I searched the forum and found a few comments, but here's my situation. '53 Chev 3/4 ton with a 235. I bought the short-shaft water pump from Carters a few years back. With the radiator clearance, I was told to get a four-blade flat back 216 fan which I did. There isn't sufficient clearance for the old original 235 fan. I bought a radiator off of E-Bay which was a piece of junk (bad leaks), so just bought and installed a new radiator from Classic Parts. Started it up today. Ran idling in the garage for about 15 minutes and it boiled the water right out of the radiator. Temp pegged and I first noticed it when I started hearing a whining noise and immediately killed the engine. The upper and lower radiator hoses were both warm to hot. The heater was putting out good heat. So the only thing I can think of is that the small flat back fan isn't sufficient to cool the radiator. I had about 12 quarts of antifreeze and water in the system at the time, so I know it wasn't just in the radiator and not circulating. Also, if I understand cooling systems well enough, the heat comes from the water passing through the block and back to the radiator (right?) I noticed that the fan sits way low between the engine and the radiator because of the style of the shortshaft pump. There is about 1/4" of clearance between the fan and the lower radiator frame. Surely others have run into this problem, so I'm curious about solutions. I've read some about electric fans and maybe that is the solution. If so, if anyone has photos of this set-up and some advise on installation, I'd sure appreciate some responses. By the way, I had the truck running outside awhile back before I put in the new radiator and it didn't overheat this bad. It just leaked because of the condition of the old radiator. This time it was inside the garage with the bay door open. Maybe not as much air circulation, but it still shouldn't overheat in less than 15 minutes I wouldn't think. Any replies would be appreciated. Thanks.
