Sorry Guys -another "fan" question

Ya get the feeling he stuck that on there (complete with through the radiator zip straps...) and thought to himself "No one will ever notice, and if they do I'll just go after an aircraft theme...

 

I think its more like, he stuck that on there and thought "man, does that look good or what? Look how it compliments my paint"

 

If I was drinking something my keyboard would be a mess...............

 

wow that is just wrong! Like a fat chick in a bikini. I would buy that guy something to cover that up with.

My latest has a 4 blade mechanical no clutch. First car I have ever built w/o heating issue. Granted it aint hot yet but cruised 27 blocks of boardwalk at 5mph last week no rise in temp. (of course it is also the first car I built w/o a hood!

Mechanicals look better and man do they move air at 1000rpm!

 

So should I cut my firewall and transmission tunnel up, weld in a new transmission crossmember, and re-engineer my motor mouńts to move my engine backwards? Or should I cut out the forward crossmember and make a new piece farther forward and move the hood latch elsewhere? Or should I find an other radiator that is dimensionally small enough to mount completely above that forward crossmember?

Or should I just run an electric fan on the front of the radiator?

 

Not in my case - after driving my big-block '55 F100 over a 30+ year time frame witthout ANY fan I realised I only needed a fan in parade/cruise type situations so I fitted an electric fan for that purpose.

And I manually turn it on when temp reached 190+, so far it gets used less than half a dozen times a year, not worth the effort of making/fitting a shroud and finding a correct-sized metal 'propellor'.

"YOUR RESULTS MAY DIFFER"

 

Ahhh, a blast of matt-black paint and you would never even notice it!!

 

Tell me how to fit the 460 into my '37 Ford without removing even more of the firewall and cutting out the X-member to clear the top-loader then??

'Cos an electric fan on front of the rad is my only option...and there was no lack of planning here.

 

This thread mAY have taken a left turn, But I just had an all steel fan come apart about 2 weeks ago. All it took out was my plastic fan shroud. Luckily.

I think I got it from NAPA, but dont really remember. It was sturdy built, and the motor is a stock 350, that doesnt turn high rpm's, so I dont know what happened. I have about 20k miles on the car.

 

And it looks so neat spinning round and round...

 

I'm goin to play the part of angel's advocate here and think that whatever good looking fan he had died on the way to the show and that fan is what was on the shelf at the closest parts store.


But probably not.

 

Some are saying here "no room for clutch fan" ----- are all clutch fans thick ?

* What are some clutch fans that you guys are running and sizes

 

I take exception to that. I've got elec. fans on two cars, The Diamond T and the '48 Pontiac convert, and mechanical on my two others the '51 Pontiac wagon and the '59 T'Bird. The electric one was used in the Diamond T because there is no room for a mechanical fan. The convert has the opposite problem, too much room. I didn't want to have 8" of extension or a giant shroud.

Not because I"m lazy.

Brian

 

Are we having an apples and oranges discussion here? Not directed just at you Fordtandard, at all of us.

If'n I was building a car more or less from scratch, yes I'd make sure to leave room to mount all necessary bits cleanly.

I swapped a later model engine into my car. The car is stock, sheetmetal at least. Although the '63 170 and the '72 250 are superficially the same block the 250 is dimensionally a bit bigger. It has a double timing chain which pushes the timing cover out farther. It has a larger balancer which pushes out farther. The bolts in the balancer pully sit closer to the radiator now than the stock fan did. If I'd gone to a V8 I would have plenty of room for a fan, and less room for exhaust.

 

To the OP:

Mechanical fans are only really efficient if they are within like 3/4" of the radiator without a shroud. Any more of a space you reduce your cooling efficiency significantly, thus the requirement of a fan shroud. Keep in mind this mechanical fan has to be centered in the radiator for it to work properly.

The point of the clutch is to have it only engage when you have the least amount of airflow (at idle or low speeds). It is not required at speeds really over 15-20 mph since you have enough air flow going through the radiator to cool it.

In my experience OEM/similar mechanical fans last longer and are more reliable. My only failure with this kind of setup has been the fan clutch. Aftermarket mechanical fans you run the risk of them coming apart because they are not made very well, as previously explained in other posts. I have watched a few friends of mine get their cars messed up pretty bad with flex fans and I refuse to use one. Aftermarket electric fans are another story, if they fail you are overheating, period. Its not like most of us are driving these vehicles as daily drivers anyway, so the reliability of an electric fan should be good enough for what we need. You get what you pay for.

Keep in mind that electric fans are maintenance items, where mechanical fans are not. You will eventually have to replace an electric fan because of failure. In addition, fans that pull air through the radiator work far better than fans that push. Some folks even double up and use the stock mechanical fan with a backup (on front of radiator) pushing air for parades. This keeps the stock look and the ability to hide the electric fan, while keeping the engine cool in slow driving situations.

I for one did not have another option in fan choice without significantly making a larger project out of my three year project (my 1959 Apache). I had to go with an electric fan due to clearance with the radiator and the 350 barely fit as it was with the distributor as close to the firewall as possible so I could still service the distributor (i.e. cap, rotor, etc.). I am comfortable with my choice and you should be too. After all, it is your build not a HAMB group build. If it was then I guess everyone who wants to tell you how to build it should be pitching in some money too.

 

Some are, some aren't as much as others (but overall still pretty thick), the problem is finding one that will fit your application that wont require an enormous amount of redesigning/machining.

