Radiator Fan Placement Question

[gag1025]

I am going to replace the fan blade on my '53 Chevy truck with an electric one. Is it more efficient to use one that mounts in front that pushes the air through or one that mounts behind that pulls the air through?

[Rude Dude]

Either works but if you look at all the factory ones they are mostly pull they are engineered for effiency and all the guess work is taken out of the equation that is why I went with pull type.

Originally Posted by gag1025

I am going to replace the fan blade on my '53 Chevy truck with an electric one. Is it more efficient to use one that mounts in front that pushes the air through or one that mounts behind that pulls the air through?

[Daze57]

x 2 ^

[gag1025]

I figured that all the car companies used the pull type because there is more room in back than in front. I was wondering if anyone had done any research into this. Perhaps had one hooked up behind and then in front and checked the amount of air flow for each position.

[OrrieG]

GM spends millions on engineering for the most efficient and elegant design solutions. If you have the room use a puller fan.

[_Ogre]

there's more room in back because they are designed that way.
like orrieg says, they spend big bucks on engineering,
if they could put a pusher and a smaller radiator in to save $1 per car
they would

[GMtrucknut!!]

The fans are designed to use the natural flow of air pushing through as you move and the fan helps cool by pulling at low speeds.

[parkwood]

If i can put my two cents in on this... try www.coolingcomponents.com they make a fan to fit all most everything and they come with a built on fan shroud which helps a ton pulling the air thru the radiator.. the picture i have here isn't a cooling components one but they look just like this one.. they are only 2 5/8" thick which should clear everything..

[LDO]

Parkwood,
your link led me to an industrial cooling tower mfr, (that would surely cool our engines though! ).

Did you mean these guys instead?
http://www.coolingcomponentsinc.us.com/index.html

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by GMtrucknut!!

The fans are designed to use the natural flow of air pushing through as you move and the fan helps cool by pulling at low speeds.

That works for me here in the "dry" heat !!

[parkwood]

Originally Posted by LDO

Parkwood,
your link led me to an industrial cooling tower mfr, (that would surely cool our engines though! ).

Did you mean these guys instead?
http://www.coolingcomponentsinc.us.com/index.html

Sorry about that, yes the cooling tower would work great but you would have to have a water truck follow you around all the time...
I was helping youngrodder with his over heating problems and just got an email from him this morning saying that he call cooling components and they gave him great help in picking out a fan for his truck...
Hope they can do the same for you if you call...

[youngrodder]

I agree with the plug for Cooling Components (CC). I have been fighting an over heating problem for a while now. My current set up is one cheap 16" EBay pusher fan (Huston we have a problem). At the request of a friend, I called CC today and they were very helpful. Since my set up is not factory as far as the dimesions of my radiator as well as the location of the hoses, I was skeptical that they could help. Boy was I wrong. I now am on the right track. I would rather spend decent money once and be done with it. CC's fans are also (2) speed. I didn't know this until I talked with them.

One thing that they told me that stands out is that when pushing air through a radiator you loose approximaly 50% of the CFM's. Good to know.

Keep cool
Marc

[Maximus]

as mentioned, most fans are designed to pull, one of the big reasons for this is with a pusher fan your fan is blocking the front of the radiator from natural air, i think this was mentioned above... thus putting the fan on the rear of the radiator your fan can work, as well as the laws of physics when your moving forward with the natural air... I just made a flat mounting bracket out of sheet metal and mounted mine on the back of the radiator.

[LDO]

Originally Posted by parkwood

Sorry about that, yes the cooling tower would work great but you would have to have a water truck follow you around all the time...
I was helping youngrodder with his over heating problems and just got an email from him this morning saying that he call cooling components and they gave him great help in picking out a fan for his truck...
Hope they can do the same for you if you call...

Yep, I will be giving them a call.

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by Maximus

as mentioned, most fans are designed to pull, one of the big reasons for this is with a pusher fan your fan is blocking the front of the radiator from natural air, i think this was mentioned above... thus putting the fan on the rear of the radiator your fan can work, as well as the laws of physics when your moving forward with the natural air... I just made a flat mounting bracket out of sheet metal and mounted mine on the back of the radiator.

that is what I was thinking.