1950 M68 w/239 flathead - mostly stock under the hood at first glance.


Well we sorted through last month's issue with the starter - found it was the spring not holding the Bendix in place on an incline - several contributors helped us through that. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...n-incline.html


Now that's done, having run it a bit it's obvious the fan bearing is shot. Lots of noise there.


Wondering about going with an electric fan as a replacement? We're all wired for that with the 12V conversion so its a relatively easy swap out, and with the fan shroud now cut in half so the top part can be easily removed it's not a big deal to go through the swap.


Does a good electric fan work as well as the original version, and are there any reasons not to go there, other than the "not-stock" thing of course?

 

They work as well or better as long as it is a good one and set up properly

 

Belt driven fan pulls a lot of HP from the engine...especially if it does not have a clutch. Electric fans draw considerable current which is usually not a problem as long as you have a decent alternator/battery combo. With an electric fan you can monitor the temp and turn it on/off when needed. All my cars/trucks have electric fans...much easier to install and operate. That said, we had a 2000 Lincoln LS that had a hydraulic fan...there was a pump that looked just like a power steering pump on the engine whose sole purpose was to getting hydraulic pressure to spin the fan. Must of been one of the weird features that Ford bought when they bought out Jaguar.

 

All the parts for the stock bearing are available, and it's really a pretty bulletproof setup IF you oil it. How many electric fans last 60 years?

 

Isn't there also an improved replacement that uses sealed bearings? If mine ever goes out, that's probably what I will pick up.

Edit: Here it is - https://www.bobdrake.com/FordItem.aspx?Item=21A-8600-K

 

Bingo! You gotta oil them.

 

I have mixed thoughts on that. It's a good idea, but it's a non-serviceable part. If the (chinese?) bearings wear out, it's a throwaway, from what I see anyway. Nice to have an alternative tho.

 

Hey Dave,
We went the electric fan route. The normal set up is to have temp. sensors
hooked up to a high voltage relay ... running your electric fan. We couldn't get
that complicated approach to work well so we just put a **** on the dash you
pull out to run the fan. If your fan pulls a lot of current you will need a heavy
duty modern alternator.

We went with an electric fan for (2) basic reasons - we didn't have room for the
mechanical fan with our 351W & we needed more cooling power in Texas. We went
to the junk yard & got a 4000 cfm fan off of a V8 Tbird. A lot of folks run the dual Taurus electric fans.

Good luck over there.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1 351W/AOD

 

Thanks everyone - opinions both ways. My biggest concern with the electric fan is that we stayed with a rebuilt generator instead of swapping over to an alternator (because we couldn’t find anything except a big shiny alternator that did not look original). So we may have an issue with powering a fan if I read some of this advice correctly.

As far as oiling and maintaining it, the truck sat in a barn in northern Alberta from about 1972 until 2015, so I’m actually surprised as much of it worked as well as it did when we started turning things over. No doubt a couple more things will show up as we get it on the road.

 

Dave, I am running an electric fan in my '50 for the same reasons Ben is.

The only thoughts I have is knowing whether it is working or not. I did wire a pilot light on the dash to indicate power to it but that still doesn't assure it is always working. That said , it hasn't failed after 6 years. I wired mine to ignition run but in hind sight should maybe have gone with hot all times.

My setup is on a 5.0 EFI.

 

A good previous discussion, also for a flat V8: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...oling-fan.html

 

Have decided to stay with the original fan, new bearings. I want it to look as original as possible under the hood, and since we went to some lengths to keep the shroud, and having talked to a couple of people I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try to run an electric fan on the a generator, so it makes sense to try the original approach first. Also, we get at most a handful of days with heat over 85, so I’m going with the notion of “good enough for my grandfather, good enough for me”. At least for now

 

Thats quite a thread - thank you for sharing.

 

Dave, Glad to see you staying with the stock fan setup. My 1951 flathead is stock and never overheated during our +30C days this summer in Saskatchewan. The 1951 stock flathead ran cooler than the stock 272 Y-block in the 1956.
I was at the farm this weekend do and found my dad's flathead spare parts stash. There was an aircleaner, carburetor, starter, generator, fuel pump, coil, regulator, and cylinder head.

Tien

 

Hi Tien - we are so far down the road that it would be a disruption to switch now, and in fact as you say I think we'll be fine with the original fan setup. We have very few 30+ days here - perhaps two this year.


That parts stash might just be of interest - the generator and starter are already redone now, but the carb, and fuel pump might be of interest. But wouldn't they be of good for your '51? I'm assuming that's the 239 still?