Well it was a good father's day. My sons came by and helped me set the motor and trans back into the frame. Then we set the cab and front fenders, radiator frame work, radiator and just set the hood on to see what it will look like.
Looks like cutting the frame 2 inches worked out good for the tires sitting in the fender openings. Moved the motor mounts forward and gave myself a little more clearance between the firewall and left head. Now for my questions, I have about 3 inches clearance between the fan and the radiator. Is this to much? I also have 1.5 inches between the radiator and the hood latch panel is this about right or does it matter. If I need to move the radiator closer to the fan I can build a bracket but this will open the gap between the hood latch panel and radiator. When I bought this truck it was already apart so I have nothing to reference to. Pics below. Thanks for all your help.

 

Ideally, if you're not running a fan shroud, you want your fan as close to the rad core as practical. It's also desirable to have the front or the rad sealed so all the air coming in through the grille opening has to pass through the core, and can't escape around it for maximum cooling effect. A one inch spacer between the fan hub and water pump pully would be helpful, and some rubber flaps to seal around the front would be a good idea, too.

 

I was wondering how you are using the stock fan on the 302/351 with out hitting the front cross member?
On my 55, the 302 sits too low to use the mechanical fan but I had tons of room from the water pump to the rad. for an electric fan. I'm running a T5 as a transmission and to get it to fit under the floor and have my carb level it ended up as above/below.

 

52 Merc, I am going to run a shroud around the fan and I was thinking the same thing about putting some custom sheet metal around the Rad to keep the air flow thru the Rad and not around it. I have a lathe so I will whip out a spacer and move the fan out a little. May also space the Radiator out just a little also.

CdnWillyG, I grafted a 78 Camaro front clip under my old truck, so I have plenty of room for the fan. After setting the cab today and moving my motor mounts up, I have about an inch between the firewall and heads on my 351W. Also looks like the C6 behind it is plenty low enough that I may not need the trans hump inside the cab.

 

If your putting a shroud on and moving the fan forward, I wouldn't sweat the air spilling around the radiator.

 

Lakotas53, you still maintained the front cross member as I did so I need to ask what did the 351 come out of and is it the original fan from it? I have about 4" clearance to the rad and have my 302 as high as was possible and the fan I have still has about 11" clearance which is good but the fan I have hits the bottom rad hose. The fan is only 9-1/4" from center to end of blade. I really wanted to go with a mechanical fan over the electric just to keep things clean under the hood.