Ive seen a great deal of open engine, fenderless rods using a fan. Ive seen just as many not using any fan. Im talking about a fan bolted to the water pump, not an electric fan strapped to the radiator. What gives? Personal taste? Or is there something to it? What do you prefer or recommend? If its just a choice, what do you think looks better? How is your rod set up and why? Thx
there's a t coupe with a flatty in it here that's ran without a fan since 1963.he goes to all the shows and runs. it's an open hood car
Are you talking about HAVING an electric fan, with no fan on the water pump, or having no fan period? Since I like to actually drive my vehicles, I recommend a fan. They pull air thru the radiator, which is important in stop-and-go traffic. It's got nothing to do with no hood sides or keeping the engine block cool, it's about keeping the water inside the engine block cool, and the only way to do that is to draw the air through the radiator. At freeway speeds, the air will go through the radiator on its own (generally speaking). That's when a clutch fan comes into play: it disengages the fan from the water pump pulley with it's clutch, and freewheels, removing drag from the engine's reciprocating assembly, thereby freeing up horsepower, resulting in better MPG. I've got one on my '62 Suburban, with the biggest 7-blade steel fan I could find. I don't like overheating. -Brad
Electric ones look like SHIT! I took mine off the H-bomb and put a 4 blade mechanical one on, but had to chop it to clear the cross member. So far so good, even when I had it @ the Round-up Can you get away with no fan at all? Don't think so.
I have electric fan. Why? Electric fan is superior when idleing in traffic. Clearance also, up and down. A fan on the water pump would be below the bottom of the radiator. Also when going over 40 mph I don't need a fan to rob power that a conventional water pump fan would do. Today it was 40 degrees F. here. I drove all over town with the fan turned off. Temp stayed on the thermostat. On a 50 degree day, it would overheat if I didn't turn the fan on. There are many variables. I am running 3 Monojets, progressive linkage, fairly rich mixture. If I downsized the jets for fuel economy there is no doubt that I would need to run the fan at 40 degrees to keep it in the normal temp range. For normal street driving no fan at all would have limitations of operation. I wouldn't evern consider runnning with no fan at all.
when I had my 32 I took off the steel fan and went to electric fan,here in arizona it worked so much better keepin it cool
I ran a mechanical fan which is fine if traffic is moving. But if I hit rush hour traffic, I have an electric fan hidden behind the grill.
Ask yourself a simple question: what is the purpose of a fan and why do ALL manufacturers put them on watercooled vehicles? Once you have answered that one, you might have a hint.
Thanks for eveyones points so far. Weasel, I understand the purpose of a fan on a watercooled motor. I have just seen so many cars, that I assume are daily drivers by the looks of them, that dont have any fans at all. I was just curious as to who does this and why.
monster I think ya need to look closer,it might LOOK like no fan but it might be mounted IN FRONT of the radiator and you dont see it
on my 54 f100 panel with a 429 i have run 2 elactric fans for 25 years. one is controlled by thermostat to come on @ 190 the other runs all the time. never, ever overheats. before i ran just 1 and it did hit 210 in in hot L.A. traffic. frees up horsepower. persoal choice. i would run electric water pump if i could afford for same reason. wouldnt care what it looked like open or closed hood. my car. no engine can run on the street without some type of fan on the street to push or draw air through the radiator. if someone says they've seen it or thier dad did it is on crack. we used to race without radiators also but we were on alcohol. (the car i mean)
i agree with meatball i run a ele fan thats on the front side of the radiator and most people have to ask before they see it. i like to tell them that i dont plan on stopping and it admazing how fast one can get throught traffic by using the sholder of the road
on my 33 pickup I run 2 electric fans in front of the radiator... I really did not have clearance for a mechanical fan .....runs cool all the time....
