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Shroud or no shroud

Not to high jack but what is a good temp for an engine to run?
Mine normaly runs about180 and I thought that 200 was a little hot but some of yall said that you run about 210 and 220.
 
The ones I was thinking of installing are no less than 2700 cfm's. My truck idles and does traffic fine, but it's when I go wheeling that it starts to climb a lot. It's hit 250 before I realized it and I shut off the engine.:mad: Doesn't seem to matter what I do to it. I'll try getting a bigger clutch fan (was thinking of it as an alternative) and pick up a shroud, and see what happens. I was wondering because I know several people who swear by electric fans. One of my friends had a similar problem, installed an electric fan, never had an overheating problem again.
 
big dan said:
Not to high jack but what is a good temp for an engine to run?
Mine normaly runs about180 and I thought that 200 was a little hot but some of yall said that you run about 210 and 220.
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No prob. My car runs 180, my truck 190. I don't think it hurts anything to run around 220, but I personally won't ever in any vehicle I get. But when you get warmer than that I think it's not too good.
 
chevyin said:
lol Like I said, dad told me he's yet to hear it need to kick in at 100% since its been on the truck.
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I bet. But I don't have $350 I want to spend on a fan right now... lol
 
Kyle Strong said:
I bet. But I don't have $350 I want to spend on a fan right now... lol
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Ya I hear ya. When my dad asked me to install his new cooling system, I said sure. When he told me he'd spent a grand on the fan and new radiator (freakin awesome rad too lol) I about soiled myself and secretly laughed at him. Then I installed the stuff and fell in love. I think my g/f is actually a bit jealous of my feelings towards it. Im still talking myself into forking out the coin for one for my 73.
 
xblaxermnx said:
I have an 84k5 and with the stock 305, temps no prob, I rebuilt a 350, 30 over, 9.5to1 and now it runs around oh, 220?

Was thinking about going new 4 core and doing the Windstar fan trick. What do you guys think? Going to go wheeling in June-Oct in Colorado. So I dont want a cooling problem.

Also should I replace the heater core as part of the upgrade?

What temps should I expect and maintain?

:D
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I've never been in a situation where my vehicle couldn't maintain the rated t-stat temp with fan assistance. I wouldn't expect much less than that with an effective fan. Granted, I'm not towing heavy loads uphill for the most part, nor am I climbing rocks in 100* weather, but even at 120* you still have a big difference between engine temp and ambient...enough that it should be able to cool.

A radiator is probably going to make the biggest difference. Put a new radiator in and see what happens. I made the mistake of using the same radiator on a new motor myself, and boy did it get hot before I shut it down. :) Worked fine with the old (smaller) motor, but was worthless with the new one. Lower passages were corroded, top ones *looked* fine.

Since you already have a cooling problem, and think you need a new radiator, you'll instantly see if a new one completely solves the problem you are seeing now.

I don't see the heater core being a big issue, but if you don't mind digging into that project, and it's original, no doubt it's pretty bad inside as well if the radiator is.

I'm a big proponent of the high flow/improved water pumps too, but again, I'd only look to that if you have problems, or need to replace it as well. I go so far as to "port" the coolant passages in the heads when I've got them apart, the older castings I've seen are horrible in the ports and offer a lot of resistance to flow and add turbulence. The Vortecs needed almost no cleanup FWIW, very smooth inside.
 
I have a fan shroud but the corners where the bolts go are broken so it kind of floats in there. I'm thinking about ditching it and running electric fan assist and see what happens.
 
Fan assist is worthless if you are pushing air at a faster or lower speed than the the engine driven fan, which is why I'd say that would be a pointless swap.

Think about it, engine fan is pulling at a faster or slower rate than a pusher fan (assuming this is what you are thinking) one of the fans isn't doing anything but getting in the way of the other one.

Aux. fans on a trans or oil cooler is different, but if you are covering the same area of the radiator with two fans...

Increase the speed of the air moving through the radiator, or increase the swept area. Only way I'd approach changing how well fans cool.
 
Just an off the wall idea but I wonder if having a fan in front of a fan would augment the front fan's pulling power. And would cause the air passing through the front fan to flow freeer and faster, thus cooling faster.
And I have my trans cooler mounted on the front of my radiator and I would mount my auxillary fan on the inside of the radiator so as to draw air across the tranny cooler and the radiator, killing 2 birds with 1 stone (or fan).
 
That's the problem. If one fan is turning slower than the other, it is nothing but a restriction, besides adding turbulence unnecessarily.

This is why the solid flex fans are worthless at speed, the incoming air is moving faster than what the fan can move, thus its actually impeding airflow.

If you can fit two fans on the backside of the radiator without one being under the other, then you aren't going to be hurting anything.
 
Running two fans in a push-pull configuration (one behind rad, one in front) wouldn't really help air flow across the radiator more than a single fan. Fan are rated at a max cfm, adding another fan (even same size running at the same speed) wont double your over all cfm flow through the rad, each fan still has a max cfm. The best that would happen is it would increase the efficiency of the original fan -slightly-. Like said above, you would be better off with an entire new fan that increases air flow on its own.

I see this situation alot when people mount amplifiers under glass and vent them with computer type fans. Its amazing how many people want to run 2 fans for this in a push-pull configuration, one pushing cold air into the amplifier's mounting box, the other pulling the hot air out from the other side. But just like the radiator example, the fans have a max cfm and you wont be surpassing that... they would be much better off running both fans pushing or both fans pulling (and having 2 'dead' holes) as that would basically double your cfm through-put.
 
I was thinking of running two fans, but I guess this thread puts a stop that.:D It makes sense though. I think I am going to try and find a shroud for my truck, get a bigger clutch fan, and have my radiator rodded. Sound good?:confused:
 
i used to run my fan with no shroud and a 4-core rad and it would have died without my pusher fans. i added a shroud and i dont think the pusher fans do that much if anything at all anymore. my fan is louder than heck with the shroud, is my fan-clutch working properly? it sounds like it is adding lot of stress on the engine and killing gas mileage. would i get more power/mileage with dual electric fans? ive been really thinking about it. my truck cools down great, i had the radiator rebuilt a couple months ago. if im wheeling and it gets to hot, i just rev up the engine and watch the temperature fall, fast. my is fan cooling my truck but i am looking for better mpg and i was just wondering if the electric fan swap was worth it. my fan right now worries me(so loud, so much air)....thanks
 
It may be completly false but I had heard that by going to an electric flan it would help the engine & gas mileage because you take the mechanical fan off the engine and that helps (i.e. less stress on the engine). Is there any truth to this. Probably not but figured I would ask.
 
Quackaddict said:
I had heard that by going to an electric fan it would help the engine & gas mileage because you take the mechanical fan off the engine and that helps (i.e. less stress on the engine). Is there any truth to this.
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Consider that the electric cooling fan motor(s) must draw their electricity from somewhere, and that somewhere is the alternator. What must drive the alternator in order to make that electricity?
 
1985_K5_Silverado said:
Consider that the electric cooling fan motor(s) must draw their electricity from somewhere, and that somewhere is the alternator. What must drive the alternator in order to make that electricity?
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That maybe true, but the draw the atlernator puts on the engine is a lot less than a mechanical fan.
 
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