[Blob]

I just got my 16" electric permacool fan today and was breezing over the instruction when they stated that a fan shroud is not needed. I checked there website and it states :"Do I need a shroud on my Perma-Cool electric fan?

No, all Perma-Cool electric fans are designed to be installed directly to the radiator core, close enough to not need a shroud."

The radiator is out of a 95 manual firebird and will be cooling a 283 sbc. I assumed that any fan I was going to use would need a shourd, so should I still build one? Every post about cooling I have ever read, people always plug the use of a shroud. whats the deal? Will I be ok without one?

btw, the firebird radiator has the two larger lines (water pump and thermostat housing) but there is also two smaller holes, driver side is male and passenger is female, around .5" or so. What are these for?

[Frisco]

The housing that holds the electric fan acts as a shroud. There is no need or advantage to build another.

Mount the fan as a "puller" as this is more efficient than when mounted as a "pusher".

The smaller openings are probably for the automatic transmission.

[Zeder]

Hey blob,
I have one of those fans too. After trying both push and pull configurations on the rad and monitoring my temp, I decided to build a "insert for the fan that would allow me to run the factory shroud! My car has A/C on it, following the setup in the instructions I found that the fan did not provide adequate cooling so........ I cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood, not MDF, so that it would fit inside the original schoud on my car. 83 Cutlass. There happens to be a lip around the whole shroud that holds the plywood perfectly. There is also another lip inside the first one so it actually sandwiches the plywood between 2 stops so to speak. It can't go towards the rad and it can't go towards the engine. My shroud is a 2 piece unit. An upper and a lower piece. I pulled out the staples that held them together so that I could separate the 2 halves, put the plywood inside and then screwed them together. Just lay the assembled shroud on the plywood and trace this inside of it to the wood, then cut about a 1/8 - 1/4 inch outside this line. Once you have this nice round piece of plywood, center your fan on it and trace the perimeter of the fan, then cut the center of the plywood out. Presto, now you have a "coupler" to mount your fan to the original shroud. I had to mount mine so that the motor of the fan was facing the rad because of clearance issues with the water pump pulley. So when you look into my engine compartment all you see is the fan blades inside the shroud. KEEP HANDS CLEAR still applies, as you can now get at the blades when they are spinning! This allowed me to "pull" air though the entire rad surface area, and A/C rad as well. I works great. Just make sure you have the fan blade turned the correct way. In my case it is still a "pusher" but its inside the engine compartment. I also sprayed the wood with undercoat (black) to help it with any water that gets to it. This setup has been on the car for 2 1/2 years and it has worked flawlessly.
Cheers,
Z

[darom]

Z, can you post some pictures of your shroud setup?

Thx,
Denis

[67 Deuce 4 Me]

You said your using a rad out of a 95 firebird? If it came out of a V8 car you may want to check your rad hose locations those late model LT1s use "reverse " cooling system. Just a thought.

[357f-150]

If you have the same perma cool fan that I used, it doesn't have a shroud around it, its an open fan, correct?


If that is the case, you will want to use a fan shroud, if you don't have one, universal shrouds can be found and they don't cost much, easy to modify.


Installation is easy, use the four nylon straps/bolts (whatever you wanna call them), too easy. Takes no time, be sure and wire it correctly or it will move air in the wrong direction.

Good luck

[Zeder]

BLOB,
I will tomorrow.
Z

[Zeder]

BLOB

[darom]

Excellent idea - very slick! Thanks for posting the picture. Like in a saying: "one picture is worth a thousand words"?

[Zeder]

Here is another one!

[glen242]

Originally posted by Zeder
Here is another one!

That does not look like a Permacool High Performance fan. The 16" High Performance fan is #19115 and moves about 2900 cfm. I have the setup on my '76 'Vette and it cools with no problem without a shroud. And you know how hard it is to keep Stingrays cool.

[Zeder]

glen424,
You are right! My apologies! Its a Be-Cool fan. Sorry about that. The shroud couple has improved this fan's effect though!
Z