New radiator tore up.

[moparedtn]

Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of the fan-to-radiator distance being closer at the bottom
than on the top - these engines do sit with a slight tilt to them fore-and-aft.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

With the hood up, sit in the drivers seat, fire the engine up, drop it in drive, one foot on the brake, the other on the throttle...
While watching the engine through the gap below the back on the hood & the cowl... Give it a little throttle.... How much does the engine move?
Some controlled movement is normal, the engine suddenly jumping three or four inches is not normal but also not uncommon... Bad motor mounts..
As has been mentioned a shorter fan spacer would help... As the RPM's come up the fan is pulling air toward the engine & in turn the fan is being pulled toward the radiator so I'd rather have the fan 1/4" for touching the A/C compressor and pick up some room between the fan & the radiator... If the fan hits the A/C compressor it'll make a racket, but it probably won't hurt anything... The radiator on the other hand.... Well.. You know...

 

[blue69runner]

Have a new radiator coming. Bought an original fan shroud off E bay. Have a new steel fan coming from Speed way. Maybe the designed is different than the one I have. Calling Classic air again and hope they have a new idea on if I can move the compressor back somehow. Thanks guys. Like stated everything worked fine till I got the new radiator and shroud. Work just grate for 4500 miles till radiator developed a crack in the bottom tank. Well wish me luck. Blue.

 

[69hemibeep]

Fan is way to deep into the shroud and to close to the radiator.

 

[4speed68rt]

New parts, but you still have to fix the problem of the fan being too close to everything or engine moving too much(under maximum acceleration), or you are going to do it again. You are going to have to move that compressor back some how. You might have to do or get some custom fabrication done.

 

[padam]

I know everyone says to use a shroud, but I have that style aluminum radiator without a shroud.
11:1 engine runs cool at 180, even sitting in traffic.

 

[blue69runner]

I am in contact with Classic Auto air today and see if they have a mounting kit to move the compressor back. Have the second pully open on the crank pully. Just don't know what if anything that will do to the rotation of the compressor. Yes, the fan has to go back towards the motor more. Will keep all of you posted on what happens next. With the other radiator everything worded fine. Thickness and everything the same on the new one. But must be something I missed. Thank you all for the information. Blue

 

[WileE]

BEFORE you put anything back... MAKE SURE you don't have any excess movement on the engine. Or you'll wind up with the same result. Maybe a anchor chain or brace on the driver side. Fan should be halfway into the shroud.

 

[hunt2elk]

Have you considered using solid motor mounts? I run them on all 3 of my cars so I don't have to worry about motor movement.

 

[blue69runner]

That is a thought for sure. Just looking at vamping the A/C compressor bracket to get 3/4 inch more clearance so, can move the fan back more. This will let me put a 1 1/2-inch fan spacer in instead of the two inch I have now. Should give me one inch clearance from the radiator at bottom like it should have.

 

[Charles Cook]

Short shaft clutch fan and 1” spacer will get your clearance that you’re looking for. All clutch fans don’t have the same length shaft.

 

[QuickBpBp]

If you do something with the motor mounts. You only need a solid mount on the driver's side. As long as passenger side is good just leave the rubber one on the passenger side.

 

[Jc cooper]

One thing that I have noticed about the US Radiator, that I recently purchased, for tube for 67 Gtx , 440 , is the shroud side mounts are in the wrong place, which if the correct shroud is used , it leaves a 1/2” gap top and bottom between the radiator and the shroud! The shroud should correctly set against the radiator, to help support it! Otherwise, one , it’s not as effective as should be and two causes a possibility of it moving! Not a good design and I’m shipping it back before it eats everything up! Sorry to hear of your woes, but these days, we can never say never!

 

[Daves69]

FWIW, looks like Hayden likes 3/4" min. clearance all around......

 

[1967coronet]

The pitch of the fan blades is also something to look at.
The more you set the fan back the more that pitch is important.
The fan in the pics seems to have alot of pitch compared to my mopar 18 " fixed steel one.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

I was looking at your compressor if you move the compressor back the idler pulley needs to move back. I see what looks like a spacer at the back side of the compressor. If you remove that spacer would the compressor hit the head? I circled the spacer

 

[davek]

FWIW, looks like Hayden likes 3/4" min. clearance all around......
View attachment 1529251

fan needs to be 1/3 out of shroud, can be more then 3/4 away from radiator. Its all about the fan and shroud not the radiator.

 

[Under Pressure]

Russ, lot of very good points made by others here, just want to offer mine from what I see in the pics and read.
Agree the shroud was a piece of crap and probably warped a little inward and is secondary to this, but from what I see in the pics it looks like this was caused by motor movement during the drive, I think about a 1/2 inch difference between blade to radiator at bottom and top is normal tilt (looks like blade is way closer at bottom than it is at top)
With the closeness required due to the compressor set up considered, is there too much rear tilt of the motor caused at the trans mount area?
Just a thought looking at the pic of the radiator taking a hit at the bottom and only scraping the shroud at the top

 

[kiwigtx]

As the RPM's come up the fan is pulling air toward the engine & in turn the fan is being pulled toward the radiator so I'd rather have the fan 1/4" for touching the A/C compressor and pick up some room between the fan & the radiator... If the fan hits the A/C compressor it'll make a racket, but it probably won't hurt anything... The radiator on the other hand.... Well.. You know...

Chiming in with my own experience here tonight..... I have just corrected a long outstanding belt & pulley alignment issue on my smallblock. I had also chewed out the previous radiator while pulling high RPM's....although that was because of the mis-alignment. Belt jumped off and tore up the core, which lead to other issues....towed home from the strip that day.

I was pleased to see the comment above by Randy, and it probably saves me starting another thread. I have in the past couple of hours checked and set my alignment, and the only issue I see is a small gap between the steel fan (Part #4140063) and the centre of the shaft of the A/C compressor (Sanden shorty like the OP has). The gap is around 1/8".....I can increase it if necessary but at the cost of closing the gap to the radiator core.

I think I'll chance it with low RPM's to start with and watch to see if the fan 'grows' with higher speeds. Below is a screengrab of a fan off ebay that is the same as mine.

Here are some pics of what I have done tonight....

I also aligned the alternator by simply swapping it out for a single groove unit - there is a difference of about 3/8" (8.5mm) in the V grooves.

 

[blue69runner]

So, I have since took the A/C mounting bracket and moved it back as far. As I can get it to go. Gained 3/4 inch so, can move the fan back towards the motor. Going to check my trans. Tail shaft stabilizer and see if I can shim it up. To rase the rear of motor. Checking motor mounts even though they are new ones. All the info has been grate and will check all the point given. Thanks again.