Why not stay with your OEM fan - it's worked for 50 years, been reliable, enough air to cool the SB Ford engine and doesn't have a history of coming apart or failing on the hottest day of the year on the outskirts of West Overshoe. If I recall, the OEM is a 4 blade fan that could be upgraded from a similar car if you feel it's necessary to have more blades/more air flow. Yes, flex fans have a history. I've personally seen two fail though damage the hood, not the radiator. Ebay fans without a brand name are something that will always be suspect in my mind if I had it on my car. Plus they really have no warranty. Also, if you think they have a lower current draw, the motor will be puny with low grade wiring .... There are several good brands, sold by reputable dealers - mine is a CCS (Walker Radiator), operated via a Painless wiring thermo switch and a relay. It is pretty dang heavy, well shrouded and has pressure relief flaps built in the shroud and had a good warranty, now expired.

 

Well Mustangs we notorious for heating problems even when they were new, I was hoping to make it better than stock, It will eventually get some performance upgrades as funds provide. I also this would be a good foundation for those upgrades in the future. Seems like cooling is one of the most important upgrades for any car. The old radiator is pretty bad, signs of leaks in the tubes and it looks like some are partially plugged if not totally plugged. I don't see any signs of stop leak and the car had fresh anti-freeze in it when I parked it to start working on her.

Thanks for all the help.
Mark

 

Stock fan will be fine for a stock engine rebuild.
If you have built up your engine and horsepower is increased, you should opt for better cooling.
The electric fan would be a better option than the flex fan,IMHO.
Flex fans are weirdly noisy and don't seem to pull a lot of air.
Is your car going to be stock? OE restoration ? ??

 

fans

with the fairlane, i started out with the oem 4 blade. moved up to the 5 blade hi pro flex fan.. i did see more air movement, but not to a point of pulling a vac from the grill.. i'd say 20% better then stock.. used an elect fan on my Tbucket with alum rad and never had a over heating issue.. buckets can have a bad rap for more air goes around then through rad's.. with oem or flex fan use a shroud for sure.

 

If you're limited to under 30 amps to run an e-fan, I'd just go with a clutched mechanical fan at that point. It'll cool just fine and will save the worry about having enough juice from an old, small alternator.

 

I would stay away from flex fans, and if you want to use electric fans you need to make sure your charging system puts out enough to handle the load.
In most cases the best cooling is when you use an OEM heavy duty cooling system, similar to what Ford offered on the big block engines and/or with A/C.

That means you should use a 6 or 7 blade steel fan with an HD fan clutch, full shroud, and a 3 row radiator. If you have already switched from the OEM radiator to an aluminum radiator its probably a two row aluminum that will be similar in cooling capacity to the HD 3 row OEM radiator. There is some improvement in cooling & air flow when you switch to the aluminum radiator, but its not like a night-and-day improvement.

I would also run a relatively stock thermostat to keep the engine at the right temp to build power and burn off moisture. A 195 degree thermostat is probably stock, and you might try using a 180 if you are running it hard. However, remember that the thermostat just sets the low point for the transition to full cooling and has very little impact on max temp. In most normal driving an engine with a 180 thermostat will overheat just as much as one with a 195 thermostat if the rest of the cooling system is not in good shape.

Bruce

 

Thanks everyone, this car has the 24 inch core radiator and air so it has an upgraded alternator. I remember I put a flex fan on my Roadrunner many years ago and it didn't seem to do much. I haven't purchased the radiator yet and was looking at the 3 row or a 2 row with 1 inch tubes. The reason I was looking at electric fans in the first place is the stop and go in 100+ degrees here in part of CA where I live.

I still have the stock fan and could reinstall it, my other thought on getting rid of the fan was to try and get a little more HP out of the 302. I'm open to more suggestions as well. I will say that the large radiator for the air conditioned cars seems to have some issues with parts of it being covered by the air conditioning system components and so I wonder if those areas actually do much.

Thanks
Mark

 

Just to add some info, Car Craft magazine did a fan performance test on a 500 HP engine a few years back....flex fans were the biggest HP losers of the bunch, some costing as much as 40 hp lost....an electric fan ate the least HP(of course), followed only 8 or so HP back by the factory thermal clutch and standard clutch fans.

Since you are redoing most parts of the car, why not upgrade to an alternator that puts out more than just 60 measly amps?? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Get an aluminum radiator too. Sheds heat way better than a brass unit.
It will dump a lot of heat. A 2 row aluminum (1 inch tubes) would be more than sufficient , chances are a 1 row would be plenty.

 

Keep it simple whenever you can. With the set-up you have described an engine driven OEM set-up seems the logical choice.

 

I like the idea of an electric fan because it will produce the same amount of air flow for cooling at all engine rpm, including idle.
Which is often the largest cause of overheating, when done for long periods of time.

 

Well I go along with everyone that says flex fans are junk. If you want to try an electric fan go to your local recycler. Look for a fan from a 97-98 Ford Taurus and a Mark Vlll. You will need a Bosch 75 amp relay to wire up the fan. Take a look at Be Cools wiring harness. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/bci-75021/overview/ Here is the sketch of the wiring for a single fan. http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/wiring_harness_install.pdf It would be a good idea to upgrade to a 130 amp alternator from a 95 Cobra. get the harness too. I bought the Be Cool direct-fit module for my Camaro. It has two rows of 1" coils and keeps my temp at 185* with 90-95 outside temp. I like the wiring with the relay and temp switch that cut the fan on at 195* and off at 175*. Buy a large aluminum radiator and try one of the Fords fans. Up grade alternator.

 

^^^ I have half way been trying to find one of these set ups since I learned about them.
They are the perfect size for my 38

 

Best place for flex fans.. In the Trash. Flex fans make so much noise you can't hear anything.
To me, the best fan is a clutch unit. Only problem is if you buy one new, chances are it's not any good. I've bought about 10 over the years, every last one of them either stayed engauged or wouldn't engauge, so then I just waited until I found a good one on a scrap vehicle.