The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Fan hits radiator on 46

I run into some issues today when I was assembling the truck. The fan hits the radiator. I have a 235 with the water pump adaptor. I used a 54' water pump with a 3/8" belt pulley. It is a little to long. I thought I got one that was as short as possible. So I have a aluminum radiator,and thought I would move the brackets so the radiator tucks under the core support about a 1" to fix this . I cut the mounting brackets off and got my tig welder out to weld them back on at a different location. My welder stopped working. I guess I am done for the day.

Dropped a 54 235 into my son's 46. No water pump adapter
was used and everything fit. Don't remember the belt
width though the 54 pulleys and generator were used as
was the original radiator.

Maybe your aluminum radiator dimensions are different from
the original radiator. Jeffrey

Uploaded more pics in my link. Today I took the radiator to work and welded new brackets on it. I moved it down and back into the core suport 1". It looks like it will work now.
I did check the original radiator and it mounted the same as this one does. How ever, I did have to drop it down a little because the cap hit the core support brace that runs from the firewall to the core support. So that was different for sure. After looking at it more closely,I believe the fan I have may not be the right one for this application, and I figured out that the blades were bent forward a little, some more than others. I made a adjustment to the fan blades and now have a good inch of clearance.

My son's fan blades are very close to the radiator.
Which made putting on a new 1/2" fan belt very
hard when he first got the truck when it still had
the 46 engine.

I would not bend radiator fans for fear of throwing
the fan out of balance. Fan out of balance - water
pump bearing fail - fan becomes airborne - radiator
gets a new hole. Also increasing the distance between
the fan and the radiator may lower the ability to
pull enough air through the radiator - then overheat.
Jeffrey

If you measure the length of a 1941-54 engine with the water pump installed, you will find that it is the exact same length as a 1955-62 235 with the adapter and pump installed.
The problem must be that your engine has been mounted forward from stock, or at the wrong angle, or the radiator is back from stock.
Looking at your pictures I suspect it is a engine positing problem.
Is the engine mounted to the crossmenber in the original position?
If so I suspect it is the angle your engine is mounted that is causing the problem.

Thanks for the responds. The engine has got to be in the right position. The rear engine mounts ,or mounts on the bell housing are in the original position. This places the engine where it should be. I have installed IFS ,so the front mount is no longer there, and side mounts have been made. I had a problem with the back of the engine hitting the firewall of the cab,so I positioned the engine as low in the front as possible. As it turn out ,I had the wood block cab mounts at the back of the cab. When I started to bolt the cab to the frame, I figured out that they should be in the middle of the cab. And the rubber cab mounts should be in the rear of the cab. This had the cab tipped forward just a little, which in turn caused the cab to be close to the back of the engine. I now have some room I could raise the front of the engine a couple of inches, and not hit the firewall. I am not sure that would gain me much as far as length goes. I found that my fan blades were bent forward some. As I turned the fan blades past the harmonic balancer,one of the blades was a 1/2" away ,and another was 1-1/4" away from it. They were all different. I used my dead blow and bent them back ,so all the blades are a 1/2" away from the balancer. They all should be the same now. I also tucked the radiator under the core support 1". I have plenty of clearance now, if I had discovered the fan blades problem first, I may have had enough clearance without moving the radiator. I am not planning to move anything back now ,unless I find other problems, I have caused myself as I move forward with the assembly.
One other thing . The core support is on the original crossmember and can only be placed where it originally was,other than small adjustments. I do appreciate the feed back that everyone gives,and sure I will be needing more info as I put this back together. It's been a part much longer than I can remember.