Wow, that sucks! This just makes me want electric fans even more!

 

I also am sorry to hear and see this. But at least it's coolant and not blood.

 

X2. As usual, our King puts it all into perspective!

 

Well now thank you Sir Pat for noticing and for the compliment.

 

I put a jack (with 2x4) under the oil pan, and could have lifted the truck off the ground. Nothing moved. I put the jack under the trans and jacked that. The mount seemed to stretch, but it was lifting the truck too. So, now I'm not sure what went wrong?

In the meantime, anybody know of a good replacement rad for my Merc?

 

did you check play in water pump ?

 

It was kinda ironic this morning while surfing on the sheetter when this article was posted on HRM's website: When Bad Things Happen To Good Radiators & Electric Fans


Their principle theory doesn't hold up to your particular situation because the fan didn't overlap the radiator. However, some helpful insight on what can happen when good fans go bad.

 

Actually...... Looking at those pictures, I noticed I have those exact same marks on my upper tank, where the fan blades overlap the tank. Buuuuuuut, back in June when I noticed the blades had touched the core, there were no marks on the upper tank. Why now, after 15 years of working fine would it fail? It's a new water pump, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

HIO Silver thanks for posting that article. The static pressure info will help warn a lot of us.

 

I confirmed my water pump has no free play.

I've been shopping around for a new radiator, so far I've found:
1) Spectra rad/ plastic tanks, aluminum core/ $300 standard-$425 HD cooling
2) Griffin rad/ all aluminum/ $1000+ to get it here
3) get my current rad re-cored again/ $500

I found this company called Champion Radiators. They sell polished aluminum rads for our trucks, but at a relatively good price, $300-$500. I think that price is too good to be true. Anybody have any experience with them?

I'm also going to be converting the truck to electric fan(s).

 

There have been a few guys over in the Dent forum who went with a Champion rad. One recently found that it dropped right in with no issues. NPD sells them right out of their catalog.

If you're thinking of going with a two-speed Lincoln Mark VIII fan, know that it needs five inches of clearance in uncut form. The shroud can be trimmed a bit for shallower depth. No issues with my FE. My set up includes Volvo relays and two 40-amp breakers. It is controlled by the EFI ECU which generates a low voltage output programmable to whatever temps I choose.

 

Sorry to hear this has happend to such a nice truck. I know first hand the feeling of this occurring. As a kid, I did the same thing to my dad's '68 F100 Ranger back in the early '80s --revved the engine too high and the stock fan blades apparently bent back towards the radiator and gave it the same tattoo to the fins as what your radiator has. I made it right though by replacing the radiator and fan on my dime.

Champion is a Chinese made radiator but, overall, seems to get good reviews. Some people in the reviews talk about their particular radiator and how many "cores" it has. Radiators are made from different materials and various tube widths and number of rows but, no matter what the radiator is and no matter how many rows a radiator has, they all have only ONE CORE.

The core is the total, collective, area between the tanks.


Amazon

 

You don't really need to run such a aggressive pitch fan unless your having heating problems. The fan is really only needed for stop & go city driving.

Why not just run the oe clutch fan.

I've once tried one of those flex fans back in the 70's and hated the noise they make.
I ended up removing it when it did not cool any better then to oe clutch fan.

All while towing my boat.


And like said in earlier post they flex the ss metal will only do it for a number of times until cracking and let loose. I have seen (3) oe fans let go and hit the hood

And friends brother kill from being hit in the face by a fan blade.

Back in my teen days of street racing, I removed the fan from my 42 ford weekends.
I shut off the engine at every stop light so it wouldn't get hot until the light turned green.

I've been using a clutch fan since 1978 with never a heating issues even while living and light off roading in the desert with a cab o/camper.

I've been using the HD 390/460 radiator, and the hottest my engine has gotten 210* using a 180* thermostat while off roading when it was like air temp was 107-110

You'll need to use the matching clutch fan & water pump pulley for it to all work at cooling your engine tho. Plus better gas mileage IMO.

Orich

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

I only have 2.5" room between the water pump and rad, not enough room for a clutch fan, or Mark VIII fan. My plan is to use 2-12" fans. It does get hot here (for me), but nothing like what you guys get, so I've never had a problem keeping my engine cool. It runs between 160-170. The rad I just destroyed was a 3-row core. On Monday, I'll call the rad shop to check to see if maybe the price has changed to re-core my rad (yeah right ). Then I'll have to figure out the shipping and currency exchange for a Champion rad.
Right now I pay an extra $0.35-$0.40 on the US dollar, so a $350US rad is $470 + shipping for me.

 

Methinks you hit the brakes and the engine and transmission kept going. You jacked the engine and transmission up and down without problem but the issue is for and aft.
Methinks you should replace all three mounts.