DonaldSmith Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 My 47 DeSoto overheated in a parade. It hasn't idled right since. Maybe manifold leaks or blown head gasket. I re-tightened the head bolts from 60 to 75 ft lbs, and I'm going to check the manifold bolts (they shouldn't be real tight) and do a compression check. Meanwhile, I've been playing mind games for getting an electric pusher fan. 1) Get a 6-volt pusher fan and a 6-volt alternator to power it - a lot of money. 2) Get a 12-volt alternator and 12-volt pusher fan - maybe a little cheaper, and more available, maybe even as salvage parts, but it would involve converting the car to 12 volts - much work and expensive. 3) Buy a jumper pack and run a 12-volt pusher fan off the jumper pack. This would also power the cell phone and GPS. Has anyone done No. 3? Are pusher fans available at salvage, or can a typical electric cooling fan be easily converted to a pusher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
41/53dodges Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 a typical cooling fan is set up to suck air through the radiator, and to make a pusher fan work efficciently you would need different blades or find a way to tweak the originals. otherwise, the fan will be utterly ineffective and a complete waste of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd52cranbrook Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I've run a Zirgo fan for awhile. Worked great, but I did not like the noise. I had one of the higher cfm ones, and to me sounded like a air plane prop engine at times. So I went back to a 6 blade flex fan. It was a pusher fan, as I said, highly efficient, but a bid noisy for my taste. BTW most fans now are switchable from drawing to pushing by reversing the blades. Mine was made to be reversible. 12 volts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd52cranbrook Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 BTW, will sell it at a good price I feel, if your interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4852dodge Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Try a 6 blade clutch fan from a modern v-8. If you have the radiator to fan spacing this might work for you. You may have another reason to cause the overheating, check for vacuumn leaks or too advanced timing. These can cause a lean condition and extra heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrspeedyt Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 (edited) it shouldn't overheat or need a aux. fan unless there is a failure of some sort. good luck to find and repair it (at low cost and time). jumper pack would power a fan for maybe a couple of hours. my 89 bmw and 70 mercedes have stock pusher fans mounted in front of the a/c condenser (in front of radiator) Edited July 21, 2010 by mrspeedyt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Martin Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I was having trouble with my 50 dodge running hot. Tried 6 blade flex fan. No better. Put a 7 blade regular fan on did the trick so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Neon Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 I did my share of parades up until 2006. While I never overheated, I did get dangerously close a few times. Creeping along at 5 mph for miles in hot weather can cause any car to overheat. Had I decided to continue doing parades in 2007, I was going to install a 6v pusher fan. Despite what some may tell you, parades ARE hard on cars. I ended up needing to rebuild my transmission largely from the stress caused by 20 parades/summer for four seasons. That's 80 parades. Due to the lack of appreciation from the organisation that I was advertising, and the general lack of interest in old cars in parades any more, I probably won't ever do an other parade. I've gotten so sick of parades that I don't even like to go and watch any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonaldSmith Posted July 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Parades are at a walking pace. That's not even 5 mph. The Friday evening before the DreamCruise, the city of Berkley has a long parade of vintage cars. I've almost given up watching it. Maybe I'll go to the far end, and walk towards the parade, so I can see it all more quickly. Oh, then our local cable channel plays the parade all year long. I wouldn't miss it. If I never saw it, I woudln't miss it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1942cowdodge Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 I use one of those portable type 12 volt batteries to power up my CD player while I show oft the car and it work ok for a few hours. This might just be the cheapest way to go as you only need it for your parades and they shouldn't last that long. If you really want to hope up your six volt fan than you can do what I did to get more life out of my CD player. I just installed two six volt batterys together and got 12 volts just like they do in golf carts. There a bit heavy but they were given to me and I could not afford to pass that buy. Here is a picture of my power plant for my CD player or anything else that may need 12 volts or just arrange them to get six volts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopt50wgn Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Electric fans that are sold today are meant to be pullers, Some will say you can turn the blade around and make it a pusher. It will work if you also have the motor reversed, but that's the only way it will push. There are true pushers on the market, Spal makes either a pusher or puller and not sell you a puller and turn the blade around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claybill Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 (edited) wait a minute...!!! just thinking most fans are located in front of the radiator..therefore they are "pushers". no? why use a puller??? why not use the regular fan off the motor pulley?? if you turn the blade