1964 c10 Aux. cooling/helper fan.

[Mike_The_Grad]

Hey everyone, so my dad is having trouble with idle engine temperatures. He is running a 6 blade dealer stainless flex fan with NO shroud on his 1964 c10 with 292 and 4 speed granny low trans. YES, I understand that a fan shroud would do wonders for him. The only problem is we cant seem to find one. The 1/2 tons never came equipped with a 292. So, looking at the current situation I got a deal on a 16" derale electric fan. My dad wants manual control and to use the fan as a helper/backup fan for traffic or when he sees a neighbor and gets started in on a conversation. (I've already told him to turn the truck off and have no worries...) regardless of that. I have 3" in front of the rad core and the core support crossbars. He wants to keep the mechanical fan(understandable) the electric fan I picked up is 3-3/4" deep from mounting area to back of electric motor. My question is, how necessary is the cross brace for the core support? Would it be ok to "modify" said crossbrace with a kick-out around the electric motor? (Roughly4-6") knowing we want to keep the mechanical belt driven fan, and the confinements in front of the radiator what would you guys suggest? Not taking the fan back as I got it for 1/2 retail price. Yes we are running a "water wetter/ super coolant" additive. No a/c, and no we dont have the stock fan and shroud to run. Not oppose to it but I doubt any of you guys have one laying around for a 292 setup in a 1/2 ton truck.
Either way, thanks for your time and unless I hear something I'm gonna modify or leave out entirely the cross brace for the core support so I can run this fan as a pusher fan.( yes I know the pros/cons of pusher/puller fans.) Just trying to make me pops happy without modifying his truck anymore than he wants. Thanks!

[cwcarpenter98]

You might be able to just bend the brace out some. The factory equipped AC trucks had a different cross brace that stuck out more to the front so that it could clear the AC stuff

[The Rocknrod]

I've seen trucks without them. I've seen trucks on here without them.

[jayoldschool]

A stock non-flex fan should work fine, without a shroud or a helper fan.

[vin63]

Will the fan fit if you offset mount it a bit so the motor is between the bars? By the way, what size radiator is in the truck (dimensions and number of rows?)

[Mike_The_Grad]

I dont have a stock fan to put on the engine.

The radiator is a brand new brass/copper radiator from National Parts Depot. It measures 17-3/8"x 24-3/4"x 2" 3-Row.
The electric fan I bought is 16" diameter rated at 1550 CFM.
I thought about offsetting the fan around the brace and is still an idea. A friend of mine suggested drilling out the crossbrace factory rivets and adding metal spacers underneath the crossbrace mounts and then bolting it back together. I have a bunch of steel sleeve material with a good size wall thickness that will accomadate 5/16" or 3/8" bolts. I also have boxes and buckets of 5/16" and 3/8" Grade 8 Bolts,nuts, washers, lock washers. All kinds of lengths of bolts. Plus I got feet of all thread rod in both sizes.if worse came worse I can mig weld it to the core support with the spacers to clear the fan.
I guess what will determine the end result will be how much of a fight it puts up. If I get frustrated trying to offset mount it, I'm gonna drill out the rivets and relocate the brace further away from the core support to clear the fan then bolt it back together and if that isn't stiff enough, then I'll bust out the welder. Then spray paint it to blend it all in. Sound good?

[hairball]

Hi Mike,
I believe that the 292 was available in the 1/2 tons. What is the actual engine temperature that you consider "running hot"?

[Mike_The_Grad]

Well the temperature gauge nearly pegs out from what my dad tells me. I told him, well turn it off! If your gonna be sitting in it for a while. Lol. The truck is 100% brand new underneath. Meaning freshly rebuilt 292 with only 3,500 miles on it. New cam, fuel pump, hei dist, rebuilt single barrel carb, headman headers, water pump, thermostat 180°, hoses, radiator, alternator, I put the water wetter additive into the coolant. I am not running the water pump/thermostat housing bypass hose because the water pump and thermostat housing are of different years and I need to adapt 1" cast outlet on water pump to 1/2" NPT of thermostat housing. So they are just plugged off right now. No leaks in coolant system. I rewired the entire truck.

The temperature gauge reads right in the middle with the needle straight up while driving and in town signal light driving. But anytime he is idling for more than a couple of minutes the temp gauge starts to rise. I put a new heater core and a good blower motor in it. But I need to lube or replace the single twist/pull style cable that operates the blower motor switch. So, the aux. Fan is the next remedy.

[jayoldschool]

Someone here must have a stock fan for you...

Originally Posted by Mike_The_Grad

I dont have a stock fan to put on the engine.

The radiator is a brand new brass/copper radiator from National Parts Depot. It measures 17-3/8"x 24-3/4"x 2" 3-Row.
The electric fan I bought is 16" diameter rated at 1550 CFM.
I thought about offsetting the fan around the brace and is still an idea. A friend of mine suggested drilling out the crossbrace factory rivets and adding metal spacers underneath the crossbrace mounts and then bolting it back together. I have a bunch of steel sleeve material with a good size wall thickness that will accomadate 5/16" or 3/8" bolts. I also have boxes and buckets of 5/16" and 3/8" Grade 8 Bolts,nuts, washers, lock washers. All kinds of lengths of bolts. Plus I got feet of all thread rod in both sizes.if worse came worse I can mig weld it to the core support with the spacers to clear the fan.
I guess what will determine the end result will be how much of a fight it puts up. If I get frustrated trying to offset mount it, I'm gonna drill out the rivets and relocate the brace further away from the core support to clear the fan then bolt it back together and if that isn't stiff enough, then I'll bust out the welder. Then spray paint it to blend it all in. Sound good?

