I'm trying to figure out what fan to use for my project. So many choices and varied suggestions. I want something to help keep the engine cooled for cruising around town or getting stuck in a construction zone. Oh this is for a 49 Merc with stock radiator and flathead v8. The little I ran the car, it seemed to heat up pretty fast but I didn't have a chance to experiment with it much before the teardown started on it. I know some are not fans of using electric at all and I am considering using a combination of the mech with electric for a backup booster. There's plenty of room on the front for the electric and I don't think it will be visible behind the grill. Any way, anybody done this combo setup or have a good suggestion for electric fan brand?
flex-a-lite makes a good one! head on down to the pull a part and grab one and use a flex-a-lite adjustable thermostat they are around $30 bucks, i just picked up 3 and will be installing one on saturday.
There are a lot of adequate fans. I purchased mine for $45 and it works great. I would recommend a puller over a pusher.
I am running this combo . I would suggest getting the biggest fan that will fit on your radiator and set your thermostat to 195 and you shouldn't have an issue. Sorry I don't have a brand name for you
Pick up the biggest two speed fan you can find at a junk yard. Or check the swap meet vendor areas for used stuff. Much cheaper than catalog fans and they work. Two speeds are on AC cars. Get one with the large shroud. You can always cut it down. Premeasure so you have an idea what will fit. Put it behind radiator with no manual fan. You shouldn't need a fan when moving or something is wrong.
here is a the temp controller i buy and use: http://www.jegs.com/i/Flex-A-Lite/400/31147/10002/-1?CT=999
How about build a shroud and run your mechanical efficiantly? Personally, living in the hotest American city and driving hot rods with A/C as dailys I would never run an electric fan. I've tried several over the years and never got more than one summer out of any of them. A pusher in front of the radiator is a bad idea because it block part of the incoming air through the radiator itself.
Spal.... and / or try a good fitting shroud. I run an 8BA in my 40, recored stock radiator, Spal pusher. So far. so good........ 4TTRUK
i run a spaul on an OT car. im gona do an electric on the willys. my uncle bought me one he got at a swap meet. not a spaul but im gona try it out and see how well it works. i always go with the pull.
my buddy in florida had heating problems with his vette engined pu.fitted the biggest spal that would fit behind the rad end of problem.i fitted similar spal fan to my rod ,dont anticipate any problems here in ireland
so, condition of cooling system - radiator & engine? what radiator cap running? puke tank? try fan shroud before adding an electric fan that will block air flow through radiator. 6V system?
junk yard electric fan tech tip..... a fan out of late 80's, early 90's Taurus cars with the 3.8 liter V6. It is a two speed fan with integral shroud and a low-profile electric motor.
A pusher in front and a mechanical behind is great for parades. Pusher fans **** ( ha ha). It will actually block airflow at speed, can cause electrical back feeds. A proper mechanical fan set up can't be beat. Proper shroud with appropriate science will do more for you than a pusher. If space is a problem, spal puller is the way to go. If the engine compartment is the automotive equivalent of 10 pumds of **** in a 5 pound bag then a sidewinder fan is what you need.
Cooling system should be good, I'm in mid resto/mod. I don't know for sure what cap is on the radiator but it's stock so as far as I know. Didn't have problems before but didn't do much running around town in it. No puke tank, the drain just runs down the side of the radiator. There was no shroud on it and I'm also converting to 12v. It's a flathead v8 255 engine. The main reason I'm thinking electric is my main use of this car will be cruising or idling more than running down the freeway, so I want to be able to cool it well. I'm a complete noob to hot rods so I look for advice where I can find it. A few of the local guys I've talked to complain about not being able to cruise or run around town much without overheating. Also I am putting in power steering and I found a very nice custom P/S pump that basically replaces the original mech fan mount. I haven't actually ordered it yet as I'm trying to decide what to do with the whole thing, but if I want to keep mech fan he does make a pulley that you can mount a fan to. So in a nutshell I was considering this change for a multiple reasons, but maybe I'll try out the mechanical fan solution and also add some type of shroud. Then if I do have overheating problems I can change to or add electric later.
And this style fits a Model A radiator pretty good with a little t******* if you can't run a mechanical fan.
