16" electric fan and shroud?

I have a 55 chevy with an electric fan 16" has anyone gone from an electric fan on radiator to an electric fan on a shroud. A mechanical fan will not work so don't tell me to put one on. The core is only 18x20.5. I don't have any real problems on weekends but would like to take it to work and traffic is unpredictable. I run a 2500 cfm and found a zirgo 3600 and am thinking of getting it, I also found a black magic fan with 3300 that has a shroud that will fit but is 150 more. Thank's


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Ideally, you would want to run a shrould to duct as much air as possible through the radiator. If you're not having problems on the weekends, then I wouldn't think you'd have problems during the week...but that depends on what you're doing on the weekends.

If it were mine, I'd start it up and let it run the driveway for a few minutes with the fan on. If the temp is controllable with the fan and without the shroud, then I'd start driving to work. But a shroud will definitely work better in the long run.

A single 16" electric fan should work just fine, providing it has a fan shroud.

My caution to you is; If you are running a Aluminum Radiator, have a special Aluminum fan shroud made. If not the 'plastic' shrouds will warp during the heat transfer.

Just to mention..I have a flexalite 16" fan with shroud on my 72 pickup with a mild build 350. Never any issues but the rad is huge and 3 core. I installed a flexalite fan controller that actually ramps the fan on and controls the speed in a proportional manner rather than just on/off. It has a set point pot that allows you to dial the temp setpoint. The sensor sticks through the fins of the rad so no fancy fittings needed. You can here the speed going up and down as the thing is doing its job. It also provides some run time after you shut off the motor so it can keep cooling the rad down.IMO For a street machine this system is far better than the on or off way of doing things.

is it a black magic fan. The one with the shroud on it?

Yes that is the one. The unit had a self contained temp controller on top. This was not working very well so I added the modulating control and wired its output direct to the fan motor bypassing the on board unit.