The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop What fan to use???

The engine in my '65 is a 400sbc bored .030 and a high performance cam with Edelbrock manifold and 600cfm carb. It is bolted to a th400 and a 3:73 rear. Today I took it for a test and the water pump snapped at the bearing and the fan went out to lunch with the radiator for it's main course. I was using a 7 blade fan and a fan clutch. I think the weight of the fan and clutch was just too much for the quick torque. With this kind of power, would it be best to use a fan with the alum. blades that will twist under power and do without the fan clutch? I really didn't care for the noise it made when parts started flying. Anyone have any thoughts?

Truck Tinker

I run 7-blade fans and hydrostatic clutches on several cars, including a 375 hp 406. No problems at all.

I don't recommend flex fans. They're noisy, they don't cool well and they have a habit of failing catastrophically....like throwing blades thru the hood.

I'd think that the failure you had was a fluke. An imbalanced fan or a faulty clutch. Btw, when the clutches go bad, they can lock up and run all the time. That's real noisy and could weaken the fan if run for a long period of time that way.

I really don't have any problems with the 7-blade and hydrostatic clutches. I put one on my 292 to replace the solid mount and it's workin fine.

I had a buddy w/a 64 & sm blk 400 back in high school, snapped pumps left & right. His record was 13 water pumps in less than a year. 3.73s & a heavy foot was the cause. He finally went to a lightweight aftermarket plastic fan, no more trouble. I would go electric, we just did on my bro's truck, its unbelievable the revs it freed up by removing the fan. Brian

If you use a hydro fan clutch you need an original equipment one. The after markets aren,t any good.

Thanks, everyone. I am really tempted to go electric. Seems like a lot of people rodding go that route.

Truck Tinker