Well i have a problem since i put my hood back on the 40 ford i had to move the radiator back and no longer could use my fan as a puller. I mounted it in front of my nice new AFCO radiator and guess what it worked good until i got it out and ran it hard through the gears. Now i have lots of bent louvers and some of the cores are pretty bent up but not leaking. The fan looks like a perma-cool fan unit. I could slide the fan back on the motor shaft for more clearance but do i need to flip the blade around the other way? How far away can one have a pusher fan and still keep the motor cool? Sure wish i could use the factory style fan but not enough room for one. the radiator has no mounting tabs on it so i have to use the zip ties through the core to mount it maybe i should get a fan with the s blades but i don't know. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FLX-398/ Not sure if this one would be better but sure don't want to buy another 500 dollar radiator. Thanks
In my experience, I can get an engine driven flex fan in a smaller area than any electric, I know it doen't sound right, but you might be surprised. If you decide you have to use the electric, MAKE some tabs or mounting brackets to get it away from the radiator, I hate those fking zip tie cheap ass pos sorry excuse for doing it right shortcuts.... I used them once when I was much younger, they made my radiator leak, but you can make some nice mounts even from stuff at Home Depot. (Sorry if my dislike for those pos zip mounts shows)
just mounted one on a customers 40 plymouth, heard too much bad stuff about the zip tie mounts, used some 3/4" angle and has about 1/4" gap between the radiator and fan blades.
I have no tig welder to weld on the radiator to make any mounting brackets. I don't like the zip ties either. I called Speedway/AFCO when i bought it and ask why they did not make any tabs and they had no idea why. I wanted a fan setup built for it. If i did not have to move my radiator back i could of used a manual fan. I also was scared to run a manual fan because i rev it pretty hard and don't want to lose the hood and radiator at the same time if it broke. the radiator does have the side mounts for the upper support brackets and i do not use them but have nothing down below to hook to. I'm sure someone will have the idea i need but just haven't seen it yet. You people are pretty handy on here and some have more experience at this stuff than i do. i will check again to make sure i cannot run the manual fan i think i have about 1 1/2 between pully and core but it leans back so the top may be way close. Thanks
nah, nah, nah,,,, you don't need to put the tabs on the radiator itself, make some brackets that hook to your CAR and extend the brackets OVER the radiator... Sorry I don't have any pics of my son's OT Mustang elec fan mounts, which I will be ditching in favor of a flex fan soon, but the pic from the above post will help, whixh is almost EXACTLY what we did on the Mustang... a similar thing should work on most any car.
I could use a couple more pictures of the one above from different angles. I can use the top mounts on my radiator and somehow make ones that come up from my mounting bracket. HMMMM damn you guys got me a thinking that looks like it would work. i have about 1 inch from my blades to radiator but when I'm running it hard they must really be bending bad i cannot get anyone to ride on the front bumper and watch. LOL
I have heard that a rad will bend in a little from the force of the air hitting the front. The same folks have said that the fan will need about about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance to insure the fan wont hit. Get yourself a fin comb to straighten up your rad... (Sorry about the "street rodder" photo, honest, it was the first best one in my image search... )
I have a comb somewhere, but mine are not straight they zig zag back and forth. looks like a oring pick or small screw driver will be the weapon of choice on this deal. i will look tomorrow and see what i can come up with for ideas for mounting the extra iron. Sure wish i did not have to add a bunch of extra stuff and make it look worse than it does.
Do I understand that you were running the fan between the engine and radiator as a puller, and now you've moved it in front of the radiator as a pusher, but you haven't reversed the fan blade? If that's the case, the fan is still a puller... it's pulling air through the radiator from the wrong direction, rather than pushing it through the radiator. Doesn't matter where you mount it, fan blades are uni-directional, do unless that motor has a provision to spin the other way, then yeah, you need to flip the fan. -Brad
I use 1/2" wide by 1/8" thick flat strap to mount my fan. It's easy to bend and drill. I have two of those straps running side to side across the radiator, the fan assembly mounts to the straps... No flex whatsoever, looks 1000 times better than any hokey zip ties.
That's funny no you hook the wires up backwards and it pushes without the fan flipped. I will flip it today if the smaller manual fan i got from a guy today don't work. I am getting ready to go out and play with it a bit. Flat strap or old bed frame for mounting it sounds like a plan to try. i have some aluminum strap if i can get it to bend clean. Thanks again
Two questions: What type of engine are you running? How deep is the fan at the hub? I have hjad two '40 Fords and run a 2 5/8" deep core radiator with the stock firewall and a 2 3/4" deep 16" electric fan with a SBC and a SBC Ford respectively. The firewall was left intact and stock in b9oth instances.
Flipping the blade will NOT change it from a puller to a pusher. The only thing you will accomplish is to make the blade less efficient by making the blade work from the back side (curved surface) instead of the concave side which moves more air. Don't believe me? turn on the fan and see which side the air exits the blade...................then turn the blade around and turn on the fan. it will push the air in the same direction only with less force. The only way to change the direction or the air is to reverse the rotation of the motor. Frank
The Jalopy Journal
