Randy G.

Not wanting to debate the overheating issue on the side of the road sometime in the near future I decided to put a 16-inch SPAL puller fan on my 67 Corvette. I just finished it this afternoon and the results are in. My car would run normally around 210 degrees which is straight up on the gauge, and according to the manual they say that's normal. I think that's too hot, but that's debatable. In a 20 minute long stop and go traffic jam on the freeway on a 90 degree day a few weeks ago with the air conditioner on it crept up to 240 degrees. Of course none of this has been verified in an IR temp gun, but there was no doubt it was hot. I've already checked the usual suspects, timing, vacuum advance, etc.

So when I finished it this afternoon I drove it home from my shop and the temperature gauge got to 210 degrees. I flipped on the fan switch and within the 2 miles here's where the gauge was.






Almost too cold.

I had this same setup on my '62 Corvette non air conditioning car. I did a the parade during the grand opening of the LA County Fair on a 100 degree day, and it ran steady at 185 degrees. So. I'm counting on the same results with this with the air conditioning on.


I hid it behind the fan and fan clutch.

Mike67nv

Cool - pun intended.

Just an observation, you may be able to squeeze out a few extra cooling degrees by re-positioning your upper radiator seal.

Randy G.

I'm a C1 expert (*cough*) and I'm just starting to learn more about C2's. I guess I'm wondering why the fiberglass shroud has the big opening under the upper radiator hose location. As I was reinstalling the seal your talking about I wondered what good it does, but that's how it was installed when I got it a handful of weeks ago so I used the clips to put it back on he way it was. I also know the fan is wrong on mine.

Medium range plan is to pull the engine and do a once over on the entire engine compartment. I need to "Un Pep Boys" it and get oem style hoses, clamps, hardware, etc. But right now most of my time is spent in oncology with my beautiful wife. She loves this car, by the way.

I can't even hear the fan in the '67. Same part number fan in my '62 was pretty noticeable.




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MarkC

Have you thought about removing the oem fan? It’s pulling power that could be going to the rear wheels. Check the C3 forum about the amount of power the manual fan pulls.

Tom Austin

From the looks of the fan in Randy's 2nd picture - it doesn't appear that he even has an oem fan - that might be part of the problem?

cv67

Like it best of both worlds. Some may disagree but try ditching the steel fan for a flexalite nylon one, way lighter quiet and moves lots of air. If he took the mech off his fan will run a lot more and fluctuating temps. I have one you can borrow to try if you want. We used to spin them past 7200 all season at saugus speedway never broke one
Using the 200 on 185 off switch or a toggle?
Nice setup!

Mike67nv

On a ’67, the shroud opening under the upper radiator hose is to provide cooling air for the alternator.

Your wife’s health is certainly more important than any car, and I wish her well. When you get around to it, the AIM (below) shows the installation of the upper air seal to the radiator support.

Randy G.

Thank you, Mike. I was in Dom's hangar today in Palm Springs picking up my A/C compressor he just restored and got a look at his BB Corvette and saw his seal on top of the radiator. Sure enough It's mounted the way your AIM drawing indicates.

Dom did a great job on my compressor, by the way.






Just to be clear. I'm expecting to have to flip the fan switch on only if I get stuck in traffic on a warm day which may end up being 5 or 10 times a year max. I don't need it to keep it from overheating otherwise. While I am going to figure out what the correct OEM fan is supposed to be and get one, the fan that's on it works. I put 3 different fans on my '62 including the original all the way up to one for a 1969 Big Block A/C Camaro and
each one didn't effect anything. I did the SPAL fan for piece of mind, and I didn't have to drill one hole or splice one wire to install it.

RatDog

Thanks to Mike from me, too. I just went out to the garage and put the seal the way it’s supposed to be on my ‘67.

Down here in FL. I only had to switch on my Spal puller 2 times ‘tis summer. Both times the outside temp was in the high 90s, I was running the A/C, and I was in heavy traffic. Once I got moving, I was able to shut down the fan right away. I wired it to a manual toggle because I don’t want it coming on at 185 but, like you, I like knowing it’s there on the rare occasions when I need it.

Steve

Blk63Vette

Hello

Very very interested in how you set yours up. I live in Florida and I have put a 1968 Camaro AC fan and Heavy duty clutch. I have no problems when driving the car without AC on it works GREAT.. However, on HOT and HUMID days (most of the time in summer) if I am in stop and go traffic and AC on my always get HOT and starts to run like CRAP.....If I stop to get gas and start up my car again its pegged to 230 to 240 Runs like crap until it cools down...