around AND reverse the motor..what have you gained..you are back to the same.???? bill Edited July 22, 2010 by claybill additions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captden29 Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 a company called scotts makes 6 volt pusher fans. i have one on my 54 windsor and it keeps the car from overheating in slow traffic and hot weather. i have done everything else humanly possible to solve the overheating problem, including the water dist. tube. the only thing left is to pull the core plugs and flush the block. the fan works as a temporary solution but when it gets real hot i just can't drive the car until later in the evening. capt den Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtfercomfort Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Make sure you have a good fan shroud - one that lets air out at highway speeds but around town pulls ALL the air through the radiator. Run 50-50 antifreeze / water. On that dual 6-volt battery idea... seems like it would be possible to charge each battery in parallel (using your 6 volt generator) and have a separate isolated circuit that ran in series to give you 12 volts? I wouldn't have any idea how to wire this myself, it would take some sort of heavy duty diode at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captden29 Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 don, i looked up scotts. they advertise in old cars weekly. they are in Rhode Island. phone # 800 272 3267. they give you wiring with it. mine runs off the cars battery so you don't need an extra power source. cost is about $160, which isn't cheap but if it saves overheating it is worth it. web site, www.scottcoolingfans.com. i put the switch just under the dash where i can reach it while driving so i can turn it on/off when needed. i should have wired it so it goes off when i turn off the car as i have been known to forget and leave it on. capt den Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captden29 Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 also, try FlowKooler on the web. they have up to 16" pushers, 6 volt, pos. ground for $150. capt den Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claybill Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 (edited) years ago on one of my previous cars i hooked up a spare heater core and tucked it under front for extra circulation and cooling. it worked. bill Edited July 22, 2010 by claybill additions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrspeedyt Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 (edited) reading on the aaca forum suggests (1) check thermostat. (2) really good flush. (3) replace the distribrution tube in the water jacket. (4) pusher fan. one guy used a 12v fan from a 90's buick powered by his 6v system. Edited July 22, 2010 by mrspeedyt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dndrodshop Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 I've run both pusher fans and puller fans on my car. The puller fan is much more efficient. The pusher fan loses alot "bouncing air" off the radiator. The puller fan sucks more air. Both fans were tightly sealed to the radiator core. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 . Ever wonder why your car sat so low with the trailer connected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fedoragent Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 Which fan did the gent finally go with and also where did he get it. I'm thinking of putting a fan where the horns are now. She gets warm, but not horribly hot. It gets hot here in Southern California so I figure better to be safe than sorry. Especially when I get the overdrive and AC in the car. FG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martybose Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 One tip about the horns; when I decided to put a pusher fan setup in my car, I found that I could replace the two straight horns originally in my Plymouth with a pair of the 90 degree bent horns from a Dodge. They mount to the same brackets but gave me a lot more room in front of the radiator. Marty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homebrewer Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 Marty, what year Dodge are we talking about? I would be very interested in this conversion. Could you post a picture? Thanks George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 I am using only a 16" pusher fan purchased from JC Whitney. I am controling this fan with an adjustable thermostatic controller. I selected this specific controller (Hayden 3647) as it was the only one I found that had a temperature adjustment range between 160F and 210F. All others had a range starting around 205F. I have replaced my horns with aftermarket units purchased on eBay. The prime reason I did this was I ran out of room to use the belt driven fan when I installed the long block Desoto engine. All of the above stuff is 12 volt only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fedoragent Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 Don, Do you find that the pusher fan does indeed cool the engine well enough in high temp situations? There isn't alot of clearance through the front grilles and I was curious about how the venting is working for you to cool the engine. Thanks, FG. I am using only a 16" pusher fan purchased from JC Whitney. I am controling this fan with an adjustable thermostatic controller. I selected this specific controller (Hayden 3647) as it was the only one I found that had a temperature adjustment range between 160F and 210F. All others had a range starting around 205F. I have replaced my horns with aftermarket units purchased on eBay. The prime reason I did this was I ran out of room to use the belt driven fan when I installed the long block Desoto engine. All of the above stuff is 12 volt only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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