I'm swapping a Griffin radiator into my Dart, and there wasn't very much clearance between the fan and the radiator to begin with. And I'm using an intercooler, so it's going to be hard to put a pusher electric fan in there. Any recommendations for an effective cooling fan that doesn't take up too much room in front of the engine? Looks like I've got maybe 3" between the pulley and the radiator.

I'm willing to consider either mechanical or electric fans. I could probably do something to make a pusher fan fit between the radiator and intercooler, but would rather not try that unless absolutely necessary.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

If you have the room which you should unless the Griffin is set back futher than stock. I would reconmend the stock four blade fan.
I built a 340 and here in Ga you know it can get warm in the summer. The car wanted to get hot in stoped trafic if the air temp was in the 90s. Tried three different fans.
1 The stock four blade fan
2 MOPAR high performance clutch fan
3 And after market flex fan that was pricey . Thanks Ron Parker





It Aint Over Until I Win

Thanks for the suggestion - unfortunately, right now I don't actually have a four bladed stock fan. The previous owner had managed to trash that (bad motor mounts + hard braking = fan through radiator) and put on a flex fan.

Does the four bladed fan mount directly to the pulley, or is there a spacer on there somewhere? If it bolts on directly, it should give me much more clearance than the fan I've got now.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

The stock four blade fan cools the best on my 340 engine. Yes it bolts up on a Slant to the water pump flange. Put the pulley on put the fan on and four bolts. Hell I give about 50 dollars for the flex fan supose to be the best it was a joke. The MOPAR hipo clutch fan was better but not as good as the stock four blade. Thanks Ron Parker








It Aint Over Until I Win

When I removed the 4 blade fan on my Satellite (replaced with a 7 blade clutch fan), it did have a spacer between the pully and fan. It was around an inch and a half to give proper spacing between the fan and radiator.

Matt,

It didn't matter to me what the spacing between radiator and fan was because I planned all along to get the radiator as close to the fan as I thought safe to keep the motor and radiator from touching in case of any frame or system flexing.

I had some spare spacers including the 1.5 inch think one. I cut it on a metal cutting chop saw to allow 3/4 inch between fan and radiator and used a mopar 5 blade fan. I didn't have a mill to finish the spacer but used a rasp to amooth it a bit. I figured the rotational mass was so close to the shaft center that mnor imbalance would not be a problem to the water pump. It hasn't either. Sequence is fan, spacer, pulley then water pump.

WIth a 180 thermostat opening at 180, the water temp drops to about 165 and has not yet climbed over 190. As with Jeb, here in NC it gets very toasty all summer, too. I had a shroud I didn't have to use, and also made a stainless steel cover to put over the radiator top to the grille to force air to the radiator, but haven't needed to bolt it up yet!

I too would like an electric fan set out of ego, I guess but also to reduce the drag on HP. I even ran the relays for a fan set if needed. Shows how dumb I can be, wanting to fix what may not need fixing!

Merry Christmas,
rock
'64d100

I have done many stupid things since i have been racing Slants in 9 years. But I have learned a lot by reading and to listening to Slanted People not just racers. My worst move was to take the alternator off the car because I thought it would pick up a lot of time. Wrong the car picked up about a hundredith of a second in the 1/8. But now I have to carry battery chargers and charge the battery so who is the goofer. Im a belever in if it aint broke doint fix it. Thanks Ron Parker






It Aint Over Until I Win

My 63 170 Dart had an aprox 0.907" spacer on the stock 4 blade fan. I removed the spacer trying to get the engine to warm up a bit more, turned out to be the stat. I did leave the spacer off. I decided to install a crank bolt when I recently did a timing chain. thankfully I spun the fan without the belt on. The fan hits the crank bolt on a 170, I just left the crank bolt out. Running fine without it.

hope this helps some
good luck
tophat

Ah, where's you're adventurous spirit? I believe "If it ain't broke, fix it anyway."

Seriously though, conventional wisdom would suggest that you'd drop some time by losing the alternator and if you hadn't tried it then you wouldn't have known any different. A lot of inventions and improvements are made by trial and error and even by sheer accident.

_________________
David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.