Need help on a 5.3 Vortec fan

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ander42b

ander42b

10 Year
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
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Northern Arizona
I'm doing a V8 conversion on my FJ60. I'm using the Chevy 5.3 Vortec engine. Today my engine supplier has delivered the engine without the manual fan on the engine. So, my question is how do I correct the issue of the engine that is set up for a regular serpent belt when I want a manual fan set up????? :bang:

The picture below is the engine In question.

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Not sure what you are referring to in regard to a manual fan. Are you saying the engine is not setup for fan clutch fan (it may be from a vehicle that had electric cooling fans) If that is so, I assume you can order the correct water pump and pulley , fan clutch and fan from GM or get if from a junk yard.

From the picture it looks like that pulley has the threads on it for the large siingle nut GM fan clutch that matches the engine.

If you are trying to run a non GM fan clutch setup.. (old school manual fan) .then I don't know what your options are. I would stay with the proven GM fan clutch solution.
 
Elbert is correct ----^

Go to 'alldatadiy.com' and get the FSM for your make/model of engine donor, you can find out what part number for the fan clutch - that will thread onto your pulley - and the part number for a fan (summit/mcmaster, etc).

You can probably go to Napa/O'reilly's/Autozone/etc and they can give you the same information and sell you a fan clutch and a fan.

Something to be aware of - with serpentine belts - is whether your fan will rotate clockwise or CCW; it depends on how the manufacturer routed the belt over/around the pulleys. I think the 5.3 is 'reverse rotation' but DON'T quote me on that - it might depend on year and donor vehicle. My 5.3, out of an '03 silverado is reverse so the fans blades are angled differently.

HTH,
Travis.-
 
The water pump spins in the opposite direction between a clutch fan and a non clutch fan. We recently built a 350 powered FJ 40 and used a clutch setup with a 7 blade big block fan. That moves tons of air. John
 
V8 conversion

Here's some better pictures of the water pump pulley. The pulley comes 4-1/8 to 5-1/8 from engine block. I do not know what model of truck the engine came out of. My engine block is a 2005. So I do not know weather the pump rotates counter clockwise or clock wise. Is there any way for the naked eye to identfly the rotation which way the pump rotates????:confused:

Most part stores are useless in answering these questions I have asked here.:bang:

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That pulley is setup for the large single nut type fan clutch setup used on teh single belt drive. One solution is to simple get on the rock auto web site and scroll through the gm model pickups by year until you find where they were using mechanical radiator fans (I think most of hte current year model stuff is electric), and you go with the OEM GM fan clutch and fan.

Maybe they make a manual fan setup for single belt drive, but I have never seen one, plus one that would mate with your present pulley?

Then you are going to get into all kind of fun stuff in regard to belt alignment etc..

There are a few guys here on the board who have 5.3 engines in their trucks, and I htink most are running the GM OEM Fan clutch setup. I understand you might not want to go that way but its not clear to me what alternatives you have....other than maybe going with electric fans, but I would not do that.
Rove67 has a 86 or 87 I think LC with 5.3, you might PM him to see what his setup is or look through his engine swap thread...and there are a few other engine swap threads with 5.3.

On the old 5.7 v belt setup...there would be a few different options...
 
Elbert,

You were right on the money the about identifying the pulley. It is a single nut mounting system. The fan clutch mount up to the pulley with one single nut. Farther resrearch I found out that all serpenteen belts are counter clockwise rotation.most of the early year Vortec engines use this type of system. From 1999 to about 2003/2004:bounce2::bounce::bounce2:

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What year truck is that fan from? I've got a 99 5.7 vortec and it uses a multi blade plastic fan but fan clutch mates the same way and I have a 07 GM pickup with 6.0 engine and I think it has a multiblade plastic fan too.. I think 1999 was the last year of the 5.7, at least in the pickup and SUV for GM.

Just wonrdering if that is the correct fan for you engine....?