[grubsster]

Are you sure you are not chasing a gremlin? I had a similar "problem" and did some research on here which, led me to buy the the correct sending unit from Lectric Limited. My needle, with a 180 degree thermostat, sits about 1/4 from C when driving and my 185 degree fan kicks on at just below the middle when idling. I would not trust the air freshener part store sending unit no matter the brand, if that is what is installed. Just something to check. Might also want to check the actual temperature of the coolant also.

[Mike_The_Grad]

The sending unit is either a Standard Industries or AC Delco brand. I dont recall off the top of my head.

Well it took me some time to get the fan and wiring done. Why you ask? Well first the issue with the crossbrace. So I tried to just remove the top 2 rivets to see if that would allow me enough room to slide the fan in. Nope. So then I decided to remove the bottom 2 rivets from the crossbrace. Well you have to remove the grille with attached headlights. No biggie, but then I remembered I grounded the headlights to the core support behind the grille. Again not a big deal. After successfully removing the crossbrace with no collateral damage i had to finagle the fan in from under where the hood latch is mounted. License plate in the way. Ok, lil bending not a problem. Then I remembered I should check the fan to see if it actually works. (The fan was a return from another customer, which is why I got it for 1/2 price.) So, pull fan back out. 12v battery, fan runs excellent. Quiet smooth. So back in it goes. Looks right at home in there and with the hood shut you would never know. Then came the fun stuff, the wiring. I will say that wiring never really intimidated me. I've rewired my 1972 c10, my dads 1964 c10, my buddys 1971 c10(stock harness), and am helping another friend figure out her 1975 jimmy wiring. I've already installed dual electric fans with relays in my own 72 c10, so a single fan is no problem. The thing I dislike about wiring is making it look nice and neat and like you know what you are doing. Sure I could string wires from here over to there and around this and tape it off boom done. But that's not how I operate. I can say that routing the wires takes the longest time of the project. I started using the nice woven split wire loom, heat-shrinkable connectors only, soldering and heat shrink when necessary, try to maintain color codes and continuity throughout. Takes time and thinking it out start to finish, but man does it look good when you are done. I'll post some pictures in the next few days. Back to the fan situation. Turns out after 4 blown 30 amp fuses, I found out something wasnt right. Lol. I had power in and out flipped around. And when I switched them back, the only thing I was able to achieve was making the switch light up when I flipped it on. Lol. Discovered the rocker switch schematic was backwards. Swapped ground for power into the switch and bam fan kicked right on. No problem... these trucks really are fun to work on. Tons of room, my dads truck only has about 15 or 20 wires in the whole thing. And plenty of room under the dash. He hasn't road tested it yet as we are waiting on the sm420 trans to come back from the trans shop. Whined so bad in 3rd and 4th that I could here him in my truck following him up the road. That's over my dual 3" super 40 flowmasters. Lol. I will check back in after we get some miles on it and let y'all know how it turns out.

[The Rocknrod]

Originally Posted by Mike_The_Grad

The sending unit is either a Standard Industries or AC Delco brand. I dont recall off the top of my head.
...

Might not have the correct sender, like grubster say's.

[vin63]

Gotcha...I would try to mount the fan to the driverside in between the cross bars if possible.

Originally Posted by Mike_The_Grad

I dont have a stock fan to put on the engine.

The radiator is a brand new brass/copper radiator from National Parts Depot. It measures 17-3/8"x 24-3/4"x 2" 3-Row.
The electric fan I bought is 16" diameter rated at 1550 CFM.
I thought about offsetting the fan around the brace and is still an idea. A friend of mine suggested drilling out the crossbrace factory rivets and adding metal spacers underneath the crossbrace mounts and then bolting it back together. I have a bunch of steel sleeve material with a good size wall thickness that will accomadate 5/16" or 3/8" bolts. I also have boxes and buckets of 5/16" and 3/8" Grade 8 Bolts,nuts, washers, lock washers. All kinds of lengths of bolts. Plus I got feet of all thread rod in both sizes.if worse came worse I can mig weld it to the core support with the spacers to clear the fan.
I guess what will determine the end result will be how much of a fight it puts up. If I get frustrated trying to offset mount it, I'm gonna drill out the rivets and relocate the brace further away from the core support to clear the fan then bolt it back together and if that isn't stiff enough, then I'll bust out the welder. Then spray paint it to blend it all in. Sound good?

[spudder]

Had a similar problem with a friend's '64. Bought what was supposed to be correct AC Delco sending unit. Temp guage was near pegged, messed with it thinking the thermostat was not opening. Then ran without a thermostat to test it and still had hot reading on guage. I finally ordered the sending unit from Lectric Liimited and changed to a 185 degree thermostat. Now the guage reads just past center. From all I have read, the Lectric Limited sending unit is the way to go. Using it, made our truck's guage read correctly.

[Mike_The_Grad]

When truck is up to temp the needle rides right in the middle between hot and cold. It will stay there as long as your driving and not idling for long periods of time. When my dad was talking to the neighbor for about 5 minutes after the truck had already been driven for a while, he looked down to notice that the needle had moved up and was almost pegging out the gauge. So he turned it off. Waited a few minutes, turned it back on and started driving and the needle rested where it normally does in the middle of the gauge. I've heard these 292 blocks can run hot because of the cylinder arrangement and design of the cooling system. Regardless, the fan is in and we should have some results in the coming days.

There isn't enough room to mount the fan offset around the cross brace. The fan is 16" diameter and the radiator is almost 25" wide. But the electric motor is about 6" wide and sticks out about an inch too far to clear the crossbrace. So the brace came out. Me and my dad looked at the way the front end is put together and it looks like everything would be ok with out it. Everything is bolted to one another and tight and square. But if we need to put it back in we can bolt back in with some spacers to clear the electric motor.