so noticed i been having a loud squeak at idle thought i had a bad belt, never checked it just drove it. found out last night my squeak which was accompanied by a slight smell of coolant was really the bearings going out in the water pump, this mess somehow wobbled enough that it put my flex fan through my radiator and threw the belts where ever. once the fan hit the radiator it snapped the bolts out of the front of the water pump. so now i need new belts, radiator, water pump and possibly new hoses. this thing is a beater. a radiator new for this truck is 175, i don't want to put that kind of money into it. i figure i can go to a bone yard with my pressure test kit and find something decent. my question is with an inline six what all radiators can i make fit? is there something other than ford trucks i should be looking at? is it possible to make something out of say a GM or jeep fit? is there a good vehicle to rob an electric fan assembly out of and eliminate the mechanical set up? i have no problem getting creative with this thing in fact really if i am gonna drop 200 bucks on this truck it better be an improvement over stock. i am sure someone here has already had fun with this idea before. now keep in mind it is a 300 six in the truck.

 

I personally would stick with the mechanical fan setup. Unless you junkyard-source every component, I think these repairs will cost more than $200. But not much more! The water pump can be bought for less than $100, and a new radiator can be bought for probably around $130: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-radiator.html

 

i can get a new tfw pump for under 25 dollars thats not my problem, don't want to spend between 160 and 180 on a rad. i was gonna junk source all parts for the electric fan except the thermal switch to turn them on and a auxilary fuse holder. i was thinking of getting two units from say a mid to late 80s camaro and mount them side by side on a home built frame the wire them on the same power supply to a thermal switch. from my slight research the mid 80s gm truck rad will fit height wise, the width and the hose connections are different but i have a full gates hose book and a mig welder i can work around that. if i could say get a good used 4 core out of a heavy duty gm and do the dual cooling fans on say a 160 degree switch this thing would never heat up. i was looking for suggestions if anyone has tried anything like this before and if anyone has a preference on what to pull parts from. figure if i am already in deep i might as well turn it into a fun project.

 

I didn't read all of your posts as line after line of lower case with no capitalization is difficult to comprehend, and I try to spend my time where I'm the most effective. But, if you are talking about installing electric fans on one of these trucks you'd better also plan to upgrade the alternator.

 

sorry didn't want to appear like i was yelling at anyone with caps locks, didn't realize post was a bit long winded to read. good point on the alternator, kinda underpowered to start with then i wanna go add on double electric fans. so what do you suggest there?

 

All caps would be yelling. Normal English grammar isn't yelling.

It sounds like you want to save money while at the same time improving on stock Ford design. These may be conflicting goals.

 

I'd look into replacing or repairing your radiator support before anything else.

A Lincoln or Taurus/Sable would make a good fan donor.
They move a LOT of air and would have all the Harness, fuses, relays and controller you would need.

There are many threads on doing a 130A 3G alternator swap from a Taurus or other Ford.
Look in the stickies at the top of this '80-'86 section.

 

What you need to do is go to the junkyard and find a truck with a six in it, and pull the radiator and the stuff you need out and install it in yours. That would be the most cost effective solution. There is nothing wrong with the stock setup, and I am not so sure your flex fan did not cause this whole mess. I have personally had a flex fan fly apart on me, and co-worker had one fly apart on him and go through his radiator, and plenty of people on the web have had the same thing happen to them.

Some junkyards take the radiators out and put them in a old school bus or building. Just make sure you know what you are looking for, and take the cap off at the junkyard and look down inside. If you see a bunch of white deposits, pass on that one and look for another.