Electric fan mounting pics request

[Island Girl]

Hey Gang,

I'm trying to do a little homework on mounting my new electric fan to my radiator . . . .

It must not be a very glamorous part of T building, as I can't seem to find diddly squat by way of videos or pics that show any kind of details.

If you have any pics, the more detailed the better, showing your fan mount and what kind of brackets and bits you employed, I'd be super grateful if you'd post them.

Without any other T's here, or car shows to have seen how others have done it, it would be great to get some ideas from you guys that have been there-done that.

It doesn't seem like it should be all the big a deal, but I have a tendency towards overkill, and I'd like something solid and reliable, but also simple and clean looking.

Thanks in advance,

Darlene

 

[Kevinrevin]

I've seen several that were mounted by a "zip tie" type of mount. Instead of looping, one end had a flat, washer-type end that was on the front of the road, and the tie portion ram through the coils to the shroud & fan. Those seemed to hold up on dirt-track cars, and I've also seen that mounting used on drag cars, too.

 

[Kevinrevin]

*road should be rad

 

[Spanky]

I've seen several that were mounted by a "zip tie" type of mount. Instead of looping, one end had a flat, washer-type end that was on the front of the road, and the tie portion ram through the coils to the shroud & fan.

That's the way mine is mounted, but I get a lot of advice to change it to a more solid mount, since these "zip tie" type mounts can damage the radiator. My electric fan is very light, so I'm OK with it. But if you have a heavier fan, beware.

 

[Island Girl]

That's the way mine is mounted, but I get a lot of advice to change it to a more solid mount, since these "zip tie" type mounts can damage the radiator. My electric fan is very light, so I'm OK with it. But if you have a heavier fan, beware.

View attachment 17042 View attachment 17043

Thanks Spanky,

My fan is quite heavy as electric fans go . . . . which I suppose is to be expected for one with a ~1/2 HP motor. (actually .479)

I'd be scared to death to use those nylon bolts/glorified zip tie thingies, especially with an aluminum / downflow rad .

I've got a plan in my head to kind of mirror the bracketry I have planned for the left side that will support the recovery tank onto the right side so that I can just add some cross rails between them to secure the fan to.

Unfortunately, sometimes what I see when it's done . . . . doesn't quite match what I envisioned . . . . .

 

[PotvinGuy]

I made some tabs and soldered them to the radiator:

 

[brsturges]

It's not a T, but on my Model A I used the zip tie method. I wasn't happy with it so I added a "hanger" of sorts on the top of the radiator to take the load off the zip ties. That way the zip tie thingies only hold it to the face of the radiator and don't support it vertically. This is the best picture I have of it.

 

[T-Test]

I made some tabs and soldered them to the radiator:

I agree, I would add some mounting tabs where the mounting holes are on the fan by silver soldering or Tig Welding them in place if you are not using a fan shroud.

 

[Indycars]

.
Here you go Island Girl.

 

[Island Girl]

I like how you added the "hanger" to take the load off the zip ties on the A model.

My vision is a lot more like Indy's, with the cross rails securely mounted at each side.

I'm trying to make a fairly modular setup with the rad, recovery tank, fan, front rad supports and mounting rails for the rad all as one assembly that can be installed/removed as a unit.

I'm using Spirit's '34 style grill shell, so it adds extra weight and forward extension that wants to cantilever the rad forward, so I need a strong unified module for reliability.

Couple pics so you can see what I'm working with:





Looks like everything I ordered to work with from McMaster will be here by this afternoon, so I should be able to post some pics of everything in mock-up so you can make additional suggestions sometime tomorrow.

 

[409T]

Fan mounts in the shroud, the outside of the shroud mounts to the slots in the sides of your radiator.

 

[rubicon]

I used L brackets and stainless steel rivets. I tried aluminium rivets they broke.

 

[JetMech727]

Here's how I've gone about it on a couple of my cars Darlene. One fan is a Spal and the other is a Derale. Derale pulls less amps starting. For the spal I used a sheet of .040 6061T6 and for the Derale I used sheet .070 6061T6 and then bent them into "L" brackets. Both ways are very solid. The Derale was a little bigger fan so I decided not to make a full shroud mount for it. Both ways cool equally as well.

 

[Indycars]

Interesting how you safety wired the hose clamps ..... nice touch !

 

[JetMech727]

Lol..Thanks Indy. Didn't like the clamp ends sting out.

 

[Bill Pedersen]

Hi Darlene,

Here are a few pictures I took of a nicely detailed car at the 2018 Tbucket nationals in Springfield.

Bill

 

[Island Girl]

Daaaaaaaaaamn . . . . That's beautiful

Now that is some seriously impressive work and attention to detail . . . .

I'm looking at shrouds in a whole new light . . . . I just might have to tinker with something similar

Wonder what he has in that setup in both fab time and cost . . . . no doubt my pockets aren't as deep as his.

 

[Island Girl]

Been working on my modularization idea, need to make a material run in the morning and make a couple small changes.

Should be ready to mount the recovery tank then, but I'm pretty good with it so far . . . .

I left all the mounting tabs extra long so I can trim them to length after everything is in and OK.

The way this is working out, it wouldn't take too much more work to add a shroud if I find I need one.

 

[Jim B]

Looks great so far, nice work!

 

[Island Girl]

Finished up my fan mount and shroud today, thanks to everyone who posted pics and gave me ideas and suggestions.