The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Cooling w/Electric Fan 1952 with 235

I do not have enough clearance between the harmonic balancer on my engine and the radiator for the regular fan to clear. Was wondering about using an electric fan...any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Scout

Can you give us some more info on the truck, engine, radiator combination?

All of these trucks had mechanical fans from the factory, so something has been changed on yours. Knowing what those changes are will help us give you better advice

There's a good bit of fore and aft adjustment to the radiator support. So much that the radiator can most definitely interfere with the stock 4 blade fan. Thing is, the inner fender dictates where the rad support goes because they attach to the sides of rad support. My inner fender to rad support holes I don't believe have any fore and aft adjustment. Maybe some are elongated, I don't know.

Ran my newly rebuilt 235 several weeks before installing the front clip, including removal/reinstallation of rad several times in the "teething" process of my engine That's how I know.

I had all kinds of issues with fan clearance with the 261 in my ‘50 3600. I bought a new 2 groove harmonic balancer, and the water pump “upgrade” It moved the water pump pulley lower, which created interference between the fan blades and the harmonic balancer. I found a really flat stainless fan (flat in front, with the blades only bent on the back side of the fan) at Summit and then shortened the blades about 1/2 inch to get clearance. Not the same problem that you are having, but it allowed me to put a fan spacer behind he fan and run it very close to the radiator᠁

My setup isn’t stock, so I understand why I had problems, but yours is all stock, correct? Stock water pump setup as well?

I did my water pump “upgrade” so long ago, that I cannot even remember what the point of doing it was! All I know now is that the fan sits so low now that the blades sweep down where the bottom tank of the radiator is, which doesn’t seem too efficient to me.