I put a 250 in my 50 Chevy. Since it is longer than the 216/235 I now have a little over 1/2" from my water pump pully to my radiator. I was planning on running a electric pusher fan on the front of the radiator but I was looking at the Flex-a-lite low profile fan. On these fans the blades are not pitched forward at all. They are flat and the blate pitch towards the rear of the car. So in theory it will fit. However, it will be VERY close. Should I just stick with the electric fan or will I be ok? I would think if the the fan flexed at high speed it would flex rearward. Thanks, Todd
I think I found a shallow pulley and pressed the hub back on the pump shaft on mine and then cut the pump shaft off with about the same amount sticking out of the hub as I had before. That was 20 years and three months ago so I don't remember all the details. Two things that I never throw away are pulleys and car keys so I don't have a real idea of what I used but I think it was probably a pulley off a small block. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
You will be cutting it close. It depends on the stiffness of your motor mounts and chassis. I had about a 1/2" of clearance between fan and radiator on my '51 F-1 when I first finished it. (I used a Flex-a-lite fan). After about 3 months on the road I hit a sharp depression during hard acceleration, and suddenly had a windshield full of antifreeze. I made sure I went with the electric pusher fan on the new radiator.
Have you moved the radiator forward? I gained over 1" of clearance that way. I had 3/4" between the bolt heads and the rad, almost an inch at the blade.
i have had a lightweight after-market fan(actually it might have been a flex-a-lite, it was a blue body and aluminium blades) flex 1" forward in my 1957 chevy under high revs and it ate a perfect circle in my brand new radiator. i put an electric puller on afterwards.
You should be able to move the radiator forward, even if it means making new mount tabs on the core support or drilling holes on the front of the core support lip to match the original mount holes, just don't forget to make some sort of isolater pads so you don't wind up mounting it too solid and shaking your radiator to death...good luck man...
Pusher fans suck!! ( HA HA thats funny ) Do what ever you can do to get some more room, Move the radiator, move the motor mounts,
Wouldn't hurt to run a pair of limiting rods to prevent the engine from lurching forward during hard braking. One of Ford's 'better ideas' on the flathead, however for a different reason.
the blades are pushing air back, that means the air will push the blade forward. If it flexes it will go forward
You can kiss your radiator goodbye. Flex-a-lite fans are notorious for cracking at the hub and taking out radiators - ask me how I know - x2 I will never use Flex-a-lite mechanical fans ever again and would highly recommend if you have one, replace it asap. My 0.02c
funny how stuff crops up just as I'm about to ask the question I've just fitted a later 235 into my 49 sedan, and it has the larger, longer water pump fitted. I was going to simply move the rad to the front of the mounting flange, rather than the rear, and space it by half an inch. unless anyone has a better idea?
Actually they make a shorter water pump for your motor. You can get them from Patricks. http://www.patricksantiquecars.com/
On my '47 Chev PU I had 1" clearance untill I bought a new 4 core radiator and then had a 1/4"! So I got the little steel U-nuts and put them on the radiator and slid the radiator in front of the stock mounting which had the factory nuts welded in place and gained 3/4" clearance for a total of 1". Works good.
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