is there any voodoo to get the shrowd on after the radiator... other than dis-assembly and doing it correct? geesh im a fool..

 

I tried unsuccessfully to put the shroud in after everything was in place. I read another post (by someone that claimed he had forgotten more about Corvettes than most people remember) that you just undo the bolts around the radiator support panel and move it forward. That seemed a bit to easy for me, no mention of the Condensor and, in my case, trans cooler. I ended up cutting the shroud in half, vertically, and made up some plates to hold it together when back in place. Made the job pretty easy. It is almost unnoticeable. Of course, if you're concerned about originality etc. this may not be for you. Can send pics. if you want.

 

From memory, I got mine in before the Radiator. The radiator then slid in between the shroud and the support. The support is NOT easy to undo and rotate forward. This is a 68 and is slightly different to later years.

 

Yeah, Mine is a 77. all the mounting bolts and lines are freshly installed so I suppose I'll simply (UHHHH..) remove the radiator and put thing together like it was intended...
Oh well...
If I had the spare cash I'd spring for an electric fan...
For now my wife is about sick of my expensive hobby car...
At least I'm nearing the end of "fine tuning" of a 383 install...

 

So that's the trick. IMO, there is no effen way you can get the shroud in after the rad is in and what I had to resort to was cutting the MF shroud. Never (back then) even thought of dropping it in beforehand.

 

I remember them shroud daze, and I even cut the depth by about 4" to mount a '87 vette fan.....barely enough....I split the shroud on either side and held it in place there with metal tabs and a screw into the plastic....worked fine, but.....in Florida, there is NO REPLACING a set of DUAL SPALS.....period....

 

R&R the fan.

 

Wow that's sounds pretty simple, you just remove the fan and the shroud will drop in ?

 

Do it the right way. Pull the radiator and place shroud around the fan while you reinstall the radiator. You should have plenty of practice by now. I would say you should know better however I did the same thing last week. mds...

 

Unless you want to cob up the shroud, take off the hood, remove the fan and radiator and then install the shroud. It makes it much easier to remove the top two bolts on the radiator support sides as well as the two bolts on the bottom of the support so you can tip the radiator support forward on the two lower bolts on the side of support. You don't have to remove the AC condenser. Yeah it is a pain in the butt! Hang in there.

 

Guys, just did this correctly the 2nd time on my 71 after ruining the orginal radiator.

After buying a new aluminum raditor, there was no way I was going to screw this one up. I learned some of this from other posts, but modified the process. I'm telling you this works, and you will have it in, or out, 30 minutes or less.

This is the installation part, you can figure out the removal process by reversing the process.

1. obviously the fan must be off the motor. can't imagine even why you would try this with it on.
2. Cut the shroud bottom in half to allow you to squeeze in the sides as you slide the raditor and shroud down together. Then when its in place, spread the sides to their correct position.

One poste said vut the top and bottom and put cross bbrackets across them. I didn't like that idea and only went with the bottom cut. Besides, I could always cut the top if need be.

What I found when cutting the shroud with a sabre saw, is that it melted back together behind the blade from the heat of the dull blade. So instead of making a bracket like someone else suggested to put the bottom back together, I used a soldering iron and melted(welded) the 2 halves in place. Solid like new!

The rick is to have the radiator installed about 2/3 of the way in, the slide in the shroud with it while pinching in the two bottom halves, then sending it homw to the bottom.

Oh, just to be safe, I put cardboard between the radiator and shroud. <--not my idea, from another post.

I wrote this up in another post a lot better, with more steps that included the hoses and stuff, but if your doing this job, you know how to drain and change hoses I assume.

This DEFINITELY works.

 

I was able to install my shroud in my 72 with A/C and the hood on by:

1. remove the fan,
2. take out the top 2 bolts on both sides of the core support,
3. put the shroud in as far as it would go,
4. place a 2x4 against the core support
5. place a bottle jack between the 2x4 and the engine block
6. push the core support forward until the A/C condenser just touches the hood.

At that point the shroud fell into place. Then all I had to do was wrestle it onto those 2 studs on the lower radiator supports.

cc

 

Never got to it last evening... maybe later today (after work and kids and wife and......) hehehe

 

Or you can buy an electric fan and get rid of the mechanical one...

So you don't need the fan shroud anymore

 

When I did rad work on my 80 20 years ago I to didn't put the shroud in first so a lot of frustration there. Got the process down after that.

I know have an aluminum radiator and electric spal fans from DeWitts so no shroud is required. This was a much better solution in the long run if you're keeping the car for a long time to offset the cost. Much cleaner install.

 

So you see I wasn't joking :
The best place for the fan shroud is in a garbage can

My fan shroud can be installed even if the radiator is already in, and I still use the original copper core radiator. The A-arms are not an issue any more ( see the picture below ).
More seriously, if you want to keep your old fan shroud, I think the best solution is to cut it into two halves, so you can put it in and out whenever you want without removing the radiator ( just the fan )...
It won't take much more time to do it than to remove everything again, hood, radiator, drain coolant, and so on... and you will be pleased next time you have to remove it for any reason...

 

73StreetRace, I went with aluminum because my car has AC and I needed the added margin of the aluminum rads.

 

I'll eventually get an electric fan. For now I'll do it the correct way...
BTW: I never removed my hood. It all just came out fairly easy....
do that doesn't have to be done...

 

I too sectioned a BB shroud but cutting at the bottom. I had a metal plate wiht dzus fasteners to restore the shrouds strength after installation. This was many years ago on a 69 BB.

I did the shroud fight again on my 70 BB. I had the radiator core support loose and still had a difficult time removing it. The radiator is sandwiched in between the core support and the shroud. I pushed the core support forward towards the nose and tilted the top of the shroud towards the engine. I was able to pull the radiator only about 2/3 of the way out. The bottom outlet tube of the radiator kept hitting the passengers side control arm bracket. The rad was junk so I cut the tube off and out it came. It was then easy to pull the shroud out.

The shroud ain't going back in. I'll be getting an aluminum radiator and electric fans. Unless you want a factory look, this is the only way to go. Also, it's really great to get rid of that mechanical fan. That sucker is dangerous if you're trying to work on the engine with the engine running.

 

Can you say Bubbadized!!