fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

The 41 Ford coupe build continues. You guys have always kept me thinking when I have run into problems with this build and I need some ideas/ solutions for my latest issue. I am building a 41 ford coupe with a 49 8ba motor. When the engine was being built , the crank mounted fan was not used and I now have the higher mounted fan installed. As I installed the new motor ,I spaced the original 41 radiator up about 6" to clear the fan without any front end parts installed and allow me to get the motor running while I continued on the body work and painting of the front fenders and hood. I knew I would have to figure out a solution to the fan and radiator placement when it came time to put on the newly painted parts. I removed the spacers for the radiator and set it down where it belongs and of course I have big clearance issues with the upper hoses. My 41 radiator has adaptors brazed into the upper hose fittings for the smaller 8ba hoses. This doesn't help because they extend 2" beyond the original hose fittings. I am not sure how much I can move the radiator up for clearance on the fan without causing major fit issues with the rest of the front end body parts. I would appreciate any help from someone who has solved similar issues.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

You don’t want your radiator forward without your fan also being forward. Without seeing your clearance issues, I’d say your best bet would be to modify your radiator inlets for the needed clearance.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Trying to keep radiator in stock location, but need to move higher to clear fan

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Going from memory, I moved it up as high or higher than a 46-48 . But not by much . I had to spit the difference of it being high enough to clear the fan but low enough I could get the lower hoses to clear and be installed. The hood closing was not an issue. I had purchased a 46-48 upper rad shroud, and used that with a small modification . I remember the lower hoses had to be fabricated using 2 hoses to each water pump with a piece of stainless in the middle. Dont forget to lengthen the side stability bars .

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

bill: I had similar fan clearance problems when installing an 8BA in my 40 Ford. Here is a thread that offers several options.
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...+8ba+1936+ford

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

I don't know if car and pickup are the same arrangement but I did the same 8BA into a 40 / 41 pickup. I just used wide belt truck pumps and I slightly customized the 1940 crank pully and run the crank mounted fan. It was almost a bolt in and works great. Tim

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Did some more research, found I can lower fan about an inch, with a shorter belt but still need about 2 1/2 ". anybody have a 41 with stock radiator to see if there is a possibility raising the radiator that much and what gets in the way?

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Raised the radiator up about 2 1/2 inches, this gives me about an inch fan clearance for top hoses. Will have to find shorter belt for fan. Installed both inner fender panels. Had to slightly notch the inner fender panels to get the center grill section to bolt up. Also extended brackets from side of radiator to inner fender panels. ready to set the hood on to check for room to close with the radiator in this position... I work alone and these are freshly painted parts so putting the hood in position will be a challenge - to be continued.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Hi Bill,


Post some pictures please. Here are great instruction from V8coopman.


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showp...&postcount=649

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Thanks for info, found that my fenders won't work out the way I had the radiator raised up - back to the drawing board, I have the original fan for the crank mounted fan but would need to change crank pulley or adapt what I have to the fan. Looked at the above link on making up a bracket to adapt things - I am deciding best thing to do.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Decided to go with the crank mounted fan, but am wondering now if the pulley will line up with pumps that I am using? The double pulley I have now looks to be out further than the 41 would be.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

There is a thread here on the barn on how to do it. I followed it and it worked out perfect. the long and short of it is to grind the two spot welds off , turn the pulley around front to back. While you have it off you need to cut off some off the sleeve on the hub. With the sleeve cut to length slide the pulley on to the proper position weld it and your done. The whole thing less paint drying time took me about three hours. As I said before, I used wide belt truck pumps and generator. I also bought the large hose water outlets. To the average person it looks stock. In the thread it tells you how much of the hub to remove. Tim

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

I got a crank pulley for the fan and as I thought , the pulley does not line up. Sounds like I have to do what pistonbroke described. Anyone have a link to the original thread?

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

I just found a thread that talks about a crankshaft extension for the 8ba crank. As I am trying to install the crank mounted fan pulley on my 8ba, I did see that the 8ba crank seems to be about 1"+ too short. How does this fact play into modifying the placement of the pulley as described by pistonbroke - I sent Fred Wilmer a PM and an email about the extension.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

42merc's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Buchanan, MI
Posts: 679
Default Re: not a fan.
I posted this in 2017. I've used this method several times.


Everyone has their own solution for this common problem, this is mine. You must have a '40 fan mount pulley to start with. Remove 15/16" from the seal end of the '40 pulley hub, then drill the 3 or 4 spot welds from the pulley, then tap the pulley from the hub, turn the pulley around (reverse) and reinstall on the hub this time close to the fan hub. Put the assembly back on the crank snout and line the pulley up with the water pump pulleys (about 2-7/8" from the backside of the pulley to the machined face of the block), tap it square and reweld the spots. The pulley fits on the hub tight enough to hold its position while you do this. Next remove the new pulley and reinstall the 8ba pulley, bring the timing mark up to the pointer, without rotating remove the 8ba pulley, install the '40 and put a mark on the pulley where the pointer is. Probably file a notch there, after all this " aint no rocketship". This has worked for me a couple of times and no lathe required.
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Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

Thanks 42merc for reposting your procedure - I have gotten to the point of drilling out the pulley spot welds and removing and turning the pulley around and positioning it. making measurements to determine how much to cut off front of fan mount pulley assy - 15/16 sounds about right. Hopefully will finish this afternoon. Thanks again.

Re: fitting a 41 ford radiator in 41 ford car with 8ba engine and higher fan
 

42merc, When I bought my 42 ford with a 53 mercury engine I just new it would be as fast as a rocket ship. Of course I was only 16 then. Tim