A few months ago I had a stock 4 blade fan explode on me, wiped out the hood and the battery. I was only turning about 3800rpm when it let go. Earlier that morning I had been doing some tuning, and was reving the engine from under the hood, a few more revs and it could have gotten me then.

The hood where it escaped


Inside the hood


The fan



BTW The fan looked ok when installed, and never gave any indication of a problem, well until it came out the hood. No more fixed factory fans for me, it will get an electric fan in the future.

Stay safe around those fixed fans!

TopHat

Whoa!
I'm glad that nobody got hurt, obviously that could have caused some serious injury.
I have also been thinking about installing an electric fan on my slant, and this is one more point for an electric fan.
I'm glad that it wasn't any worse...

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"Ja, Ich fahre ein altes auto."
'78 Volare 225
'67 Charger 318

Wow!

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Holy crap!!!! Ive seen flex fans come apart but never a factory fan. Really glad no one got hurt.

Yumpin' yiminy. That's right up there in nightmare territory with "rotary lawnmower engine turning at 3600 rpm, blade tip speed twenty thousand feet per second, blade flies apart and pieces come through the mower deck". I've never before heard of a stock rigid steel fan blade grenading like this, either. Excellent reminder never to stand in the same plane as a spinning engine fan.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Me too. I saw one of the old fiberglass blade flex fans come apart on a 427 Ford at 6000+ rpm. It stuck a blade in the ceiling of the shop they were working in.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I had an electric fan loose 3 blades going down the track 2 years ago in Pittsburgh. The stupid thing came on at about 3/4 track
of course the blades are much smaller, lighter and plastic. They did no damage under the hood though.

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I had this happen to me on a 6 blade fan on my 1975 Valiant. Extremly cold day, car was at the train station all day, hopped in, started her up and let her warm for a minute before taking off for home. WA -BAM !! I get out and look under the hood and couldn't see anything but the engine was shaking quite a bit. So I head home and was looking round the engine compartment and couldn't figure out what was wrong. (the radiator had a shroud on it and the broken blad was down at 6 o' clock position). I looked under the hood for an hour, when my mom walks by and says "Whats that thing sticking out under the battery tray ?" There was the fan blade under the battery tray and it had pucntured partially thru the inner fenderwell sheetmetal where it was lodged. Took 15 minutes to get that booger out... Be Careful Guys !!

I saw one go through the hood of a '49 Chevy pickup and they used some HEAVY gauge sheet metal back then.

Mind those stress risers, boys...

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obliquely-inclined state of mind