mechanical fan vs electric fan ... GO!

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carsucharda

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So i did some searching and first off what i can tell you is that the search engine used wont search for fan because it is too common a word it will only search for 'fan' otherwise the word is ommitted alltogether. Anyways...

My 1968 Newport has a transplanted 360 out of what i assume is a 72-74 mopar something. Grandpa is dead so i cant ask him and no one else knows where it came from. in any case, it has a non clutched mechanical fan which is currently missing the shroud. I dont have any overheat concerns. I am however trying to decide whether i should get an electric setup, a clutched fan or a flex fan. Maybe i should leave it alone. I do however want to know if anyone has done the efan thing and how its going. Also which mechanical setup is better and why? Im looking at Efans with about 4000 cfm which are more $$$ vs a 18" flex a lite bendy fan which is cheap n easy but i dont know exactly what im getting cfm wise.

Lastly, I dont want to start a sh*t storm on any forums. Lets all just get along.
 
No shitstorm here.
You say you have no overheating concerns.
Do nothing until then. There's got to be a ton of other stuff that you do have concerns about.
See my smiling smiley? ----->. :D

Posted via Topify on Android
 
You don't say how long you have had the car, but if you have had it through a summer, and you don't have overheating issues, I agree, don't worry about it.

If, however, you want to worry anyway....

I just replaced my flex fan with the proper clutched fan. It's quieter. I like it better. I've never used electric fans, so can't offer an opinion there.
 
Had a customer with a 70 cuda 440 he had a aluminum radiator with built in electric fan the car would overheat. we changed to factory 26in rad, clutch fan and shroud. problem gone. in this case I think the rad was too small. if you have a problem in future I would go to a clutch fan and factory shroud
 
Please help me understand. I'll buy that clutch fans save HP in theory. How else are they better than a standard fan? I've heard lots of stories about clutch fans that stop working...
 
Ive had the car throughout the previous summer. No overheat. last year was a HOT one! I do have a bunch of stuff i could spend the money on.
 
Stay away from any flex fan. I saw one blow up once and it went through the hood of the car. They've killed people.
 
damn I saw a harmonic balancer come off a jag at road Atlanta ^^ that reminded me of that,,,, punched a hole right thru the hood. or bonnett. whatever.
 
Fratzog said:
Please help me understand. I'll buy that clutch fans save HP in theory. How else are they better than a standard fan? I've heard lots of stories about clutch fans that stop working...
Click to expand...

On our cars, clutch fans are standard. The clutch probably does stop working, too. But it's an easy replacement. In fact, that may be where the flex fans come from: never replace a clutch again!

To my mind, the advantage of the clutch fan was the noise. It's always running, and those blades whirring around made a lot of racket. I thought I had a bad rear-end, or I needed overdrive, or something. Realized I had a flex fan. There is a fellow Imperialist in my area, and he had a spare factory fan, so I bought that and a clutch from Autozone. The car runs much quieter on the highway now. Since I have a master cylinder issue causing some brake drag, I really can't say if I have more power or better fuel mileage.

But I would change again in a heartbeat just to get rid of the noise.
 
Good thread. If you don't race your car, stick to the standard fan. If you race your car, you could see a 2 tenth drop using electric fans on your ET. The motor will seem to Rev faster (more response) also. The good thing also is you can shut it off manually. The alternator will have more drag when it's on,... but when your at the track and staged just as the lights come down you can hit the off button and gain ET. It's been proven time and time again.
 
Big_John said:
Stay away from any flex fan. I saw one blow up once and it went through the hood of the car. They've killed people.
Click to expand...

Any fan can come apart, I have seen a standard fan without clutch loose and arm and put the blade through the inner fender and into the fender on a 68 Barracuda, this was a stock engine.

There are factory flex fans, my 73 Barracuda had one.


Alan
 
also just a note again, not stock engine, 360 v8, no clutch on the fan, excessive use of commas.

i would have to buy another fan to put a clutch on it as i havent found a clutch yet that would accept the fan currently installed. Im ok with that i guess. so far the vote is do nothing though. well, lets see if anyone else wants to chime in.
 
and it works great


and serves it purpose much better than a car without a shroud


and it only cost me 30$ to throw together and throws more than 4000 CFM

Cheers
 
I have heard nothing but bad about flex fans. Sometimes they flex too much and chew into the radiator. The best electric fan is from a production car. Many rodders like the 2 spd Ford fan (Taurus?), search on www.jalopyjournal.com/forum. A M-B pusher fan on 1980-90's cars are also popular and common in junkyards. Get one with nylon blade, not the cast aluminum one. A shroud seems to help a lot, as does blocking air from recirculating back over the top of the radiator. I understand a thermal clutch is better than a simple viscous clutch. Thermal ones have a bi-metal wound spring on the front. Most commonly, one uses an electric pusher fan in addition to a mechanical fan. Sometimes it is wired just to actuate with the AC clutch or if an over-temp.
 
alota jeep folks do this mod for water crossings ect..Taurus was the main one easy to find for me but are others like lincon ect that we rarely see in wreckers up here that push a tad more CFM..am seriously considering setting one up for my 70 318/2bbl to get better gas milage for long trips..the only time the fan kicks in in my 91 gmc is in traffic..rest of the time never hear it..with the 2 speed is easy to set up to work with AC as well and replacement motors are a dime a dozen
 
I run a flex fan no shroud (I broke the one I had) Jeg's universal aluminum rad (smaller than the opening, didn't have proper dimensions when ordered) with an electric fan from a Bonneville as a pusher. I dont have a gauge but the car runs fine all the time. I use the pusher fan to cool the radiator after I've driven it.
 
So i bought a 17" plastic flex fan. I figured for $25 it was worth some experimenting. I did the paper test on the fan i had to see what distance i could pull an 8x10 sheet of paper to the radiator. the original fan could pull it in from about where the grille would be. I took the direct (no clutch) mounted metal fan off and it wieghed a lot. put on the plastic fan (flex). It could pull about the same distance mounted in the same spot. I have about 2" between the radiator and the fan so contact while attached wont be an issue. the seat of the pants feel on accel of the new fan is positive as it weighs very little. I took it for a long test drive including city and highway driving with no problems. I figure i will have to replace it every few years though as i expect it would get brittle over time with the heat, but we will see. If thats the case, at least its a cheap fan, and if it does disintegrate, it shouldnt shoot through the very thick steel hood at least. If it fails or overheats i will be happy to share that info.
 
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