Marv,

I wrote a long winded reply to your informative post this morning, but for some reason it didn't post..............The bottom line was; Where did you get the new pump you trusted and/or what brand was it?

Thanks!

Philo 

FIGHT CONFORMITY! 

Philo:



Many of the water pump re-builders today are re-using the impeller and hub and gluing them down with epoxy or other loctites. I refused delivery of a pump a short time ago that had a used impeller and hub glued onto the shaft. I bought a new pump instead for just a few dollars more.



When we used to buy the kits to rebuild the pumps ourselves it was a definite no-no to reuse either the hub or the impeller because when you pushed these items off the shaft you would remove a thousandth or micro-thousandth of metal. The hubs and impeller are cast so are softer than the steel shaft. Removal of this small amounts of metal would allow looseness and sometimes allow the impeller or hub to shift on the shaft.



To use the truck water pump you should check the impeller to casing clearance as the trucks use a different timing cover than the sedans.



I agree with Steve on the flex fans they are more hype than help.



Ford used a 5 blade 18" fan as an optional extra cooling fan on the Ford and t birds and a 5 blade 18.25 fan on mercs.



I would look for a 5 blade fan and a smaller water pump pulley if you have a engine temperature problem. I run a 5 blade fan with a water pump pulley off a 57 merc with HD generater as these are smaller diameter than the 56 and later pulleys are.



marv

Sorry, Pete, your probably right.  My point was they take a lot of power, and that means a lot of load one way or another.  I never realized how much until I had those experiences.

Glad you feel better. We can all use a little of that.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Is this a case of "Mission Creep"?

This started out because a factory medal fan at high engine RPM pulled the waterpump shaft forward and took out the radiator.

Now we are talking about how to keep a motorhome cool as we climb the Rockies and what happened to a Corvette when the fan clutch siezed.

If you have a high RPM engine and want to reduce the force on the waterpump bearings start by reducing the mass ( weight ) that is on the waterpump shaft. NO FAN-CLUTCH, NO IRON FAN. Look at a fixed aluminum multi-blade fan or a flex fan.

If cooling with a fan shroud is not an issue why try to solve a problem that does not exist.

OK I feel better. Pete

Just a couple observations.



I was motoring along one evening, cold in December, in a vette on cruise control about 2800rpm. Suddenly, the car lost about 5mph, roared like a jet was making a low pass, and the cruise kicked in and added throttle. I tapped off the cruise, slowed down and pulled over. Everything seemed normal. Got out, opened the hood, and seemed to have a bit more fan noise. I shut the motor off, grabbed the fan, and the thermal clutch was frozen up. Obviously failed at speed. But it made it clear to me how well they worked. I left it on that car all the way thru 400hp, with air and power everything, and a big block radiator, and it ran about 10 degrees warm on a 95 degree day. Way better than any flex fan than I ever had.



I've been running an electric on the 'bird since I put the s/c on, and am about to put an aluminum radiator in it. I was going to build a shroud, but based on Steve's input, I'll be checking to see if I can go that route with the s/c off.



An old time motor home and truck guy told me if I could find a 25hp electric fan, it might keep me cool on a hill in the motor home. That kind of tells the story.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Hi Duck - Tthe fan blade leading edge is 3-7/8 from the radiator and it sticks out the back of the shroud by 1/8 or less. The T-bird shroud has a sort of "spherical" shape at the rear 2-1/2 inches or so and I configured the cut down Pontiac fan to have a leading edge that just neatly sweeps the space (with reasonable clearance).

The fan came with a junk GM clutch I had to throw away.......

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Steve; Just curious- How far are your fan blades from the radiator, and do they protrude from the fan shroud, and if so, how much ? /Duck

BOO- YA!!!

I have the clutch fan set up on my T'bird to.  It has worked great for many miles and keeps the car cool w/o the excessive fan sound of the flex fan I used before.  MIKE

Mike, still lovin his 57 t'bird after 53 years!

I've seen some data that showed no value to the flex fans (as far as reducing HP requirements) - so why give away the cooling capability? Testing (as I recall) showed that when the rev's were going way up or quickly accelerating - the belts slipped more often than not.

I think you would be better off with a fixed aluminum blade style fan - that had relatively low rotating inertia. You can find them with both six and seven blades. 

When I lived in Wyoming - my buddies with trucks that pulled trailers - told me the flex fans were worthless when you had to tach up the motor in second to climb a mountain. Just when you needed a lot of air flow - it was flat.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Steve, thanks for the great info. And, alas you're right, Not enough room for a clutch fan in a "sedan".

Pete, Looks like a fex fan is my only option now. I'm running a generator so I don't have the ampereage for an electric fan and don't like the look of them anyway.

Paul, I installed the balanced, blueprinted, Isky cammed +.040 312 this spring so I'm safe. 6500 is my new redline, but will shift @ 6k when I'm "on it"!

My new radiator should be here the first of next week. Thinking of going with the large bearing truck pump with 3/4" shaft and drilling out the car pulley to match and spacing it forward to match the crank and gen. pulleys. I'm wondering if the truck impeller will pump too much water volume as it had deeper "blades"? It will be turning slower than the stock truck setup because of the larger pass. car pulley. Dose anyone have any thoughts on that?

I'd like some advice on which 18" flex fan to buy.  Number of blades, type, brand etc. I'll be running a 3 row copper/brass rad.

Thanks to all,

Philo

FIGHT CONFORMITY!