YellowRose Front End Body Work

[JohnG]

Ray, you live in Texas and have a TBird. Hence: you cannot possibly have too good a cooling system!

So you have a shroud, 6 blade fan, and make sure your Temp gauge works correctly and you know what the readings are telling you (in terms of actual degrees).

You want to be up to a worst case scenario: 105 degrees out, you have been on the highway and now you get momentarily stuck in traffic. You want your car to stay acceptably cool. Or whatever your worst case scenario is.

As far as that dinged up fan you own now: don't even think of reinstalling it. This is a cheap item that can case all kinds of damage when you least expect it. If you really, really want to keep it, look in Hemmings and find a shop that does balancing and let them examine and adjust it. But you will have probably spent the price of a 6 blade when you have shipped it around, so . . .

John

[tbird430]

Ray, I'm not overly concerned about upgrading to a 6-blade fan- And I have the bigger 430cid engine.

I think adding the fan shroud is the best single ideal for anyone owning a Squarebird.

How much are the 6-blades selling for anyways?

-Jon

[JohnG]

since it's somebody else's nickel, a good time to upgrade!

[YellowRose]

YellowRose Front End Body Work

Thanks for the input, guys! I think replacing that fan is a good idea. I have not looked at the prices of 6-bladed fans yet. I know some of you have them. What did they cost you? I understand you can get them from about any auto parts place.

Something else I am considering is going to an electric fan.. Anyone on the forum running one on a Squarebird? I have seen several pix of Squarebirds with electric fans on them. One reason I am thinking of going that route is because once Rose is healed, painted and the disc brakes/dual mc/booster done, she will probably be in a lot of slow moving parades. I know from my fellow members in my local Tbird club, that more than one of them have had to pull out of a slow moving parade because they were overheating. I understand with the right sized and rated electric fan, you will not have to worry about that happening.

So right now, I am betwixt and between whether staying with a five bladed fan that brung me, replace it with a six bladed fan, or going electric. If I do the latter, I might have to replace my alternator with a higher rated one. Mine is rated at 63Amps, as I recall.

Any additional comments, suggestions, are appreciated.

[Guest]

Classic Auto Air ...

has them (6 blade). Pretty reasonable as I recall. An electric fan works well, especially at slow speeds. A alternator upgrade is a good move. A ford 3-G (130amp) works well with a few minor modifications for mounting. Mike

[YellowRose]

YellowRose Front End Body Work

Hi Mike! Thanks for the information. I will check out the 6 blade fan and also the alternator. Does anyone know how many amps the AC compressor on our Squarebirds pulls? I need to see if that is in the shop manual. But if anyone knows, please let me know. Also, I have not been able to check the width, height and distance from the back of the radiator to the water pump and pulley yet. When I went by today to do that, they were smoothing out the rough spots on the front and sparks were flying everywhere. I understand that I am going to need to know how wide the core is, and the height of it also. Plus the distance everything is away from the back of the core, so that a fan motor will not run into anything on the block, should I decide to go electric. The reason I am thinking electric is the very reason you gave, Mike. I figure that once Rose is completed she will see a lot of low speed driving in parades in the future, dodging horse hocky from the mounted riders in front of us! I wonder why it is they often put us behind the horses in these parades?? Thanks!

In recent weeks, someone posted some pix of a Squarebird with an electric fan set up in it. I have spent some time trying to find those pix but to no avail. I did find the pix showing a partial view of one on that blue show car with the ropes around it and the white "clouds" on the floor. To bad they were not full pix. If anyone knows where those other pix are, please let me know.

[Guest]

Clutch fan ...

current draw should be in the 2-4 amp range. here is a site that may be helpful to you re cooling http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?fo...ction=category . I bought a new alum. double 1" core radiator made buy Northern for mine in a slightly larger than standard core size (wider) for $230. Will be making my own alum. shroud and using the fan and temp switch components from a late model Lincon junkyard donor. Mike

[YellowRose]

YellowRose Front End Body Work

Hi Mike, Thanks for the information. I will look through that link. I gather the 2-4Amps was the rating for our AC compressors. I forgot to look for that when I had the shop manual out awhile ago. Thanks for the help! Good luck with your work. I might just replace my 5 blade fan with a 6 blade one and see how she handles the Texas heat this year, when I get into parades. I have not paraded her yet, so I do not know. If she does not handle that, then I might go the electric fan route.

[YellowRose]

YellowRose Front End Body Work

Here is an update on the progress of fixing "Tweety Bird's" broken beak! We were able to get the hood open, get some measurements and found out the '95 Tbird fan and shroud is to deep to fit in my Squarebird, by about two inches or more. Even with the spacer off. So much for putting that unit on. I have bought a 6 bladed flex fan from Autozone and that will be going on. My 5 blade fan is shot! Here are some new pix.

http://thunderbirds.fortunecity.com/My59TbirdFrontEndRepairs.htm

[YellowRose]

YellowRose Front End Body Work

Here is the update on what was done on Tuesday. The re-cored radiator, 6 bladed fan, shroud and new lower hose is in. We turned the engine over and let her run for awhile. She seems to be okay. Here is what we did yesterday.

http://thunderbirds.fortunecity.com/My59TbirdFrontEndRepairs.htm