I have a brand new radiator, rebuilt water pump fan clutch fan etc...I'm thinking maybe a fan is the next step

ghostrider20

It's not the fans, it's the fan clutch. The repos and over the counter fans don't engage until 200+ I believe.

The original fan clutch on my 65 L-76 held the temps between 180 and 200 all the time. Worst case was 105* temps in stop and go traffic in PHX and the temp was 200.

My original clutch gave out and I after trying 3 replacements and "clocking the spring" none have performed like my original did.

I put a new Dewitts radiator in in 2008. In 2009 my original clutch gave up, and the trials with the replacements began. Pretty clear what the problem was.

Living in SD the replacement clutches work 95% of the time, except that 100* day in stop and go traffic the temp will creep to 220-225

When I "get around to it" I'm going to send my Original clutch off to the guy who rebuilds them (his name escapes me at the moment).

The point of my long winded thread is if you get the right OEM clutch and the fan, your good to go.

Mark

Randy G.

My '67 in order from the front of the engine to front bumper:

1. Fan/fan clutch.

2. Fan shroud with a big hole in it to let air through to cool the alternator (per a post here)

2. About a foot of clearance between the fan and radiator at the bottom.

3. Radiator.

4. Air conditioner condenser coil covering the entire front of the radiator.

5. Transmission cooler on the front of the air conditioner coil.

6. Small grille.

I think the issue with these cars when stopped in traffic on a hot day with the A/C on is that the stock fan is so far away from the radiator (compared to normal cars where the stock fan is a lot closer to the radiator) that little air gets sucked through it at idle or slow speeds through a leaky fan shroud. There is so much room between the stock fan and the radiator that I can easily mount a full on 16" puller fan down inside there and still run a fan and fan clutch with room to spare. Seems like a poor design to me.

It's a fair amount of work to install one, but in my little test I described a few posts above it was amazing how quick the temp gauge dropped when I flipped the SPAL 2049 16" puller fan on.

Sitting in traffic on a hot day is when I want to run my A/C, not turn it off because it's getting hot. Problem solved now.



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ELEFUNTMAN

Randy, what did you use to mount the fan, did you use the nylon ties that go through the radiator? Been thinking about adding one.

Randy G.

Those nylon ties may be OK for a trans cooler but I would never use them to hold a fan on.

The radiator in mine is a "Be Cool" aluminum that appears to be fairly new. I was thinking of switching over to a Dewitt's restoration radiator but decided to give the one already in it a shot. Be Cool makes brackets sold through Summit that sit over the bottom and top of the radiator and hold the fan.





Here's one painted flat black on top of my radiator. No cutting or welding:






They warned against going side to side because the radiator expands and contracts so much with temp changes that I would risk damaging the fan housing.

What kind of radiator do you have?



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ELEFUNTMAN

I think mine is original, looks like the pic posted by Mike67nv.

Randy G.

I was going to run 1/8" x 1/2" bent to shape straps from the radiator support like I did with my '62 in order to keep the fan and brackets from touching the radiator until Be Cool clued me in on their deal. I'm sure others here have installed a fan on the radiator Mike67nv posted so I'll wait to see what they have to say.

My '62 with a $900 Dewitt's restoration radiator showing the straps I made.






When it was done you could hardly see the SPAL 16" fan in front of the fan and fan clutch.

Mike67nv

The radiator in my pic is not an original but the closest thing to it – a DeWitts Restoration Radiator. I don’t have any experience with it, but DeWitts sells a spal fan kit with brackets for that radiator.

https://www.dewitts.com/collections/...roducts/sp004#

Randy G.

Looks like a winner.






I like the 30102049 SPAL fan better than the one they are supplying. Curved blades runs quieter.

RatDog

Randy - You’re correct about the straight blades being noisier. The Spal fan on my Dewitt’s combo radiator fan has straight blades. However, I rarely have to run the fan and I can’t hear it over the sound of my sidepipes.

Don’t the curved blades move less air?

Steve

Randy G.

They do (supposedly) but I did read where one group believes the curved blade fans move more air because there is more surface area to the blades (since the shortest distance between to points is a straight line). I don't think they had any data to back it up. But I do know the 30102049 curved blade fan moves a whole bunch of air.