Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

lucky dude I would say (coming from a retired professional firefighter). lots of people have tried to extinguish a fire themselves and get badly injured before they call 9-1-1.
maybe good to put those fans on a maintenance schedule, like changing the batteries in the smoke detectors, checking the expiry date on the CO detectors, etc.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Wow! Very lucky you were there and found it quickly.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

2nd this!! I'm glad you are ok and the house seems to be in 1 piece. Fire is my biggest fear.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I know...I thought about it afterwards. The smoke alone could have got the best of me.


Lucky indeed!

Mine too!

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Finally got the Hydroboost & brakes done. Also switched back to the original style radiator, just hate that there wasn’t enough room to mount the fan behind it.-

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I seem to remember that some guys mount the rad on the front side of the rad support to allow a little more room for a pull style fan. kinda late for that now I suppose, and not sure now if that would also mean trouble with rad hoses or some other interference issues

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Yeah, I did that with the other engine and it worked out fine. I had to get a new rad support and didn't elect to go that route this time. Getting lazy & didn't want to modify it. This one supposedly eliminates the strut rods.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I love how you clocked the hydroboost so the lines would come out of the bottom instead! Smart.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Thanks. The POL site mentioned that it could be rotated so that the accumulator would clear tall valve covers, but I just thought it looked better that way.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Speedway says their column bolts right on to early GM and aftermarket columns, which it does, but it’s definitely going to need a spacer. Otherwise you’re going to have to deal with constantly banging your hand on the turn signal lever.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

mobileortho rather than putting a spacer i think if you take the signal light lever out and simply bend it to come out straight i think you would be fine

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Yep, I thought about that too. This weekend, the plan is to flip it over & tweak it a bit to see how much that helps.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I flipped it.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I went ahead and moved the radiator to make more room for the fan. It’s slooowly coming together.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Thinking I need some sort of deflector to mount in front of this to block water if I’m ever caught out in the rain. Any ideas?

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

lots of cars and trucks have a rain blocker in front of the rad support air intake. maybe just cruise the wrecker, or look online i suppose.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

check vehicles with carbureted engines if you go the wrecker on a quest.
mostly, what they are is a round plastic disc slightly larger that the intake tube. it is snapped on or screwed onto the front side of the air intake hole for the engine, it has some standoff legs to hols it off the rad support by an inch or possibly a little more. the air intake hose is connected directly behind it on the back side of the rad support. there is usually some sort of screen as well to keep birds and bugs out of the intake screen as well as the water and snow when driving. iy also keeps mice from crawling up the corrugated plastic tube to the actual air filter housing on top of the carb. so, the air intake is able to draw air in from the sides of the guard, where the standoff legs hold the solid shield away. I know the square body trucks had them.
here is a link to a used rad support for a mid 80's chevy truck. notice the part I am talking about next to the pass side headlight. another pic in the group shows the part sticking out the engine side of the support where the corrugated plastic tube would attach.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radiator-Su...edirect=mobile

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

I think I was overthinking it. You know, sometimes the you get inspiration from some odd places. I thought about this vent cover on my house & thought that I can bend some sheet metal to make something like this work. Or, like you said, just cut a circle larger that the opening & mount in front of it. That really sounds like the better option because it shouldn't protrude too far out & hit the grill bars.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Finally decided on how I wanted to modify the radiator latch cover.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

That's really clean looking!

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

for an intake cover for rain and bug shielding, you could look at tge heating/ventilating supply places. they have intake covers for furnaces and hot water tanks etc that are direct vent as oposed to the old fashioned chimney. usually plastic as thats what the pipes are for those applications, but they may also have some sheet metal ones too. just ensure the screening inside will accomodate the cfm of the engine through all the restirctions of piping etc. maybe even a chimney rain guard or something like that. one of these places probably has a supply cata;ogue with pics, or make a trip to home depot, lol.
some are pretty basic looking and you could fab something up at home , like this one used as a roof cap
https://www.amazon.com.mx/Builders-B...52909807&psc=1

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Yes, that's similar to the one I posted previously. I'm going to have to do some measuring to see how much clearance I'm going to have when the grill is mounted. I may have to modify the airhorn or just mount the larger disc like you said. I found one of those vents with a 4" pipe which is also the size of the filter opening so in theory, I could probably also remove the airhorn all together and attach it to the filter to gain some clearance. Honestly, I think the disc will be the simplest.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

Thanks!. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out ok for a rookie!

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

the simple disc, spaced off the rad support to allow airflow works. maybe a screen in there somewhere for the birds, bees, bugs in general and road debris. easy peasy.

Re: '50 3600 re-do. Shortening things up!
 

There’s not much room between the grill and inner fender. I had to remove the air horn but this should do it.