Radiator Air Flow

[John Turney]

Thanks for the input Rick & Turtle.

The problem with the "almost stock" Austin engine is that a puller fan of any size won't fit between the radiator and water pump pulley, even the low profile fans which don't move enough air. Using the engine-driven fan means that the back of the shroud has to be installed after the radiator is in and the shroud sides are in. Having the fan off-center just adds to the "opportunity".

 

[HealeyRick]

John,

The Maradyne was the lowest profile puller I could find. You can get some more room between the water pump and back of a puller by removing the cross brace. mounting the top of the radiator as far forward as you can get it and extending the bottom mounts forward so the radiator tilts to the rear with the bottom of the radiator in front of the top of the radiator when you look from the top. It's not much extra room, but it may be enough. One other thing to look at is a "sidewinder" fan that moves the fan motor off to the edge of the fan rather than the center: https://the-fan-man.com/ Do some research on this, though, as I thought I read some reviews that weren't happy with it.

 

[John Turney]

Rick,

One other thing to look at is a "sidewinder" fan that moves the fan motor off to the edge of the fan rather than the center: https://the-fan-man.com/ Do some research on this, though, as I thought I read some reviews that weren't happy with it.

The Sidewinder fan makes for an interesting, though expensive, option. I didn't find any reviews, though. I did make a drawing, which can be seen here:

 

[HealeyRick]

Hi John,

I looked for reviews on the Sidewinder, but couldn't find the ones I thought I remembered. In fact, I found a pretty positive one: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/so-freaking-happy-with-this-electric-fan.389712/ Interestingly, I went to a tech session on Saturday with Rob Medynski of British Vacuum Unit https://www.britishvacuumunit.com/about-us.html The session was about the effect that bad distributor timing can have on, among other things, engine cooling. Rob recurves distributors to account for wear as well as engine mods and modern fuel. He mentioned he often sees reduced engine temps after a rebuild. I don't know if my memory is selective, but I just don't seem to remember my friends with big Healeys complaining about overheating when they were new like we do now. I wonder if bad timing may be a contributing factor these days?

o​

 

[John Turney]

Returning back to the topic of a shroud for a 14-in. fan, I have incorporated comments about using pop rivets for the side pieces and clearing the upper radiator hose. The revised drawing are here:

 

[Deleted member 21878]

i read this thread a while back... hmm, i guess it was last Dec.

anyway i started playing with some aluminum fascia pieces i had left over from the house. put the radiator in this week and thought i would attach my parts to see how they fit. nothing is cast in stone here. i will pull back out if the look starts to bother me or it makes noise. either way it was a fun project to play with.

and for under the car...

i was also reading about the issue people were having with using a flow meter on the carbs to balance them. just the room to fit it in. went to Lowes and picked up a piece of bilge hose and added some weatherstrip to seal it off when in use.
hopefully i get a chance to try it out soon.

 

[turtle]

John, Thought you'd like to see a picture of my new Wizard rad and spal brushless fan. With our warm Bay Area days; hitting 75 today... I've been taking her out to see how well the setup works. I can report that the Chevy is very happy and luckily we didn't need to swap in the shorter water pump/pulley... we just made it. Looks nice thru the grill too. The install was straightforward except we were a little tight on the lower hose with the clamp on but my mechanic made it fit.

 

[John Turney]

Looks good! So you have just the Spal puller fan and no engine driven one? Let me know how that works.