Fan shroud or
no fan shroud ??
Saturday,
12-22-14--- I've been debateing with myself about the fan shroud we
left off when we put the engine back together. I figured it'd be
easier to see if anything was leaking and would allow me access to
tighten up anything. Last evening I fired up the all powerful “new
to us” 454. It runs really well. I let her run about 45 minutes and
watched the temperature guage. When we drove the rig home the other
day it maintained a normal temperature. Hmmm..climbing past normal
and it kept going up. Of coarse, now, there was no air flowing like
when you are driving. And the temp. kepy climbing up !! NOT good.
Shut 'er down. She was hot to the point of boiling into the overflow
bucket. It took about a ½ hr to cool off.
Got
on the internet to educate me...Many hours later I was still
befuddled. Opinions varied from no shroud to gotta have it. Now what
?? I did see one forum that mentioned the distance between the fan
and radiator..Now that makes sense. Our rig has about 12” there and
the theory was the air from the engine compartment would recirculate
instaed of pulling air thru the radiator.
I
decided the shroud needed to be on. So I retrieved it from the tool
trailer. This shroud is in 2 pieces and after I looked at the area to
install it I decided to remove the staples holding it together
horizontally and will bolt the 1/2s together after they're in place.
Another part of my internet education says the fan blades must be
removed to enable reinsertion from the top and from inside via the
doghouse. ( have I lost ya yet?)
Gonna
take a lot of contortions. But not by me !! I decided to see if my
mechanic, Robert, was available and he was..YAHOO!!
He
was here within an hour and had it all done in 1 hour. Ya gotta love
it !! I'd abeen ( is that a word?? LOL) all afternoon and sore in the
AM !
We
also changed the thermostat to a fail safe 165F one. Had a 180F in it
and Robert said we should lower the temperature range. The fail safe
feature costs a bit more but if the thermosat fails it will be open
instead of closed. That way we won't boil. Good idea!
Engine
got fired up again and we let 'er run for quite awhile. Definately a
big difference and a lower temperature. Checked for leaks and found a
tiny leak at an oil fitting on the new oil cooler hose which stopped
after a tweak.
I
fired up again in a few hours and all is well...PHEwwww!
We
will try a run into town tomorrow and if all is well I'll dump the
radiator water and add the antifreeze. I haven't wanted to find a
leak of antifreeze. I'm glad all this is done today as the weather
guessers are calling for rain over the next few days. No FUN working
in rain.
Shopping
tomorrow for the RV Park dinner on Christmas.
Heather and I sincerely hope all our friends and blog followers have
a wonderful and Holy Christmas !!
REMEMBER,
LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY !!
Charlie
& Heather
Yeah, you need that shroud. May not heat in cooler weather but will for sure when it gets hot or you[re pulling a grade.
ReplyDeleteJim
A fan is a lot more efficient with a shroud. The distance from your radiator to the fan requires the shroud to keep the fan from circulating air right around the fan. If the fan was within less than two inches of the radiator and not in a "doghouse" then you likely would be able to get by without it but a shroud would still make it work a lot better. That big gap is a real "fan killer" from a design standpoint.
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