"cooling system should be good"???? have the radiator checked to see if it needs to be flushed or maybe a new core. replace the radiator cap so you know exactly what you have. should not be allowing coolant to just dump on ground. replace hoses, etc too. even if you add a electric fan (after 12V conversion) best to still run a multi-blade mechanical fan with shroud. post info on company that makes the pulley system you mentioned, sounds interesting. so, your car already has power steering? stock frontend?
Be sure you run the proper size wire and relay to handle the fan. The newest cooling component fan I have states use with a 70 amp relay. That is much heavier than years back. I wonder if fan failures may have been due to not have enough juice ?
I don't think Oregan gets as hot as down here but I have a mechanical and electric for when I'm in traffic and never had any issues Of course your mil is bigger than mine but I got a couple of buddys with big blocks and the same setup and they haven't had any problems. Good luck to ya.
http://www.blundellspeed.com/product_ford_flathead_power_steering.html The guy just moved from CA to OR and said his website is having issues so best to call him. This is a pretty cool setup for flathead v8 if you want to add ps to your car. Also my car doesn't have ps already I'm adding it. I believe the frontend is stock and from those I've talked to it should be fine. Is there something else I should be doing to it? This is a 49 Mercury. And the radiator is fine worked good before I started the project, but as I posted earlier I didn't get a chance to run it much prior to starting. The biggest problem I had was a possible vacuum leak or carb causing issues with engine stalling and stuttering when I tried to start out. Since I decided to do some mild upgrades, it had original "teapot" carb, I decided what the hell and am putting on 3x2 carbs with edelbrock intake and heads. Once I got the engine partially torn down I found that it already had adjustable lifters and was really clean so I'm sure there was very little mileage on the previous complete rebuild (very new gaskets and low crud buildup). So I'm just doing a basic cleanup/mod with new gaskets as well as adding the PS and new pieces.
I'm continually amazed at how much air my Spal puller moves. I'll never use anything else. I'm sure others will do an adequate job, but it's Spal for me.
You'll need to do some measuring to see what you can fit in there. I can share the part number of the ultra thing Spal fan I'm running but it really needs a shroud too. I'm running a 160 stat and I think a 15 lb cap. What I did was change a little at time and then see how it drove. If you run an electric fan, you'll also want to think about when you wanting it to turn on and off. Mine is on around 195, I'd like to have it turn on sooner. Yesterday in early Cubs traffic the fan was staying on in bumper to bumper traffic, coolant was maybe sitting at 210F or so. So my suggestions would be to run a 160 stat (I don't know how flat heads works), because mine never cools down to lower than 175 and that's when it's 10F out and I'm going 65mph on the highway. I'd have the fan come on earlier than 195 if you will sit in a lot of summer traffic. I'd run a shroud. My personal radiator setup is far from perfect. Post some pics of the engine area. Lots of the cheaper available electric fans need 3 to 5 inches of depth to fit. Mine is 2.5 and I mounted it a little off center since it would hit my water pump. But my setup is custom, GM frame, SBC, unknown radiator. I can take a better pic if anyone wants:
I'm running a stock mechanical fan as well as an electric pusher in my avatar. Best thing I ever did for cooling. The electric rarely kicks in, but when it does you can watch the temp gauge drop.
The best bang for the buck, and probably one of the highest flowing electrics around, is the late 90's T-Bird or Cougar fan setup. My local wrecking yard gets $35 for them, and I grab every one I can get my hands on, as they're money in the bank. They're also a very generic mount, so easy to adapt to all sorts of older cars. The only drawback to this factory fan is depth. They are 5.5" thick, complete with the shroud. So if you have clearance issues it might not work for every installation.
N...Louvres is right. You are running a stock radiator and a flathead. Its not like you are running an oddball combo. I am not against electric fans i run them all the time, but I seldom run anything close to stock engine wise and I usually have one laying around. if I was running something as close to stock as a merc with a flatty and the original radiator i would be running as close to original equipment as I could.
One wrong or a lot wrong is still wrong. You and I are on the page here. On a traditional hot rod and custom forum a traditional solution should be the first thing posted, after that modern options if traditional is not an option.
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