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Cooling fan spacing to radiator

4K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  beardking 
#1 ·
I wanted to check and see if you folks could tell me how close my cooling fan should be in relation to my radiator on my 68 with the 289 engine in it. As far as I know, I have the stock 68 radiator and to me the fan seems a little overly close to the radiator.
 
#2 ·
Just how close is it? Is that spacing consistent top and bottom? How confident are you in the condition of your motor mounts? If there's a proper shroud in place the fan blades should be half-in and half out of it for maximum efficiency. Some folk who don't run a shroud will say they want the fan as close to the rad as they can get it. The danger of being very close is that if even one motor mount is loose or goes bad engine torque/vibration (especially at start-up or under hard acceleration) may cause things to get chewed up. I've read plenty on this topic and minimum 1/2" clearance but not more than 1" seems what most feel comfortable with generally. Many say 1" is their target.
 
#4 ·
I'll have to get back to you on what the actual spacing is. I have to get it back on the car first. I had to take it off to get the water pump off and that's when I started wondering if it was too close. It was a total pain to get off and out and it's been even more difficult to get back in.
 
#5 ·
After FINALLY getting my fan bolted back on I was able to a couple of pics showing the current spacing of my fan to radiator. Talk about a royal PITA, there has to be a better way to install the fan onto the water pump.
 
#8 ·
Whenever I'm doing any fan work I always tape a piece of cardboard to the radiator to keep from banging it up. Never really had an issue installing/removing a fan, I remove the fan, spacer, and bolts as a unit and use a ratcheting wrench. If you have a shroud, unbolt it and lay it forward onto the engine to get at the fan bolts.
 
#11 ·
Whenever I'm doing any fan work I always tape a piece of cardboard to the radiator to keep from banging it up. Never really had an issue installing/removing a fan, I remove the fan, spacer, and bolts as a unit and use a ratcheting wrench. If you have a shroud, unbolt it and lay it forward onto the engine to get at the fan bolts.
See, that's one of the reasons that I keep thinking mine might be a little close. I couldn't even get my ratcheting wrench on the bolts until I had already screwed them in a good bit. No chance I would have been able to use a ratcheting wrench to take it off, because I would never have gotten my wrench off the bolt (it would have been trapped by the radiator).

I have to admit, I kind of took the water pump/fan off in an unorthodox method. I actually unbolted the water pump from the engine BEFORE I took the fan off. Just for future reference, this is NOT a good way to do this. :grin2::grin2:
 
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#10 ·
Necessity forces me to have the fan bolts 3/8 inch away from the radiator on a Sunbeam Tiger. Motor mounts are now over a decade old. Never any contact with the radiator. Water pump changes require radiator removal.

So 1 inch is plenty good.
 
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