The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks fan blades; into shroud

Hi fellows, can someone tell me how far into the mouth of the radiator shroud the fan blades sould be. the mouth of my shroud sits about an inch (or less) from the water pump pulley. Putting the 3 or 4 inch spacer on, puts the blades well into the shroud mouth. Thanks for your advice.Ray ( guess i should add that i'm running a sbc 400, so i need maximum cooling)

skip spacers, the fan should be flush with the opening, not inside where it creates less 'vacuum' in front of itself and more turbulence behind it .... makes a lot of difference .... and the shroud opening shouldn't be much bigger than the fan diameter

Bill

i love this forum. it is absolutely fantastic. thanks for your valuable information. Ray

This is sorta on the same topic. My 61 has no shroud...don't think it ever did. Does anyone know of a later model shroud that will fit? Even if it has to be modified a little, that's fine. My truck has a 283, and never ever runs hot as it is right now. Maybe I should just leave it as it is?

if it's not broke, no need to fix it .... the fan blade within 1/2" of the rad and a good clean rad and cooling system should do it fine, but I seem to recall some 60-66's did have a shroud, so you might keep an eye out for that

Bill

Hey Adam, Ray here; my 64 had a 283 in it when I got it & the shroud is an aftermarket heavy plastic one. 283 had a busted piston. Got a good deal on a sbc 400. I'm probably gonna have to modify my shroud. My daughter bought me some stuff for the truck for Fathers Day. She got them from a place called TRUCKSHOP out of Orange, Ca. The web site is www.truckandcarshop.com. I got a catalog from her order. They do genuine & reproduction parts. I found some stuff in there that LMC didn't carry. Hope this helps. Thanks again guys.

Would one of you guys reading this thread please send me a private message? I'm testing something. Thanks.

Adam 61: the plastic 63-66 fan shroud won't fit your '61. But Ive got one I'll sell you never used if you want it to try to modify it. I have a '62 which had a 6cyl in it originally no shroud. When I put a 383 SBC in it, it needed a shroud. Could not find one for a '62, so I got an old '64 Impala shroud and modified it to fit. I think now that I should have just converted to an electric fan with a built in shroud and saved myself a lot of time.

There are three different shrouds for the '60-'62 trucks.
The early one looks like the same-year Impala shrouds: a 55-gallon drum section, mounted with a pair of flanges that wrap around the side of the radiator and bolt on using the same bolts that fasten the radiator to the core. It doesn't cover the entire radiator, just the area the "drum" section covers.
The second is beefier, and fully covers the radiator. It's got a big opening that transitions to the rectangular radiator dimensions, with flanges that wrap around the sides and attach to the core like the other version.

For automatic-equipped 1/2-ton trucks, and trucks equipped with heavy duty cooling (a 3/4-ton radiator), a full face shroud was again used, fully covering the wider radiator, with mounting flanges wrapped around the side as before. I believe the auto trans radiator is the same as the 3/4-ton rad, with a trans cooler added like modern vehicles.

The 1/2-ton flange can't be used on the wider 3/4-ton radiator. Ask me how I know!

The 3/4-ton radiators will bold right in to the 1/2-ton core support, with no modifications.

They show up on ebay with some regularity, but not too many times per year.

My '62 uses a new 3/4-ton radiator (from US radiator, I believe), a reproduction 17.5-inch 7-blade clutch fan from a later muscle car, and a clutch. It's all a bolt-in deal for my 350 crate engine. In Atlanta heat, I don't have any problems unless I'm idling for a long while, and I don't have the shroud in place at this time.

The fan sits a good 8 inches back from the radiator, and even without a shroud, the big fan draws enough to pull a sheet of paper tight to the radiator from the other side.

I also have a 160-degree thermostat installed, to open the flow of water sooner-I believe that gives me some more time in heavy traffic before things get too hot.

-Brad