Be careful if you are mixing and matching fan clutches and fans....of course you don't want a fan that is designed for vbelt on a single belt, because..of the potential rotational direction differences. I do know on some GM stuff the fans will not bolt on to the fan clutch...if you try and mix and match but I'm not sure if that's true across the board.
 
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This is what is on my 1999 5.7 donor engine out of a Yukon.

fan clutch and fan. I think a number of the 5.3 and 6.0 engines runs something similar in plastic fan mode...the ones I've seen are white in color and the design is very similar... just an FYI

What I don't know if you can mix and match stuff as long as it has the large single nut fan clutch....I'm betting you can, but you have to be careful about that.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/catalog.php You might want to double check your fan/fan clutch....I may be wrong but I thought all the "new" engines ran the plastic fan I show or a white colored plastic fan that is very similar. I'm speaking to OEM GM stuff, aftermarket support may have some different options.

Just a double check.....better to confirm now rather than find out later.

I bought a new fan and fan clutch when I swapped over to v8 to replace what came off the salvage yard engine....I buy from rock auto if they stock it. For cooling I like GM OEM stuff in fans or fan clutches. Even saying that some aftermarket stuff is good too, I ran a 6 blade fan clutch fan from flexalite on my 92 TBI pickup I use to have and it did a good job. Just posting for info purposes, because the fan I used on my old TBI pickup looks identical to the one you have above....metal 6 blade fan.

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Elbert,

The fan and fan clutch are of after market from O'reily auto parts. I'm not worried about the fan clutch it's, more of the fan. The metal fan. I would like a plastic fan for safety. I have my fabicator starting the mock up on the engine tomorrow ( Monday June 10th). So I might have two days to re-order another. I'll start on this after my flight tomorrow. Thanks for your in put on this matter. Jason
 
I think you will be good with what you have..(if thats is the right setup combination).I will say that that the plastic GM fans are pretty impressive in performance, but that's just my pure subjective opinion, I don't have any comparative data to show good or bad...I would agree that the plastic fans do less damage if something gets in contact wth a hard object. . I do know I've never liked the 5 blade GM fan clutch fan used for a number of years on the SUV/pickupss (stock) back a few years ago... maybe just my view but it just never looked right.

Post up once you get it running....like I noted there are a few guys around with the 5.3 engine and a few of them are running mechanical fan setups so I'm sure they may have some ideas if you get stuck on anything.

While I do have a 5.7 in my LC I've really been impressed with the 6.0 engine in my 2500HD ...it performs well and I would not have thought a small block would tow as well as it does...of course it consumes gas like candy but that kind of goes with the performance capabilities...but not go great to have a 26 gallon or 28 gallon gas tank on my tow rig..

Bottom line the new style GM small blocks run well..5.3 or 6.0, I've not seen anyone yet swap a 6.2 but I would assume its the same game (like what sits in a half ton GM pickup..optional).
 
X-case linkage help

Here is another bump in the road to Vortec power. I have an advance adapter transfer case bracket that is suppose to work with my choice of transmission. I'm running the 5.3 Vortec to the NV4500 to the Toyota transfer case. The transmission that I wanted and order was the post 1996 NV4500 but, what I got was a 1992-1995 NV 4500. The problem is it requires a completely different bell housing kit. So I, do not know if the change in year of transmission is enough to require also a change in transfer case shifting linkage ???? The original Toyota transfer case used a bracket that mount to the original Toyota transmitting to help creat the proper pivot points of the linkage. So my questions are as follows:

1) What are some of the other creations that have been done before that work ????
2) Is there another kit from advance adapters to buy????

:bang::bang::bang::bang:

Thanks again guys
 
Does the NV4500 mate directly with the 5.3?

I know you need an adapter to mate the NV4500 with the toyota transfer case.\

I'm sure you will have to fabricate the linkage on the transfer case because the lenght of your drivetrain is likely to change enough so that the stock linkage will not work, or I should say I would assume that is likely an issue.

Most of the 5.3 swaps I've read about run the GM 4L60E auto trans..... One I know of runs the toyota 5 speed as I recall.
 
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