electric fan(s)

[dad's deuce roadster]

For the 50's hotrod deuce roadster my brother and I are working on, I would like some advice on electric fan options. This is a low boy so a traditional pulley fan won't work due to hose clearance.

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by dad's deuce roadster

This is a low boy so a traditional pulley fan won't work due to hose clearance.

To be perfectly clear, I HATE ELECTRIC FANS!

What do you recon those guys did back in the day, BEFORE electric fans? DD

.

[19Fordy]

Please post photos of the fan clearance problems you are having. There must be a better way to solve the problem other than electric fans.

[dad's deuce roadster]

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

To be perfectly clear, I HATE ELECTRIC FANS!

What do you recon those guys did back in the day, BEFORE electric fans? DD

.

They did what my father did, drove without any fan and ended up cracking blocks, usually between one of the inner cylinders and a valve seat, exactly as we found on the block he hot rodded around with in the 50's. He told my brother just a few weeks ago the car got really hot if he had to sit at a red light.

[dad's deuce roadster]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Please post photos of the fan clearance problems you are having. There must be a better way to solve the problem other than electric fans.

Right now the radiator and engine are out of it. But if you look at a high boy 32 rod with a flathead that has a fan you'll see the hoses don't clear it by much.

In one sense, going to an electric fan would be more true to the restored hotrod look. Since a lot of them ran without fans, and a black electric fan set up on the back of radiator would tend to blend in, it would look more like it did in the 50's than if it had a fan on the front of the engine.

[Phil Gillespie]

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Originally Posted by dad's deuce roadster

Right now the radiator and engine are out of it. But if you look at a high boy 32 rod with a flathead that has a fan you'll see the hoses don't clear it by much.

In one sense, going to an electric fan would be more true to the restored hotrod look. Since a lot of them ran without fans, and a black electric fan set up on the back of radiator would tend to blend in, it would look more like it did in the 50's than if it had a fan on the front of the engine.

Personally given the choice of running without a fan, which I did many years ago in a 34 coupe, also got hot at traffic lights i would go for the electric fan as they do tend to blend in as you say My thoughts.
Phil NZ

[solidaxle]

Originally Posted by dad's deuce roadster

Right now the radiator and engine are out of it. But if you look at a high boy 32 rod with a flathead that has a fan you'll see the hoses don't clear it by much.

In one sense, going to an electric fan would be more true to the restored hotrod look. Since a lot of them ran without fans, and a black electric fan set up on the back of radiator would tend to blend in, it would look more like it did in the 50's than if it had a fan on the front of the engine.

I would think most people who were into period correct Hot Rods would pick out the electric fan right away. I have an 8BA in a "32" using the stock motor mounting on the front cross member. The mechanical fan clears with a whole 1/4 " to spare. However, it took a lot of thought and modifications to make it work.

[Mart]

I managed to fit a slimline electric fan between the grille and radiator on my 32 sedan. Positioning the fan between the two strengthening bars is the key.

This should take you to a video from when I was fitting it.

https://youtu.be/AMhnqxOACI0?t=2919

Mart.

[dad's deuce roadster]

Originally Posted by solidaxle

I would think most people who were into period correct Hot Rods would pick out the electric fan right away. I have an 8BA in a "32" using the stock motor mounting on the front cross member. The mechanical fan clears with a whole 1/4 " to spare. However, it took a lot of thought and modifications to make it work.

I assume you are talking about the 32 in your avatar with body on top of the frame as leaving 1/4" clearance? If that's correct, then given the drop on our car with the body channeled over the frame, and the radiator dropped down to allow the top of the shell align with the cowl, there's no way a mechanical fan placed mounted as would normally be placed on the engine will work.

[Ol' Ron]

I'm using the electric fan in the track roadster for street use It just solves allot of problems. Have a narrow belt system with one belt driving everything. It's slows the water pumps to prevent caveating at hi RPMs. Don't have the time or money to get into aesthetics.

[19Fordy]

Here's a thread dealing with a cut down radiator.
Will it help?
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...vivor.1256845/

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Here's a thread dealing with a cut down radiator.
Will it help?
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...vivor.1256845/

That car serves as a good example of the problem. As his body is channeled DOWN over the frame, his grill shell must follow for hood-level reasons. And because he wants to run a flathead, that's a problem. The front-mounted distributors on the flatheads thru '48 make it hard to find room for a fan. If only that was an 8BA type flathead, I believe that 19Fordy and myself have an answer as far as running a mechanical fan set-up. Otherwise, I only see two solutions. DECREASE the amount of channeling (raise the body back up somewhat), or rebuild the front of that early engine with an 8BA-type distributor, cam and cam cover so that you can run a front-mounted fan on the generator, OR...build a mechanical fan assy like 19Fordy or COOPMAN/Heard did to get that fan lower down. DD

[19Fordy]

[B]dads deuce roadster:
Here is a photo of the fan I was running on the 8BA in my 40 in 1976. Look closely and you will see it's not very big. It is a fiberglass fan and is about 12 in. in dia.
At that time, I had to use it to clear the radiator hoses. Perhaps you can find a similar size fan. I still have the fan and will sell it, if you can use it. I drove the car from WI to FL with that fan. Yes, the cinder blocks held but, I now know that it was a very bad idea to use them.

[Stretch Cab]

19Fordy, at least you stood them with the webs vertical. I cringe when I see blocks being used with horizontal webs.

[Gene1949]

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

To be perfectly clear, I HATE ELECTRIC FANS!

What do you recon those guys did back in the day, BEFORE electric fans? DD

.

My buddy (like the rest of the guys without a fan) ran it until it was so far gone/cracked he went down to the wreaking yard and bought a new motor for scrap price. they were plentiful back then.

[dad's deuce roadster]

Thank-you all for the feedback. This gives some ideas on options. Concerning the engine, actually, we have set aside the one my father ran and have a possible lead on an 8AB. It's one the shop we are looking at to do the build has but they need to verify it's a good block first. I find the idea putting a fan between the grill and radiator to be interesting for keeping the 50's rod look. As one commenter said, back then you ran them till they cracked, then got another. The fact is even in the 70's there were plenty of them sitting in cars in the junk yards. We used to regularly go out and scrounge our own parts dealing with the iconic cigar chomping, ill tempered, unshaved, greasy coverall wearing owner who literally threw some parts into a junk barrel and threw us out when we questioned the price.

That aside, my take from the comment about 8AB is that with the vertical distributer we'll have some more room to play with for a fan if we want to place it behind the radiator.

One thing is, we can play around with the options. It's not carved in stone.