Fan & Radiator

[Mal]

How far away does your fan sit from the radiator I cannot get my fingers between mine. The car has been fitted with a 289 and home made shroud at some stage. The fan is a flexi light fan. I would have thought it would sit further back than that. Seems to close to work properly if it was fitted with a factory shroud. Thanks for any help.
Regards Mal.

[michael-king]

Mal,

read the "cool it buddy" article at the tigersunited site.

[Mal]

His discription on the fan postion in the shroud is how I have read they should be. My fan is so close to the radiator it can't be working properly. The generator is also been spaced forward on the cast bracket to line up the pulleys. I will post a pic. Something is amiss here. I am going to pull the radiator tonight and get it checked out or replaced. I will go aluminium if there is a cooling advantage and not just a wieght saving advantage.
Most of the air is being forced through the radiator allready. I would like to have these things sorted before I do the panel and paint.

[Mal]

Here is the set up at present.[/img]

[gtsmrt]

Hi Mal,

Judging by your description, the previous owner has spaced out the fan in order for the new fan blades to clear the top radiator hose. I know this as I had to space out mine when I changed my fan. Even with my spacer, I have approximately 25mm of clearance. Aluminium radiators are much more efficient than the originals, but to get one made will set you back at least $600.

Regards, Robin.

[V Mad]

You really need to have that fan about 20mm or 3/4 inch away from the rad as the fan will flex forwards, and the engine will move a bit when running depending on condition of your engine mounts etc. There may be spacers behind the fan which you can remove.

I can see from your picture that you can cut off some of the hose going to the engine which will space it away from the fan. Then if you can move the fan back it will be safer.

I als noticed your shroud is a square shape at the back unlike the original round shape. This may not be as efficient for cooling. I would fit an additional shroud or original pattern to follow the fan blade path.

[Tomaselli]

Agree with what has been said, you would want a "comfort" zone between fan blades and rad - just checked mine and have at least an inch if not a tad more. That engine will certainly move about





The earlier comment on reworking the top hose would be the first item, I seem to have more off an angle on my top-hose, stock shroud is that bit thinner too.

The Flexi-Blade fan you see there will allow for blades to flex so that they are flat above 3500 rpm, will save on HP and are very efficient

Keep us posted

[Mal]

I took the radiator to a recomended radiator shop. He said it allready had one of the best cores in it. A new alloy would be about $650.00. We deciced to give the radiator a good flush out and blow any rubish out of the fins with compressed air. Also fit an electric fan to the front to help out at slow speeds and idle. I also noticed the water pump spins very freely by hand and has a touch of play in the bearings, which are also starting to rumble. I will replace the pump while I am at it. There wre know spacers between the pump flange and fan. I will measure the space when I get it back together. I think this is worth a try before forking out for a new radiator. Thanks for all the replys and pic's.
Cheers Mal.
PS I am having trouble seeing how the electric fan is mounted in the pic of the Tiger on the inside back cover of Cats Whiskers

[odl21]

i use exactly the same flex-o-lite fan as tony.

[Red Race Tiger]

Hi all,
Forgive the intrusion but have we got the correct water pump here?
The reason why i ask is..... my engine is currently coming to the end of its build and i'm having to source the final Tiger only items such as water pump& custom made pulleys etc, what i quickly found out was that there are various SMF water pumps on the market and that the Tiger is another one altogether.
95% of water pumps are made for Mustangs which do not have forward rad space issues, so they normally use the common "long nose" pump, if one of these has been fitted to this Tiger that may explain why there is zero fan/rad clearance and maybe why the dynamo has also been spaced forward to line up with the water pump pulley?
After making numerous calls i concluded that there was a choice of just two pumps, these are known as the "stubby nose" pump, these are shorter than the normal Mustang unit and good news for Tiger and Tuscan owners.
I chose the "Edelbrock Victor" pump and dependent on which timing cover you are using ie wet or dry? the Pt No's are EDL 8841/8842.
The effect of using this pump will hopefully bring the fan & pulley back away from the rad and allow realignment of the dynamo too....

I shall shut up now.

[odl21]

you're right about the variety of pumps.

1) first there are late and early pumps that have totally different hose attachments. you want the early '260' style for the tiger rather than the late 302 style.

2) stubby and normal. the normal width just requires the pulley flange pushing a little further onto the shaft with a press. the stubby is too short without custom pulleys or adjustments to the balancer and dynamo/alt. bracket.

3) iron or aluminium - easy choice there.

4) clockwise or anti clockwise. clockwise is for v-belt drive. anticlockwise if you have a serpentine belt and have redesigned the whole pulley system - unlikely.

5) normal or high flowing. depends on your radiator design but the danger with the high flowing pump is that at high rpm it pushes too water through the rad before its had time to cool enough. so the normal flow pump is sufficient for most tigers.

6) you can also get pumps with extra heavy duty bearings.

this pump answers all the points and is not expensive:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GMB-125-2819/

you can see how different it looks to the later 302 pumps.

[Mal]

Thanks for the replys and links. Those edelbrock pumps are pricey. I see Milodon do a high flow as well for nearly half the price. The GMB pump may be the one the local speed shop guy was telling me about. I removed the old pump today. It is an original Ford high flow 1965 289 alloy pump.
#C5AE-8505-C. It measures from the base to the face of the flange 131mm or 5 5/32" which is a little less than the edelbrock. I supose if you can press the flange on a little further it won't matter.
Thanks again.

[michael-king]

Mal,

IIRC there are quite afew articles that talk about how far to press the front flange of the pump on the shaft so that you get the correct alignment and clearence.

[V Mad]

5) normal or high flowing. depends on your radiator design but the danger with the high flowing pump is that at high rpm it pushes too water through the rad before its had time to cool enough.


Are you sure about that? It may sound like a common sense approach, but that doesnt not always work. You could also argue that although the coolant is not in the rad so long, it passes through more often so the disadvantage is cancelled by the advantage!!

[bigbob]

Just to confuse the issue, I've just fitted an electric pump which is suposed to circulate water better, as its consistant at all engine speeds. Done away with fan & pully & fitted high performance blower fan in front of the rad. Not cheap, but should be a marked improvement. I'll let you know how it goes.