped it for the manual fan and clutch and it never gets hot now. I don't know if a shroud would have helped the electric fan but he doesn't have one on the manual fan and it works great.
If you can run a full sized factory seven blade clutch fan close to the radiator with a good shroud. It should cool just fine.
If you have room, a fan with a clutch is pretty foolproof. I myself don't have enough room and have 2 electric fans with one eye on the temp guage when cruisin.
A friend has a manual and an electric that is on a manual switch. He is cool. Flips on the electric when he's in traffic. He has a 39 also.
I've run a 7 blade steel mechanical fan for 29 years in my '40 Chevy. Same fan - 158,000 miles - let's see that happen with one electric fan. Charlie
Ask Kerry. He's got a story of the day at the Kansas HAMBercue. Pulley came off the huffer and at highway speed the fan still managed to turn driving the water pump and not melting his ride>>>>.
im in favor of mechanical fans, although just to respond to this post^, you see electric fans last that long everyday with new cars. but yeah, id still rather have mechanical, looks better!
I can't stand to hear an electric motor humming behind the radiator of an otherwise bad*** car. Just seems so cheap and reminiscent of my mom's disposable Corolla...
Electric fans belong on ricers and vehicles with the engines turned sideways . PERIOD I NEVER use a electric fan ... never ... a belt driven mechanical fan is the only way to go IMHO ... I also use a shroud ...
think of it this way. with a mechanical fan (one attached to the engine) it will Always run when the engine is running. Electrics can and will fail, electric motors fail, electric wires fail, electic switches fail. Belt driven / engine driven fans have very few failure modes. broken belt (easy to fix road side) or water pump total failure (also easy to fix road side) with the proper parts and tools. And if your pump fails you have bigger issues than just a fan stopping. I would rather have a 300H.P. engine driven fan than any electric driven fan any day. JM2C.
Sure, some OEM fans go seemingly forever and then when they need to be replaced the OEM no longer makes them or they cost crazy money. And they look like ****. That said I have used them but hold them as a last resort. Charlie
I'm with the mechanical fan gang. Went so far as to remove the Deuce Factory crossmembers and build some new ones further back just so I could run mechanical. Have you seen the overheating discussions talk about what distributor and vacuum advance sources to use? Dig through a few of those, it may help.
100% vote for mechanical, unless there isn't room. I will have to use one on the s10 350 with ac, but not in the 53. My 86 monte SS came with a mechanical fan, do you mean 96?
I had to run an electric fan on mine. The motor sits so low a mechnical fan just covered the botton half of the radiator. I put an adjustable thermostat in and it works fine in and out of traffic. Most cars don't need a fan at highway speeds anyway.
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