Welp. Finished the trans cooler. Filled with coolant primed the fuel. Started it up to do the break in. And 15 second in the radiator fan blades dug their way through the radiator basically destroying both. 5 weeks ist to the Roc and this thing just took a big step backwards. Need to get a new radiator Tempted to just go with an electric fan because now I'm afraid if I put another stock mechanical fan on it will just do the same thing and cook another radiator. I really hate the look of electrics but in the interest of running and driving I figure that's the way I need to go at this point. Anybody got any better ideas?
I’m with Jeff, that also happened to me once. My fan hit something which bent the blade then it carved a circle in the radiator. I know this is super discouraging! But stick with a stock fan and shroud. after I zoomed in it looks like the blades hit the bottom tank, bent then got into the core. Put a shorter fan spacer on it and it’ll be fine.
From the pic looks like the fan blades made contact at the circled area, bent, then contacted the radiator. But that is just judging by the pics posted. Sucks no matter why it happened. Don't let it get you down too much @redzula we all have days like that.
Y'all were exactly right. Looks like the fan contacted the trains cooler boss. Knew it was close, hence going with a completely separate cooler for the trans, but never even considered the fan flexing while running and pulling air. Fan touched the drivers side boss. Bent the tip and then started cutting fins from there. at least that's my theory. Ordered a new radiator, electric fans, and also bought a new mechanical fan and a shorter spacer. Going to see how it goes with the mechanical fan on a shorter spacer and if all else fails I have the electric fans as a backup to get me to Oklahoma if I need to. In the mean time I put the car on the ground for the first time since the engine was put in. Ride height seems pretty OK to me.
I’ll be sure to lean in and say “aaahh geesz some asshole put an electric fan on this thing?!” Haha see you soon
That's a good eye. The tips were bent forward a little bit when I got it. Never having seen one before I overlooked that as just how they were supposed to be. I don't have a shroud never did... the 223 never had one either... so I'll need to make something or find one.
Well it's been a week. Bought a brand new speedway fan and shorter 1" spacer (stock I had was 2 1/8") New radiator and electrician fans as a backup. Radiator came in and was an inch taller and slightly wider than the old one. So since this is the hamb and not the restoration page. On Thursday I removed the factory radiator support and got to work building a new one that allows the taller radiator to sit further down and at the same time address the problem of it being marginally wider. Used some angle iron cut and welded to somewhat match the shape of the radiator and frame crossmember. after yesterday started with Nebraska embarrassing themselves yet again, this time to an international audience. I went outside and blew off steam by finishing the radiator support i had the lower section shaped up but needed to build the vertical sections. For that u used some 1 1/4" square tubing so it will effectively space the radiator away from the engine. By the end of the day I had the support tacked together how I wanted it. Today i finished welding the support and painted that and the radiator. I also added rivnuts to the front end sheet metal to get rid of the captured nuts that were rusty and about half had broken out and spun making removal of the upper radiator shroud difficult. Relocated the horns because they mounted to the old radiator support but now with me spacing the radiator out they hit the backside if the grill. So I moved them out and hung them off the fender shrouds. With the shirter fan spacer and soacing out the radiator I now have 2 1/2" between the fan and radiator. Which is probably too much so I'll either need to make a shroud as mentioned above or get another spacer that's a little longer to fine tune Placement. The factory spacer will work now but the and that would close the game to about 1 3/8" between fan and radiator. But the snout on that spacer is a lot smaller than the hole in the speedway fan and I wouldn't want to cause a vibration because of that not centering properly. Lastly I went with a 16" fan over the factory 17" but with everything else I did I probably didn't need to do that. I should be able to put water in it and finally do the break in on the engine. Down to exhaust, 1-2 oddball electrical connections I still need to do, and driveshaft which I had made just need to pick it up. It's been a busy week because among all that I also went to Lubbock Wednesday/Thursday last week for work where we had just opened a new concept Allsup's convenience store with no gas but basic essentials like laundry soap and beer for the college kids at Texas Tech. Our store is right across the street from the main entrance to campus. That had been a whole other fiasco. With a lot of time and effort to get opened on time before school started last week. Alright that's enough rambling for me. It's dinner time.
https://youtube.com/shorts/af3x2OgemOs?feature=share Running pretty fast but it's running in the car. Got an oil leak I need to seal up. Got my driveshaft picked up and installed. Just need to get it to an exhaust shop. And start driving it to see what else I need to fix before OK
Heck, you might as well come up the weekend before for a shakedown run. http://www.hotrodhundred.com/oklahoma-city.html
I don't think there is a hood made that likes being smoothed out like the '55/'56 Ford. Period......Both of these belonged to my wife !!
I once pulled a double! Had a Kevlar flex fan get old and flex enough to hit the radiator. Replaced the fan and fixed the radiator. got to the end of my driveway and the new fan flexed enough to hit the bottom tank. Talk about frustrating. new spacers and a very loud metal 6 blade fan from the race car catalog and we were good to go
Got both a 2.5" fan spacer and a 2" With the bigger one the fan sits about 7/8" from the fan. Thoughts?
No 55-56 passenger car had any shroud. Today many have added one for better air flow thru the entire core. The factory in some areas of the country had a metal shield above the radiator and support sealed with rubber to force all the air thru the radiator while moving.
Interesting. Mine has that shield that seals to the bottom of the hood and was bought new in Colorado.
There's nothing wrong with having the fan that close per se, but I think optimally, it would be about an inch further away and have a shroud. I don't even mess with those 4 blade steel fans anymore. I just figure what the biggest fan I can run is, and just order a steel 6 blade from speedway.
Any chance of a picture of this. Not picturing in my head what you guys are talking about and I'm curious lol.
The Jalopy Journal
