How I solved my heating issues on my car

[Welder guy]

I have been asked by several members about my fan and rad and if it works so I thought I would share a few pictures and thoughts. In a nut shell it works very well for me and I kept all the parts I removed. The 22" rad was given to me by a great friend who ordered it but the wrong one was delivered to him thus the good deal. The fan I bought in Edmonton at JB's power centre it is a flex a lite. At the time I bought separate controls but get the fan with controls included and save some cash. The rad fit good with just little bit of filing as one side of the holes were out 1/8 ". The Thermocoupler gets pushed into the rad fins just below the top rad hose and the thermostat controls which is a small dial switch was mounted below my battery tray to the rad support poking out though an existing hole just behind the grill so it's easy to get at. It is set to turn the fan on the same time the 185 thermostat in the water pump opens. It is relayed from switched power to battery power. It doesn't run when I'm driving down the highway only if I'm slow cruising around town or idling. The fan is very simple to install and operate it comes with its own mounting brackets. I can be in a traffic jam in at hot August afternoon for an hour and it will not heat up and it's no ordinary 383 under the hood it has been worked over with 360 hp to the ground dyno proven. To say it makes a lot of heat is an understatement. Please understand I like the look of a of a stock C body car but I like the ability of being able to drive it when and where I want with out heating issues more. The use of a hand held infrared thermometer was invaluable in fine tuning the fan thermostat. As far as transmission lines go they screwed in perfectly on the bottom of the rad no problem. Sorry in advance if I posted this in the wrong area

 

[Fury440]

Excellent, all kinds of food for thought.
A few questions.
- Why a puller instead of a bigger pusher in front of the rad?

- How is the fan attached? I see two bolts at the lower right and left, but nothing on top. Wire ties through the rad?

- I looked on the JB web site and they have a ton of flex a lite fans, like a candy store. Is yours a 15" puller?

- If I can find a 22" shroud to cover all the rad surface area, wouldn't I be better to use that with my standard steel blade fan?

- Do you have (or need) an auxiliary transmission cooler?

Thanks again for the post, it gives me a lot of ideas to ponder while the snow flies.

 

[Welder guy]

I went with a puller because it is more efficient cooling when you use a shroud and I had the space to do it. The brackets are on the sides of the fan and allow the fan to be mounted any place on the rad easily. I will post some pictures. The wiring was done at the bottom of the fan and routed to below the battery tray to keep things hidden. The fan and shroud are smaller than the rad and that worked well for me. The reason being is when I made a full shroud and mounted a normal flat electric fan on it ,the car heated when I drove down the hyway. It actually caused an air dam in front of the rad and choked the air flow through the rad. So I went to this puller style I have now. I removed the factory fan for the room needed and mounted the puller fan. I don't know what the hp gain is but the 7 blade fan I had was direct drive off my water pump. I did notice the car had a bit more pep and the gas mileage went up. I would never mount a fan though the rad with those small plastic straps and plastic washers your just going to damage the rad. Now you can mount a flat pusher fan in the front but I didn't like the look. I tried it and it didn't work as good at cooling as I thought it should. I went from a 4 blade fan to a 7 blade and recored my rad ,then a clutch fan , then I made a shroud, then a electric pusher with the 7 blade. Then a new aluminum rad that's when things started to turn around! Then to the puller fan I have now. I have no problems with heating at all. I found out that the open space around the fan lets the air flow freely through the rad when on the hyway without the fan running and when your stopped in heavy traffic in town the fan turned on and cooled the rad and the motor very well. An added bonus is it blows air past the carb and cools it as well. If you walk up to my car while I'm parked to talk to me you can feel the hot air blowing past your feet from the fan. It's amazing how well it works. Get the biggest CFM fan you can find, that is how they are rated, don't cheap out you will regret it. The trick is to move a lot more air though the rad than the factory fan does at slow speeds or when your stopped without interfering with the airflow when your on the hyway. It took me a while to figure it all out but I'm very happy with the results.

 

[Welder guy]

Here are some pictures of how it's mounted. the fan is mounted from the sides to an aluminum bracket that is shaped like an L and fits in between the rad support and the Rad then threaded rod screws into steel nuts moulded in the fan shroud . It is a very easy mount once you figure out your fan placement. I will modify the brackets this winter to look better when I have some extra time . When that happens I will add the second mounting bolt on the right hand side . There is also a picture of the thermocouple just below the top rad hose . I did an amp draw of the fan while it was running with my 375 FLUKE meter and it was 12 amp draw. I don't remember the CFM of the fan but it was the highest CFM they sold at the time and it was the most expensive too . Don't cheap out you will regret it . I had previously installed a 95 amp power master alternator and a 800 cold cranking battery to deal with my lighting issues so power draw from the fan was not an issue at all ! In my opinion a 65 amp alternator would work just fine with a real good battery, I would even try it with the alternator you have now if you have a very good battery. The fan itself only runs when I'm idling around town and most of that time it's off because of how the aluminum sheds heat so well. Oh yeah one more thing make dam sure you have a good rad cap ! I went through two brand new 16 psi ones before I found a good one one the third time . I hope this answers a few of your questions Fury440

 

[Welder guy]

As far as the transmission cooler lines go I did the same as the factory rad. The transmission lines just hooked right up in the same places on the new rad. No modifying needed. I have never needed an extra transmission cooler