Greetings all! I have a 1923 Studebaker roadster with an open engine compartment. This creates some challenges for cruising in the Northern California summer where ambient air temperatures commonly exceed 100 degrees. It runs a 383 stroker with a powerglide tranny. Has a big 3 core radiator, but no fan shroud. I would like to get rid of the fixed blade fan and move to an electric, but am not sure what cfm to get. Also, I note that several of the ads mention a lifespan... what am I getting myself into? Will the thing crap out on me mid-summer a couple of years from now with no warning leaving me to bake on the side of the road? Thanks for any help.
You don't need a fan above 30 MPH. It only gets in the way. For traffic you shouldn't need too big of a fan since you don't have air, the car is light and the engine open to the breeze. I would find out what size the maker recommends for a stock 350 and try that.
just get a shroud made for the mechanical fan and a fan clutch so it will freewheel at highway speeds and it will do a better job than a electric one . when making the shroud make it split in half half way from the top to bottom to make servicing it easier .
The fix for almost every overheating car with an electric fan is fitting a mechanical one. Are you having issues already or are you just concerned about when it hits the road? I would think it would do just fine with a mech fan
Fan CFM ratings on the side of the box are typically meaningless. The real information comes from knowing the entire fan performance curve and the static pressure drop across your radiator. The CFM rating for any fan is directly proportional to the air pressure drop across said fan. The fan curves below from Spal clearly show that the highest flow is at 0 static pressure. However, this is an impossible condition as even the most basic radiator will create an air flow restriction and cause the static pressure to increase. The more fins, thicker core, or grill screen all cause the static pressure to increase, and the fan performance to decrease. General rule of thumb: If you are overheating in traffic or idling, you need more fan. If you are overheating at highway speeds, you need more radiator.
Personally I'd stay with a engine mounted fan that actually pulled some air and install a shroud. If you have on of those little flex blade stainless fans on it now that is 90% of the problem as they need a real fan to pull enough air at low speeds and up at road speed the fan doesn't come into much play on that rig anyhow.
I would actually go as far as to run a clutch fan, they are not as Purdy but function before form on a hot rod, always.
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