Fan blades hitting shroud

[plutonius]

So I pulled the OEM radiator today and replaced with a CSF (flushed the heater cores, block, replaced water pump & fan clutch & refill with 50/50 Toyo Red). Upon installing the new rad, the shroud sits a bit higher than on the prior rad, and the fan blades are hitting the lower portion of the shroud when the engine is under load - at idle it is fine.

I've thought about cutting away the lower half of the shroud, but I think that driving around grid-locked SoCal in the scorching heat I need all the cooling help I can get.

So my question is, should I trim the fan blades a hair, trim the shroud, or is there an after market shroud that may work better? Anyone make their own shrouds out of aluminum?

 

[lndcruz]

The shroud. Cutting the fan blades will probably result in it being unbalanced.

 

[plutonius]

^^^ahh, good point. So is trimming the shroud pretty common after a rad swap?

 

[lndcruz]

I wouldn't think so, but what do I know.

Did you put a rad out of a older lc in it? Maybe leave something under the radiator?

 

[plutonius]

Oh, that's where my Maglight went!

No, brand spankin new CSF that the boys at Man-A-Fre ordered for me. i'll pull the fan & shroud out in daylight & see if something's just not sitting right, but I wrestled with it for a while today already

 

[lndcruz]

Good luck!

 

[IdahoDoug]

I wouldn't accept that - especially from a company that's a LandCruiser supplier. I'm thinking you didn't get the shroud seated all the way down at the bottom, or trapped a bit of wiring under it, etc. I've seen both of those happen. Get all the way under the truck and look carefully with a bright light.

Either way, I would not be trimming the shroud and driving it like that as you're giving up significant cooling potential. Who knows - after all that work and then degrading the shroud/airflow the end result might be the same cooling potential as putting in a moderately dirty used radiator.

DougM

 

[SiRaDuDe]

I dont know if this would help but...

Check this post out: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/333894-body-swap-done.html#post4972974

I made 2 small tabs to lower the radiator and drilled new holes for the rad support mounts. No cutting of the fan shroud and I can still use the stock hoses.

 

[plutonius]

^^^that could be the answer right there - i.e. to modify the brackets so the radiator can sit a bit lower. I first need to verify that the bottom tabs of the shroud are lining up with the radiator's insets...I'm putting in a call to MAF tomorrow to get more advice before I pull out the bits and/or scalpel.

 

[plutonius]

Update

So I've been driving around with 3/4 of a shroud for the last 2 weeks (thankfully it's been fairly cool temps). The fan had cracked the shroud so I cut the bottom off and zip tied it in place until my replacement shroud from a "parts 80" arrived. Today I did some more in-depth investigating, and saw that the radiator tab that holds the shroud foot on the DS was bent upwards, such that the foot was not able to slide into place. So the shroud was never seated properly - my fault & it's what I get for finishing off the install in the dark and racing to get my boys to hockey practice.

Anyway, I have a bit of Scangauge data. With the 3/4 shroud my water temps were running between 185 to 195ºF, peaking at 204 on a 6 mile 25mph canyon climb near my house. With the new shroud properly installed today I was running 177 to 185 under normal driving conditions, peaking at 192 on the same canyon climb. These are on back to back days with nearly identical ambient temps. Pretty significant difference if you ask me!