Sorry Guys -another "fan" question

Wow.... lots of stuff!

Someone said they have never heard of problems with factory fans coming apart??? Wrong. Mid to late 70's Ford had a recall on their flex fans for the blades breaking. Saw a few come in with the blades poking thru the hood.

I have seen some fixed blade fans come apart too. Most of the time they are old fans that were probably compromised by rust around the rivets.

I have seen electric fans break blades (plastic and metal).

Point is, none of them are above failure.

The factories have gone to electric fans maily for fuel economy. But they also use them for additional cooling. mid-late 90's Crown Vics had mechanical/clutch and an electric fan on them.

Mechanical with a GOOD clutch to me is the best way to go. If you can find a HD thermostatic clutch that fits, use that and a good 7 blade fan and as long as the rest of the cooling system is correct, it will always run cool.

Besides, there are too many other things that can cause overheating to worry whether and electric is better than mechanical, if the rest of the system isn't right, nothing will keep it cool.

 

Ever open the hood on an early 70's Grand Prix? There was about 2 ft between the fan and radiator... with a wind tunnel for a shroud.

 

loved them and the malibus as you could stand under the hood and work on them .

and yes I remember the fan fiasco with fords in the 70's and right after that Ford no longer used any flex style fan on there cars and went to the solid style with a clutch . and the reason for the fan failure was attributed to the stainless blades flexing and creating harmonics which loosened the rivets and then when they failed caused a imbalance which caused the unit to break , I have had a oem fan fail it was the Gm 5 blade thats offset to quiet it down , someone bent it at one time and made a crack in the web by the hub and it flexed back and forth till it failed and went thru the hood of my truck.

and my newer O/t truck has both electric and a engine driven , the electric only kicks in when the trans temp gets to a certain point otherwise its engine driven , and you can see ( temp gauge ) and hear when the clutch locks up on it . and if your moving down the highway you feel it slow you down .

as for the Oems using electrics , only on tranverse motors due to design , ( otherwise it would look like a corvair belt system ) and also when they do the CAFE standards that extra 1/100 of a mpg helps when they do the testing for the over all fleet numbers they have to pass .

 

Brings my mind to the 76 Monte Carlo.... That shroud looked like a 55 gallon drum it was so long

 

I have an O/T 1967 Impala SS, 327 and no A/C. It came stock with no fan shroud. I added a Stewart water pump and a 16" Spal fan so I could cruise in 100 degree temps at events like the just ended Great Labor Day Cruise. The electric fan gives me piece of mind knowing over heating will not be a problem at events like this.

 

same here on my '46 Chevy coupe, I installed a '61 235 anad no room for a mechanical fan blade. I do have a question concerning the installation of electric fans on original style radiators. Do the push-through mount kits(plastic bolts) pose a risk for radiator damage on the old style ('46) radiators?

 

Yes they do. Install the fan the right way using brackets.

 

When a car with an electric fan pulls up, it sounds like a new Honda or something like that. WTF???

 

agree

 

This is a traditional hot rod and custom site, I have to agree with Ryan.

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Wrong! I've seen many factory steel fans throw blades on performance engines. Those fans weren't designed to run at high speeds. If you turn them too fast, they come apart. It's why sanctioning bodies require metal fan shrouds. Fans are designed to be efficient at slow rpm where they're needed most, at idle in traffic. Most engines seldom see over 4000 rpm.

 

I keep hearing "traditional" in reference to mechanical fans.

Then I see pictures of fiberglass and stainless flex fans.

What is s traditional about that????

 

I'm hearing that mechanical fans inhibit airflow thru the radiator at hiway speeds, and that they also take more power to spin at hiway speeds...maybe i really did walk to/from school uphill both ways

I'm thinking the testing that shows huge power losses by mechanical fans is conducted under static conditions where there car or engine is not actually moving. If air were moving thru the rad from vehicle motion, the fan would have less work to do and take less power to spin. At some point fan speed and airflow from vehicle speed should match for a zero power loss, but they never mention that in the ads.

 

I previously posted on using a 2002-2006 Camry dual electric fan assembly. Attached is a picture of the installation on my 63 BelAir. Looks like it was made for the stock Chevy radiator. You can't beat the price or performance.

 

The basic mechanical fan is dragging on the motor 100% of the time.

An electric fan only get used when the motor temperature demands it.

Unless you're one of those wierd people that wire the elctric fan to run as soon as the motor is running...

 

Or blow.

Depending on what side of the radiator you put it!

 

And to think this thread was resting peacefully.

 

You based your whole motor mounting on where the fan would be located?????

 

The words "hot rod" an "electric fans" should not be used in the same sentence, period...