 

The clutch holds the fan 2 1/2 inches forward, as opposed to mounting the fan to the water pump.... In my case I would be within a 1/4 on the radiator, and to me that's to close....If I ever take my front end apart, I will try to adjust the radiator forward 1 inch for the clutch

I honestly don't know why people continue to say a mechanical fan needs to be centered? I guess its partially true, but a proper shroud fixes that....

 

btt

 

I am liking the fan HRP is showing, and thinking about ordering one from Speedway? What engine in your Plymouth? I have 48 DeSoto with 392 Hemi, and wondering if there is a clutch fan that will fit. I am running the BB Chevy
water pump. Have you on anyone here tried the 180 degree HIGH FLOW thermostat I also see in Speedway? Does it help, or just snake oil? I'm getting desperate to control heating while sitting idling. I am running aluminum radiator with a shroud, regular fan + electric fan. Thinking very seriously about going back to the original 48 DeSoto copper/brass radiator. Using 50/50 AF mix, using distilled water and also the Red Line water wetter.

Jack

 

* How does a mechanical fan cool with a car at idle in traffic or at low speeds ( parades, traffic, non-highway driving etc) and or with A/C on at those low driving speeds ? Especially in the hot summer days !*

By sucking air through the radiator. Jeez.

* The argument from Elec Fan guys is that they flip a switch in those conditions and temp drops quickly etc,,,.

A plain mechanical fan must be big enough to cool the car at idle with the car stopped. As engines got bigger, air conditioning was added and rads got smaller, bigger and bigger fans were called for. These big fans took a lot of power to drive them.

Once you get rolling at 30 MPH or more you don't need a fan. There is enough air pushed through the rad.

But the faster you go, the more power it takes to drive the fan.

This is why they invented clutch fans to cut out the power drag when the fan was not needed.

But of course, they cost money and Detroit doesn't like to spend money on things the customers don't see.

When transverse engine front drive cars came in, and gas mileage became a top priority they went to electric fans. An electric fan costs nothing to run unless it is actually turned on which may not be that often.

So, an electric fan is the ideal answer to having a fan when you need it and no power loss when you don't.

But, they cost more money than a plain fan stuck on the water pump.

A lot of modern rear drive vehicles compromise by having a belt driven fan plus an electric fan for severe hotness.

 

Shoot all the bean counters!
A V8 engine could care less what it takes to drive a non clutch fan at highway speeds where you are not operating the car at peak horsepower.
If you cant afford gas stay home.

 

Here's the Hayden Online Catalog... fan clutch specs begin on page 342.

 

Mine was NOT a plastic fan - steel hub cracked and blade tried to exit through the hood after taking out the radiator. And as for "$700+ fan" - I guess some people miss the irony. That was a reference to the radiator that had to be replaced as well as the fan assembly. Never again will I use ANY kind of flex fan or fan with blades riveted to a hub....

 

I used to be a proponent of Spal electric fans and the Cooling Components combination of shroud and electric fan, both work well but are pricey. Be aware of a 2004-2006 Toyota Camry dual fan set up. I was told they combine for 3000 CFM. I wouldn't bet my life on the CFM claim but this set up will flat out blow your hat off. Needless to say the Camry set up can be had for way less then any aftermarket stuff I've seen and are all over wrecking yards. I have the Camry fans on the 63 Chevy Belair thats in my Avatar which always runs cool A/C on or off. Try it you'll like it.

 

It all boils down to use what you want to use,I have been playing the hot rod game for almost 50 years,,I've used manual crappy flex aluminum fans,steel bladed original fans, aftermarket electric fans and the fan I posted.

I have had cars run hotter than a 4 balled Tom Cat using a engine driven aluminum fan with a electric fan as backup,,,the car howled when I was in the bumper to bumper traffic in Columbus NSRA Nats.

The main think about any fan is it needs to be centered on the radiator and as big as possible,,That's where the zips risers are a big plus.

I have the steel Bladed fan on all 3 of my cars,,both '32's and the wagon.

None have run hot and none use a shroud. HRP

 

Isn't that what hot rodders did before the 80s when the electric fan thing got popular?
P.S. The only fans I have ever had problems with were electric.

 

1951 Mercury, SBC + cam + headers

Now (new radiator, moved farther forward than old one, 6 blade mechanical, electric now a backup pusher:








Was (old small radiator, single narrow electric fan 16 inches or so:

 

I'm 180F highway and moving 40 mph, but in slow traffic like 5mph, the electric fan has come on 3 times in about 100 miles of driving.

I plan to add a shroud as my buddy who did this swap for me said that his simple shroud with his similar combo is running 10 degrees cooler in traffic...

 

Not to hijack the thread but would the manual fan cool better closer to the radiator or farther away? I have heard arguments for both sides.

 

Any argument for moving the fan farther away absolutely must include a shroud! If it's more than an inch from the radiator without a shroud it won't cool well at all because it'll pull too much air from BEHIND the radiator, instead of THROUGH the radiator.

For the record, I have the biggest manual stainless flex fan I can fit in my '53 (not because of space between the radiator and the motor but any bigger diameter would cut into the lower radiator hose) and a 12-inch Spal electric pusher mounted to the front of my a/c condenser. Cools just fine without the electric 99% of the time but when I am in traffic and it's 100 degrees out that electric really does its job. Without the little helper it'd creep every time I stopped.