What fan would be best?

[chvymudin3388]

So as I'm building my new project I begin thinking how I wanna run a snorkel and route it to the inside of the vehicle and that I want to be able to drive it through standing water if it comes down to it and the thought occurred to me of what in the world would go on under the hood when my fan hit the water especially since right now it's not clutch it straight drive... Would possibly a electric ram off a switch be better?

 

[Fordum]

My old Jeep was a heavy steel fan direct drive, and it spent lots of time under the water.
I had a line marked on the dash to show where the top of my carb was so I would know when to stop.
I never liked crossing the river at night, because it got dark when the headlights went under.

I never had any problems with the fan. Not sure what happened, I know it got quiet after it got in a ways, so I suppose the belt may have slipped.

On my truck, with the clutch fan, a quick crossing is usually OK. But it it stays in the water for long, it ruins the clutch.
Since its a fluid clutch, it seems to build up pressure and cause a seal to either leak or blow out.
Usually it runs for a few days, but gradually it works less and less as the oil continues to leak out.

Several people here have converted their fans to electric, the Aerostar ones seem to be the favorite, and almost all of them have a switch to turn them off for deep water crossing.

 

[ktmoutfront]

I have seen fans get sucked into the radiator. Turning one off would be optimum.

 

[chvymudin3388]

Electric I will go... Lol thanks guys any more suggestions reasons etc are still welcome

 

[nutt7]

Like mentioned, Windstar (Aerostar was its predecessor) fans are cheap, very effective, and easy to come by. I think I got mine at the JY for $35 and it took about 5 minutes to remove. The shroud matches the standard radiator dimensions very nicely (save an inch or so top or bottom). With a little mild bracket fabbing you can have a stock looking set up. Wiring a switch for it isn't too hard either, but I recommend some sort of thermostat to go along with it for proper operation.

 

[chvymudin3388]

Being as budget and trail dedicated as this build will be it'll prolly remain on a switch for quite sometime maybe later down the road when I get back to working ill get more serious and do a thermostat go ahead and maybe put some chromoly axles in the front 10 bolt since the biggest ill prolly ever go is 37's ... The 14 bolt sf will prolly hold up to anything I will ever throw at it... Hoping to do the shackle flip tomorrow and install the 14 bolt and patch up the old gas tank and throw her in and drive her for the first time in 6-7 yrs since its been parked... I fired it off on some gas dumped in the carb a while back like 2 yrs ago but that's it... Been sitting with no rear end no gas tank for quite some time

 

[nutt7]

I got my thermoswitch/thermostat on eBay for $20. Works great! It threads right into the water jacket port. No mods needed as long as you can get that stubborn plug out of the passenger side of the block or head (can't remember which right now)! Have fun getting your rig back on the road!

 

[chvymudin3388]

Oh fun it will be (palm face) drug it up to where I'm workin on it with a tractor and the stinger kinda tore up the top a tad where the window channel is doesn't really matter though since I plan on running around topples more then half the time .. Goin to tear all carpet it eliminate all rust in floor and then flood it with water and drill holes in all the low spots