bluegtp

Hi all,

A friend of mine gave me a 16" electric fan (puller fan)and said it was a Spal. (I can't find anything proving this, and they don't match pics on the net I've found of 16" spal fans)

Figured hey it was free so I'm going to buy a controller (185* from jegs) and install it. So I went to lowes and bought some aluminum and went to work to get it mounted. Came nice and sturdy, I still need to paint it black though.

I finished the wiring up today and even hooked up a switch inside to turn on manually if I ever need. Everything works just fine sitting in the driveway. Fan cycles on/off well and the coolant temp sits right around 165 and never budged. Went to take if for a spin and temp went up to 180 until I got on the hwy. I have 3.55s out back so it's sits @3000rpms doing approx. 60mph. Coolant stayed just fine @ 180 until I got back home and let it idle. While idling, it slowly climbed to around 210 until I shut the engine down. My engine never even got this hot in 95-100* summer weather last year, in those high temps it stayed right around 180.

Any thoughts on what I can do to pull the temperature back down? I'm thinking of either building a shroud for the fan or going finding some ford focus fans that some of ya'll are running or maybe a taurus fan to try out. I am now questioning if this is a spal fan since I can't find any i.d. on it. I'd like the keep the electric fan since I've already hidden my wiring for it and pulled out the factory shroud. May end up buying myself an aluminum radiator if all else fails.


Thanks for any help/advice.

thegavel

Gooday bluegtp,
Just throwing this out there,
The fan is "pulling" & not pushing is it ????
Have you checked the coolant (maybe air in the system).
My 74 had no shroud (or thermostat) when I got it
and it always ran hot. That's why 'stat was removed
(previous owner thought that removing it would solve the prob= WRONG).
I got a used shroud and made up some foam rubber seals,
put in 180 'stat and PRESTO !!!! Problems solved.
Hope yours is that easy
(and not as costly - used shroud + shipping to Australia= BIG $$$$
Cheers,
Gav

johnt365

My cars shroud was missing as well. I have played with several configurations. I now have a 16 in and 11 in. fan AND a flex fan on the water pump.

I think having a little air blowing over the motor helps cool the engine compartment. The electric fans are pointing down at the ground.

My radiator is 28x17ish so an area of 476 in
16" fan has area of 201 in.
11'' fan 95 in. for a total of 296 in. of fan area leaving a 180 inch difference. So with the two fans you have 62% coverage

With one 16" you have 42%
2x12 is 47%

Obviously CFM and shrouding will matter but just throwing this out there.

Garys 68

They work better with a shroud.
On mine, I added a cheap electric inside the existing shroud and kept the mechanical fan. It really helped.
Do you know the volume (cfm)? Stock GM fans move A LOT of air. The twin fan assembly from an Astro Van I used for an LS swap pulled almost 50 amps. That single may not move enough air.

aussiejohn

bluegtp,

Yes, you MUST have a shroud in a Corvette. C3s have a very small air inlet and every cubic inch of it needs to be forced through the radiator. That is why GM put those sponge rubber seals everywhere. You DO have them, don't you?

If not, buy new ones and fit them as if you were building the car for Zora back in '74. Then fabricate a shroud that captures ALL of the air that goes through the radiator and out via the fan. If the car still runs hot, then more than likely the fan is not as good as a Spal one and needs to be replaced.

If that doesn't fix it, your problems lie elsewhere.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn