BANG..vibrate...ouch. fan explosion.

Went To a Porsche 356 concours in the roadster this morning, raining but still a fun little drive, only a few KMs from home, pulled out to leave ,pretty hard on the gas in first, then just about to dip clutch for second..and an almighty BANG and terrible vibration..first thought "ive thrown a rod!"
Pulled over and a huge gush of coolant under the car..Open the hood and there is one of the fan blades sitting on the engine mount, sheared clean off. sliced the bottom tank open, and damaged the core. worst thing is it has smashed into the bonnet side and fucked that too.
luckily a great guy flat towed me Home..he turns out to have a collection of about 50 Indian motorcycles and runs one at the salt..Hot rodders are nice people!

Damn. Im not sure if full insurance covers engine part failure and subsequent damage..but I guess Ill call monday. Moral of the story is..well there isnt one really..If the fan was cracked when I sandblasted it to paint it Im sure I would have seen it.. it lasted about 3000 miles ...just damn lucky it happened not far from home!

 

Never heard of insurance covering engine parts unless the body damaged them in a wreck . That blade just sheared off almost looking like it was cut . I would at least let who ever you purchased this from know about it .

 

Ouch!! Hate it when that happens. Hope the car's ok.

 

Sorry what happened, glad no one was hurt, that coolant could have gotten under the tyres and sliding off you go.

 

Its an original Ford fan, I think fourties? anyone Know from look at the photo what year so i can start hunting down another one? it bolts onto the front of the Gen.
The bracket behind the Gen pulley is one I built to take two bearings. runs an offset generator mounted over the other side.

yeh the break looks clean, one half of the crack looks a little discolored, I think it cracked a little while ago and then broke off at high (ish) revs. maybe 3500 rpm or so? scary.

 

Been there.- Mine didn't break a blade-the hub broke. Three blades and most of the hub stayed on the crank, while the other two and their hub connection sliced the corner off the battery and pinched the hard brakeline almost completely closed.

Since then I only use electric fans on a high performance engine.(not saying you should have- that's just the danger of an 60 year old component)

Sorry to see it got the bonnet, but glad it didn't do anything worse. That's a very good point about the coolant wetting a tire. Coulda been a white knuckle ride if she got slippery at highway speeds. Thankfully no one hurt

-rick

 

yeh lucky I was only going about 30 MPH.

Took the Fan off..check it out..



must have had a pretty severe balance problem, it didnt vibrate before.

 

that sucks man

 

Your not a hot rodder if you hafta rely on insurance to fix mechanical problems.

 

I have heard that the A model two blade ones are very susceptible to this type of break and flying off, hence them making a identical cast version.
Do you think that it was out of balance a bit to start with to cause this?
Hopefully you can find a replacement, but that hood.. awww.
Kyle

 

Once it starts to crack, it has different forces from being bent, which makes it bend and flex more, the bingo, gone.

I had one break on an engine with 30,000 miles, 35 years old, but still. It shook so bad it loosened the pump of the front of the motor and I lost some of the bolts, too.

Old fans are scarry. You don't know what they've been thru.

 

I dont have to rely on anyone, I just wondered if they would cover this shit. I do pay them good money for nothing, after all. It would be nice to fleece them a little now and then. obviously I would do all the repairs myself, and pocket the payout.

 

That is nasty! I had a water pump come apart on a SBC at about 6,000 RPM's. It took out the "bonnet " on my car also and the radiator. Sorry about the luck and glad nobody was hurt.

 

It may be that someone straightened a bent fan at some time, guaranteed to explode some day. That design makes an old tweak hard to spot .

 

Check with your insurance company. It might be covered under "flying debris". I had a balancer come off and raise hell under the hood. My insurance paid for damage under that clause

 

Fans of all ages break, never lean over one in a running engine. I know a guy who had one let go minutes after he shut the hood. So close.

 

mm.

got me thinking i might build a steel fan shroud while im fixing it. runs cool already, but at least that will save the hood next time....

 

had same thing happen to a friend in colorado years ago 57 chevy inline 6 with 4 speed stock steel 4 blade fan 1 blade bent hood other 3 into radiator he was leaving hard dumped clutch then bam ride was over

 

Man,that sucks.I'll bet that woke you up!

Like the others say,glad no-one got hurt.

 

I thought that shit only happened with those cheezy aftermarket flex fans you buy at a hot rod parts store.

 

Mate,

News travels fast I think I heard about that 10 mins after you got towed home.

Glad no one was hurt (think open hood and exploding fan) but the hood side is the worst bit. Ouch.

D

 

I had the same thing happen with an original Model A 2-blade fan. Ouch!

Jim

 

Ditto. There used to be a patron on my route that raced a Maverick.He was leaning over it tuning it with it running.He gunned it and the fan came apart and cut his throat.The neighbors said it all but decapitated him.He died instantly. Never forget the fan is dangerous.

 

Years ago I had a Jeep 4wd truck with sbc. I had just rebuilt the engine and driven it maybe 500 miles.
A friend who is sorta short was standing on the front bumper, leaning over rhe radiator (hood open), reaching out and jazzing the engine when a fan blade let go. Luckily it went straight down and knocked a chunk 1/2" deep outta the asphalt! If it had come up it would have hit hom right in the upper abdomen and likely killed him.
I'll never again install a used fan without first having magnafluxed and I only buy quality, name brand new replacements.
Dave

 

Wow! Sounds hard to think of it being lucky, but it could have been even worse.

I can see from your pics that the fan was coming apart at the rivets. The break point on the blade looks clean and rust free as if it was a very fresh crack. If you look at the cracks on the forward plate near the rivets, you should see signs of rust in the crack. It might have even been giving a bit and slowly coming apart, but you wouldn't feel the vibration from the minor distortion since the fan was mostly intact.

You wouldn't have even been about the see the crack forming off the rivet points as it was on the front and too close to the radiator to see what was happening. Looks like metal fatigue was your main culprit. Just glad it went down and lodged instead of shearing out through the car body and causing more trouble.

I think I'll slip out to the shop and double check my 2 piece 4 blade fan now...........

Good luck with repairs!

 

Theres a famous flathead builder up in these parts and I noticed he had a box of nicely painted fans...he told me he had em' magna-fluxed! Apparently that was the only way he could comfortably guarantee his work. Johnny

 

Are the motor mounts good in the car? Years ago a friend and i were driving in his '66 Chevele and he downshifted to pass some one and the fan hit something because a motor mount was broke. The fan didn't break, but bent and lodged into the radiator after making about half a turn. Maybe the fan in this car hit something before it came apart...I check just to make sure.

 

That really sucks man...

Bet you that thing wasn't made in the USA!

We have problems to.

 

I had an alternator fan explode at the track once. Never really sure if it might have tagged a bracket at high rpm or something, but we replaced it and it never happened again. Pieces went through the upper rad hose, PITA.

 

From the time I was old enough to be around a motor my dad taught me to never lean over or stand in line with a fan blade. He'd worked in the dyno lab at Continental Motors and had seen more than one fan come apart on the test stand.