I searched and didn't really find quite the answer I'm looking for, so I apologize if this has been covered already.
My buddy as a 66 fj40 with a sbc that until this weekend was running the stock mechanical fan with the old and I believe original radiator. The shroud was almost non-existent, and the truck wasn't really driveable if you weren't driving on flat roads. So we decided to upgrade the radiator and install a taurus fan (pull style) and get rid of the current fan.
The radiator is a Griffin, 19" x 22", and was just too wide and not deep enough to use the stock radiator cradle. We managed to hack on the radiator cradle and make the radiator fit. The cradle is now 24" wide and when we get some aluminum brackets welded to the radiator it *should* bolt right up and fit just fine. There should be plenty of room for the fan, I believe.
My question is... how exactly do you mount the taurus fan to the radiator cradle? I seem to recall seeing a picture where it looked like the guy had chopped most of the plastic part of the fan and really just had the minimal amount of housing left on it. Is that the way to do it, or do we want as much of the plastic molding as possible because it acts as a sort of shroud being wider than the fan blade diameter itself? The radiator is obviously going to get warm, so does this mean that the fan doesn't actually touch the radiator, rather just hovers closely to it? I have no idea how much heat it would take to melt that plastic, but I also don't want to find out!
It would seem like making up some brackets to keep the fan hovering a very small distance away from the face of the radiator is the likely solution, although that would allow the fan to suck air from around the radiator and not as much through the radiator, which is what we're going for to keep temps reasonable. I'm guessing that mounting two brackets on each side of the fan housing to the cradle will suffice, but I wanted to ask here before I go making any assumptions and botch this up.
This is my first major cruiser project. What do you guys think? Thanks!
My buddy as a 66 fj40 with a sbc that until this weekend was running the stock mechanical fan with the old and I believe original radiator. The shroud was almost non-existent, and the truck wasn't really driveable if you weren't driving on flat roads. So we decided to upgrade the radiator and install a taurus fan (pull style) and get rid of the current fan.
The radiator is a Griffin, 19" x 22", and was just too wide and not deep enough to use the stock radiator cradle. We managed to hack on the radiator cradle and make the radiator fit. The cradle is now 24" wide and when we get some aluminum brackets welded to the radiator it *should* bolt right up and fit just fine. There should be plenty of room for the fan, I believe.
My question is... how exactly do you mount the taurus fan to the radiator cradle? I seem to recall seeing a picture where it looked like the guy had chopped most of the plastic part of the fan and really just had the minimal amount of housing left on it. Is that the way to do it, or do we want as much of the plastic molding as possible because it acts as a sort of shroud being wider than the fan blade diameter itself? The radiator is obviously going to get warm, so does this mean that the fan doesn't actually touch the radiator, rather just hovers closely to it? I have no idea how much heat it would take to melt that plastic, but I also don't want to find out!
It would seem like making up some brackets to keep the fan hovering a very small distance away from the face of the radiator is the likely solution, although that would allow the fan to suck air from around the radiator and not as much through the radiator, which is what we're going for to keep temps reasonable. I'm guessing that mounting two brackets on each side of the fan housing to the cradle will suffice, but I wanted to ask here before I go making any assumptions and botch this up.
This is my first major cruiser project. What do you guys think? Thanks!