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Ventilated Radiator

beanhead

Straining The Limits Of Machine And Man
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Well hell. Recently switched back to the Mopar Performance viscous 5-blade fan (#4140063). It was cooling wonderfully. Then I couldn't slow down enough in time going over a nasty country RR crossing. The road I wanted to take was closed so I wasn't familiar with this crossing and just wasn't ready for the gnarly crown in between the rails, with a massive rut on one side...jammed the brakes at the last second but not in time, so I let up just before I hit the bu-bump at 30mph. Fan blades were apparently a little too close. Car must have flexed like a sumbitch. Pulled over immediately after hearing the sound of metal hitting and saw all my nice green coolant flowing to the earth...2947 clutch and everything had (I thought) good clearance but there was only about 3/4" between the blades and core at the bottom(can't really see the two big holes the fan made in the lower part of the core in the pic). Water pump and fan clutch ok. So. A new radiator is next on the to-do list...thank goodness for Triple-A!
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Son of a bitch.
My Griffin that I had sat closer to the fan at the bottom than at the top. Someone here wrote that this is the case with almost ALL aftermarket radiators because their mounting flanges are not the same as a stock radiator. OEMs stand off of the core support more at the top to sit squarely away from the fan. Stock engine positions have the engine and trans sitting a few degrees lower at the rear.
I replaced the Griffin with an SpeedCooling 26" unit.
Sorry to read of your troubles. Good luck.
 
Yeah, the engine tilt combined with the 'ol unibody twist got me I guess...oh well. Funny because that fan and the one I had on before were about the same distance away but never even so much as grazed the radiator, over the course of 1500 or so miles. Now I know how the General Lee felt lol
 
Maybe there was not so much of twist from the frame as it was flex from the motor mounts/trans mounts shifting forward?
 
Maybe there was not so much of twist from the frame as it was flex from the motor mounts/trans mounts shifting forward?
That's more likely, my 'mightymount' engine mounts prevent rise but probably don't stop them from compressing. Trans mount is oem-style rubber too, so that was probably it. Tomorrow I am going to more closely inspect the oil pan, suspension, etc but it seemed to be okay
 
I have that same fan and I love it. It moves a lot of air. It was a little cozy with my rad, so I made a spacer and moved the fan back a bit from the viscous unit. No problems so far.
 
When I installed the aluminum radiator in my 63, I noticed the fan was way too close for comfort. After weighing my options, I went with electric. Sorry about your misfortunes @beanhead.
 
I have that same fan and I love it. It moves a lot of air. It was a little cozy with my rad, so I made a spacer and moved the fan back a bit from the viscous unit. No problems so far.
Yeah....it was fine but hitting that bumpy crossing too fast was too much. Your spacer is a good idea to keep in the memory banks however I don't have much room there anyway. It was only about 3/8-1/2" in front of the power steering pulley. I think the two blades that hit were slightly bent, pitch-wise, to where the leading edge was a little closer to the radiator. Probably from storage. It's a good fan with it's light weight, but that also makes it somewhat flimsy and easy to bend, at least compared to the old-timey fans. I'm going to 'custom fit' a factory 7-blade on the next one as it's blade pitch doesn't put it so close, yet it moves lots of air. Just needs an equal small amount of metal taken off the ends to clear the shroud. I have a Derale 6-blade that fits but I think it's way too heavy.
 
Oh crap....been there before and it sucks! Unibody cars are fairly stiff but not stiff enough to not flex some when going over really rough stuff but there was more going on there than body flex. If you've ever driven a car rough without a hood on it, you'll get a first hand show of how much an engine will move around. First time it took me by surprise with stock mounts. It moved around a lot! And I sure like that car! Had a 68 road runner coupe race car in the early 80's and don't know why I ever sold it....
 
Back last year when I went through setting up mine (utilizing the massive Griffin radiator), I wound up not running a viscous fan at all for the very reason you mention - there's not enough clearance from the radiator (mine also measured 3/4" at the bottom of the viscous coupling when using the "shorty" Jaguar coupling).

Yep, there is a decided tilt to the engine and the fan/coupling winds up real close at the bottom - too close for my taste.

I wound up running a factory shroud and a fixed fan on a 1" spacer, giving me half in/half out on the fan blade to shroud spacing;
I used a 19" 7-blade fan from Summit recommended by coloradodave. That got my fan far enough away from that $$$ radiator to sooth my fears.

Little did I know that these engines would move THAT much, though. HOLY CRAP! :eek:
Think you might have hit that bump harder than you estimated?
Do our cars flex that damn much?
 
HOLY CRAP! :eek:
Think you might have hit that bump harder than you estimated?
Do our cars flex that damn much?
Just a jacked-up country railroad crossing, in dire need of repair but I imagine they're just going to tear it out soon for the high-speed rail project, which is under construction within a half mile from there (don't get us CA boys started on that subject or this thread will get dumped into the political section lickity-split! :screwy:)
 
Just a jacked-up country railroad crossing, in dire need of repair but I imagine they're just going to tear it out soon for the high-speed rail project, which is under construction within a half mile from there (don't get us CA boys started on that subject or this thread will get dumped into the political section lickity-split! :screwy:)
Still mind-boggling to me what happens politically on the left coast....
hell, mind-boggling the dude was even still alive to come back from the political grave. :)
 
Whatever you do, go with new HP motor and trans mounts. 1" should be plenty of clearance. Radiator/fan crashes are caused by a bad motor mount most of the time.
 
Whatever you do, go with new HP motor and trans mounts. 1" should be plenty of clearance. Radiator/fan crashes are caused by a bad motor mount most of the time.
Fairly new 'mitymount' engine mounts. Chalking it up to possibly getting airborne...:D
 
Possible. Just in case and to be sure. Try jacking up the engine/trans with a board under the oil pan and look for how much and where you get excessive movement from.
 
Possible. Just in case and to be sure. Try jacking up the engine/trans with a board under the oil pan and look for how much and where you get excessive movement from.
Excellent idea sir. My OEM-style trans mount's been in awhile and we all know how long 'new' stuff lasts anymore...
 
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