Markeb01 Build Thread

[markeb01]

Another marathon work day on the truck today. After spending several days of intensive study on the Lincoln and Ford fans, my right knee failed again reminding me how difficult it was going to be scrounging junk yard parts after all these years. So I started focusing again on items I could buy online, and found an Ebay vendor selling the Spal dual fans and accessories at a deep discount. The total cost ended up 40% less than Summit. I thought they must be used, or product returns, but the guy has a pretty good rating and the parts are brand new in the factory packaging.

Here’s what my old Flex-a-lite Black Magic fan looked like this morning:





It’s pretty obvious how little coverage the shroud was providing.

Here’s what the new dual fan looks like this evening:





It completely covers the radiator core and then some. I built a frame out of aluminum angle that allowed me to retain the Black Magic side brackets. I didn’t want to change them as my battery box has been extensively modified to use them and allow the 58 Impala radiator to fit. The only real problem I had with what I’ve accomplished so far was the sending unit for the fan. The instructions specifically state not to use sealant or Teflon tape as it is a grounding unit. The downside being, without sealant it would not stop leaking.

No amount of torque would eliminate the leakage. I was nearly bottomed out in the adapter and was worried I would snap the sender, or crack either the adapter or the cylinder head. After torqueing and checking every two minutes for over an hour, I gave up and got online. It seems the answer is to use sealant that is “Sensor Safe”. It turned out I have a tube of “Permatex Ultra Black” which is in fact “sensor safe”.

So I pulled out the sending unit and it was so tight the adapter came with it. Thank goodness the steel in the sender is harder than the adapter as half the threads in the adapter were galled and ready to strip. The damage doesn’t show up in this photo, but I’m posting it just to show what the adapter looks like. The upper half of the threads are flat on the nose like they were just about ready to strip out:



I was provided two adapters as each relay kit comes with one. So I used the 2nd adapter, and just in case the sealant does interfere, I only applied the sealant to the back half of the threads on both pieces. The nose on both pieces is still bare steel so I should be okay either way. And with the sealant – the sending unit is now leak free!

And for those not familiar with this particular Spal fan, the little rectangular segments above and below the fans are rubber flaps designed to blow open at freeway speeds, so the shroud doesn’t impede the flow of air when the fans aren’t running.

Unless I’ve overlooked something, all I have left tomorrow is wiring it up. It should be rather straight forward as the harnesses & relays are all wired up, and the instructions appear very simple. It’s almost certain I’ll need a bigger alternator as these puppies draw 37 amps at maximum power. Running the air conditioner and the fans together (kind of a necessity) isn’t going to leave much available for trinkets like headlights, etc. I’m really looking forward to seeing what these bad boys can do. The Black Magic fan has been dependable, but really hot weather always confirmed its limitations.