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Hi all,
292ci going in.. Adding aluminum rad and lectric fan. Any suggestions like enclosing the engine bay, underside? or venting better than factory design???

Buy a good set of earplugs- - - -an electric fan that moves enough air to cool that one will be NOISY!
Jerry

Thanks Jerry. Well I think I will do two fans.. not sure what cfm.. So no on enclosing the underside a little better?

Whatever air the fan(s) move through the radiator has got to get out. Why trap it under the hood? I wonder why the B-17 my father flew in WW II didn't have electric motors driving the propellers instead of four 1200 HP Wright Cyclone radial engines???????
Jerry

bc he would have run out of battery? Ok thanks for the input.

[edit] interesting side note - those battery powered vehicles are good for one run in their 0-60 dominance, and only if fully charged.. then the gaser leaves it in the rearview ... I didnt know that until yesterday. I also wonder if they realize the cars are essentially coal powered? Okay I am waaay off topic.. coming back now...

An engine driven fan, especially one with a thermostatic clutch that only pulls a high volume of air when it's needed, is far superior to any kind of electric cooling fan. The only reason I can think of for an electric fan is in a front wheel drive vehicle with a crosswise-mounted engine where the crankshaft and the radiator are not in the same plane.
Jerry

Thanks again Jerry. This is priceless information. most assume electric fans are superior.. Just bec its new technology, I dont think its always "better." If I can fit a good fan on this I will!

The best thing you can do for the efficiency of any type of fan is to build a properly shaped shroud around it. Position the back of the shroud so it's halfway back on the fan blade, even with the spider the blades mount to. If the shroud opening is either ahead or behind that point, the airflow will be reduced. The shroud assures that ALL the air the fan moves will pass through the radiator.
Jerry

If using electric cooling fan, one can put flaps on the back of the shroud covering a hole in the shroud, so road air blows the flaps open, but flaps remain closed so fan air will keep them closed and circulate air through the radiator, used on VW and others

Ed

Hmm I have to think about how that works.. Of the top of my head, if the flaps close.. theres no air to suck in.. I know I must not be thinking correctly on that. Then there is whether to put an electirc fan (if so desired) on the front (facing road) or drivers side(back of rad)? :o

The only thing the support frame for an electric fan does is restrict some of the airflow, no matter where it's located. The flaps Ed is talking about are in the shroud to allow more ram air through at highway speed- - - -air that can't pass through the hole in the shroud around the fan fast enough. At low speed, the suction of the fan holds the flaps closed.
Jerry

ok that makes sense.

I still have the date coded 1957 radiator in my LCF, I flushed it out and cleaned the air side of it when I had it out of the truck. It has the original 4 blade fan and shroud, 283 V8 and it does a great job. Of course it only has to cool the engine, no power steering, no a/c, no automatic trans. Now my 2500HD has a cooler for everything.

If I DO go Lectric.. what CFM y'all recommend?

If you go electric look into 80s to 90s ford taurus fans. They move tons of air, have hi and low and are like $100 new on ebay. Try a I did I could not make a thermostatic mechanical fan work in my setup so I went taurus.

I'll second the Taurus fans with Brian. At the time I was looking they flowed the most cfm of any electric fan stock or aftermarket. I stuffed a big block in my 52 Willys pick-up. No place for a fan or a radiator under the hood, they're in the bed now

A friend out in California back in the late 1970's did Crown Corvair one better- - - -instead of a small block Chevy engine, he put a Chrysler 392 hemi in the back seat of a 66 Corvair coupe. He put the radiator in the trunk where the engine used to be, along with two big electric fans. He said it was "interesting" to drive, especially on some of the twisty roads in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The weight distribution was almost a perfect 50/50 front to rear, and it handled extremely well. The tread on the rear tires was 14 inches wide.
Jerry

What trans. did he use?

Ed

I believe Crown sold a conversion kit to beef up the original Corvair 4 speed transaxle, which was flipped over or modified in some way to bring the power input in from the front of the box. My memory of exactly how the conversion was done is a little bit fuzzy after 40-something years. I do remember that the axle shafts from the transaxle to the rear hubs were considerably bigger than original!
Jerry

One of the four speeds in the Corvair was the same as that used in the front engine cars except for the input gear from the clutch and the main shaft. The main shaft was drilled to accept a 2 foot shaft from the engine in the back and the input gear was splined inside to accept it.

The conversion to a mid engine involved replacing the input gear with the front engine one and if the new engine was big, replacing the main shaft with a solid one. The bearing retainer on the trans needed to be swapped to take the throw out bearing and a bell housing installed to mate to the engine. There was an adaptor kit with all the stuff needed available. I don't know about the axle shafts.

How do I know this you ask? I had a 65 Corvair with the correct trans that very nearly got a small block in the back seat. Life got in the way.

If you've still got the urge, PM me. I've got a '66 taking up space in my shed. It's going to find a new home somewhere.

My buddy said before he got the engine cover built he had to be careful not to stick his elbow into the water pump pulley when shifting into 4th. gear! It was also VERY hot inside the car with the engine cover off!
Jerry