I've never had a problem with a good old mechanical fan. I try to run a shroud if possible, keep the right t-stat in it and a good coolant mix. If these basics are adhered to and the radiator is properly sized and in good shape, it should work. If I ever went to an electric fan, I'd have it with a manual switch and keep an eyeball on the temp gage, deploy it as needed. Bob
I have the largest electric "puller" I could fit on the backside of my radiator, and it barely clears the pulleys. If I recall, I even ground off all the high points on it to make it closer. I also have a small "pusher" on the front, that's on a selenoid and kicks in when the A/C is turned on. My car generally runs at about 160-180*, but it doesn't take long at standstill for it to start climbing up. (I think anything fairly "soup-up" tends to run hotter anyways at idle after a while....) I also run straight water in my radiator. Of course, in Florida I don't have to worry about my engine freezing up from cold weather either! I like the old fashioned fan, but there's no way I could have run one for clearance reasons.
This is the reason that there were no hot rods in Arizona or Socal before about 1978 The aftermarket electric fan had not been been brought to market yet. Obviously no one was capable of building a hot rod before electric fans and special water additives to make cruising in the hot weather possible. They had to be parked between April and September. In the middle Atlantic states we got to cruise until late June and then park it until the fall. Thank god someone invented an electric devise to do the impossible....cool a hot rod in the summer. This guy is very grateful and this was New England in September!!! Below the Mason Dixon line...faugettaboutit.
Biggest worry for a fan-less hot rodder is traffic on a hot summer day. I run a 17" fat blade stainless in my 32 roadster. It hangs fairly low and the shroud doesn't cover the lower area, but it cools the engine quite well. BBBs have a fairly low hanging and offset to the left fan. 109* F in Las Vegas, the car ran hotter than usual, but didn't overheat. Timing is also part of the running cool or running hot equation. You need a vacuum advance distributor with vacuum sourced to manifold vacuum on GM engines.
This was my personal mission last winter. My 31 had a spal electric pusher fan behind the front grill. It looked like dog balls and really killed the period look. I tried everything and my car would still start to overheat on those really hot days. Pusher fan, puller fan, shroud, thermostats, no thermostats, bla bla bla. Last winter I installed a 40's stock ford fan the right way. Get those fan blades .375" - .500" from the radiator. To clear my mallory distributor I machined a custom pulley and moved the radiator forward by .500" to provide addequate clearance for everything. I also adjusted the vertical angle of the radiator to keep the fan blades parallel with the radiator. The whole project took me way too long, but she kept real cool last summer. Most importantly.....period correct.
Power equals heat Dunno what kinda power the guy you saw without a fan is making, but I guarantee it ain't much. I also guarantee he drives that car like it's got no fan, carefully and with strategy. Not really very hot roddy.
Man that's too much work, just slap an ugly plastic electric fan on there, it's much easier. Isn't that what hot rods are all about? P.S. Nice looking setup!
I hear you. That was my first approach. Nothing moves air like a belt driven fan though. Especially if you're running a 6V system. 6V fans really suck....I mean blow little air.
Ive always come from the school of thought that 1. if i have an engine driven fan, that when the engine is running its spinning the fan. belts can be brought with you in the trunk if one should fail. 2. electrics can and have failed (than what?)..or if you have it switched and some one borrows your car or if you are too distracted to remember to turn it on ...than what? relays to crap out, swwitches that could go bad , fuses to burn out, wires..etc.. the list goes on (theres not alot of components to a mechanical fan set up to go bad.) redundancy is great! if you have both you should have absolutly no worries. myself I would find it hard to rely only on an electric..guess it depends on how lucky you feel..me, im not that lucky. I'll try to stick with the mechanical fan..simple, reliable, and all the Horse Power of my Mill spinning it to keep my mind on other shit that could go wrong and not what to do when the electric takes a shit.
On my coupe, I installed a propeller rather than a fan. The engine runs cool and the propeller increased my top end alot.
I agree. I have never seen a hotrod without some sort of fan, except drag racers. Or if the owner lived out in the boonies and never drove in traffic.
My daily 64 'camino doesnt have one, she gets hot below 25mph , but i drive over 30 in town and avoid traffic, no problems, i dont worry about it even in the summer in the 90+ temps Decent tuned but, Worn out but warm camel hump 350 with a new stock style 6 cyl radiator More power and more traditional than electric
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