As some of you might recall, my temp guage took a croaker last week.
I managed to manhandle the guage cluster out, it was glued in with a
plastic substance similar to a hot glue gun. Not bound up on speedo
cable
(not hooked up) or oil pressure guage (loose enough to remove cluster).
Turns out the culprit was the sending unit in the head just up and died,
I
picked up a new one at the local new/used oletrucks parts house (Dan's
classics in Portland). While I was there I also picked up a fan shroud
to go
with the new 6 blade flexi-fan I also bought from NAPA.
The fan shroud is made of black abs plastic and made to fit a 19" fan
(the
stock X shaped on is 20" btw) on the stock radiator. It has no holes
precut, but the shape is just right.
So I fix the temp guage, and am standing at the front of the engine bay
and I
realize in very short order that I wil have to remove the radiator to
get
the shroud in.
Not only that, but the shrould will need some trimming to clear the
harmonic balancer on the crank and the alternator I have in place of the
generator.
I take some preliminary measurements with with radiator in place, then I
set about to remove it. First thing, I have to jack up the front since
the
truck is too low to put a bucket under the drain spigot, then I have to
scramble for a bigger bucket to hold the extra coolant since a one
gallon
bucket holds 3.2 gallons very poorly.
I manage to get nearly all the coolant into buckets instead of the shop
floor (good thing I have a floor drain there), and the 6 bolts holding
the
radiator came off with ease (they were new from when I did the front
suspension). While I had the radiator and horn out, I cleaned them up
with
some sand paper and shot them with some flat black paint.
Then I removed the old grungy 4 blade fan and put the new flexi-fan on
in
place. You fingers will thank you if you do this with the radiator out,
the stainless steel blades of the flexifan are razor sharp. I needed to
put in a 3/32" spacer to let the blades clear the harmonic balancer.
With the fan on, the shroud with its starter bits cut out can be
prefitted
again to make the cut outs more accurate. Don't think you are going to
be
accurate enough to not need any further trimming.
Once its close enough, put the radiator back in, I elected to only have
the
bottom two bolts of the 6 hold the shroud on, the top four are just
holding
in the radiator (and the horn on the drivers top). The reason for this
will be readily apparent when you set about adjusting everything at the
final stage of installation.
Tighten up the two radiator hoses you removed to drain it. Put the
coolant
in the radiator. I put in 1 gallon of cooland and 2.2 gallons of
distilled
(well, boiled actually) water. This is close to a 30-70 ratio and the
best
for cooling.
I now began the really really fun part. Laying on my creeper, with a
razor
knife in my hand and the drop light placed inside the shroud, I made a
series of cuts and slices to remove 1mm of shroud at a time. Then stand
up, start up the engine for a split second to listen for rubbing, a
quick
peek and shut it down immediately. DON'T FORGET TO REMOVE THE DROP
LIGHT
BEFORE STARTING THE ENGINE! Actually I remembered every time. Replace
light, lay down on creeper, make cuts, remove light, start engine, look,
shut off engine, repeat ad nauseum until no more wacketta wacketta
noises
are heard.
At some point in this process you will want to kill the truck, and use
the
fan shroud as a death shroud. I lost count after a dozen repetitions.
End result? The new fan is quieter by far, I can feel the reduction is
drag in the seat of my pants, the shroud eases my mind with respect to
turning fingers into sliced vienna sausages while adjusting the carbs or
what not while engine is running, and the system is very clean looking.
The black abs looks very close to the flat black I painted the radiator.
Tools required: Drop lamp
13" long 1/2" combo wrench
razor knife
tape measure
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Miq Millman miq@teleport.com
Tualatin, OR
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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