Well, finally got a coupla hours to work on the old truck. The PO had installed a rubegoldberg electric fan & shroud in front of the radiator. Took all that stuff off, and ran the truck a little, noticed the engine fan blows forward instead of pulling air into the engine compartment, well that's gotta hurt. Also, noticed the PO had taken the heater core(my truck doesn't have a heater) and rigged it up in front of the radiator, also notice he didn't hook up any transmission cooling lines from the automatic transmission. The existing radiator was of unknown origin, pretty beat up and had a coupla little leaks in the fins. Ordered a big honking 4 row radiator from BOTP with A/T & A/C(for the future) connections. Guess I'll wait til I get the radiator(coupla weeks) before I order a proper engine fan. And then I can remove the "heater" core, and hook up the trannie to the radiator. Also, probably get an electric fan to help when I get all the parts in so I can tell how much room I have. Probably end up putting it in front. I notice that the 302 sits so low in the engine compartment that the engine fan is about 1/3 off of the radiator on the bottom, and I don't have a shroud. Don't know how to solve the radiator to engine fan problem, any ideas out there?

 

Is there a tall water pump available for the 302? It seems like I remember a thread about something similar but I can't remember if it was for a Ford or a chevy engine.

From the sound of things, with the new radiator in place and the "custom" tranny cooler that the previous owner had set up removed you should be good, espcially after you fixed the electric fan.

Bobby

 

Jim -

I use an electric fan on the back of the radiator (as a puller) without a shroud. Works really well. It is temp switched using a kit from Hayden (p/n 3652) that I bought at Pep Boys.

 

The only thing that's keeping me from going to an electric fan as my primary is that BOTP (and somewhere else) warned me to not use an electric fan as the primary with a "4" row radiator, something about the fact that the rows might be "staggered" and the electric fan couldn't pull enough air through it. I'm gonna wait until I see the radiator to see if their staggered or not. If not, I'll use the electric as the primary with a temp sensor to turn it on and off.


Another thing I noticed is that the PO in installing the rubegoldberg shroud and fan in front cut out the cross brace between the upper halves of the radiator support. I've seen pics where originally Ford used a cross brace of rods to support the rad suppt. Anybody seen this?

 

Jim, Check out Snow White. I believe that they make a risor casting like the Zips's one that I have installed in my 49 with the sbc. As I remeber Snow White made them for both Ford and Cxxxy.

EDIT I just looked on their website. It looks like their setup for the 302/351 may just shorten the front of the engine while the sbc setup raises the waterpump like the Zip.s setup. I would call them and see if they do make a true waterpump risor setup for the 302/351. The risor setup that I have on the sbc cures the low fan engine friven fan problem and allows you to mount the engine low.

I wanted a mechanical driven fan setup because I want to tow up to 5000#. Their

There are a lot of guys running the electric fan setups and do just fine. (not necessarily towing anything heavy)

 

I googled "snow white" and didn't find it, can you post their "url"

 

Jim,
Google "snow white ltd"

 

In your avatar it looks like you have a '51-'52 truck. If so, the cross-brace is riveted across the sides of the radiator support, and is nothing special. Get a piece of 1"x1" angle iron and weld tangs on the ends to bolt into the rivet holes.

 

Well, I don't know Who told you that about that, but, I'm running a 4 Core Desert Radiator w/ 2 diagonally mounted 1,200cpu Electric Fans for my 400fpt/300hp 300 I-6 & the Temp Gauge hits dead Center after Warming up & has yet to read Any higher than that w/ a 195* Thermostat.
Though sometimes it regesters a tick cooler depending on what I'm doing & prior to that it Rarely left "C" when there wasn't a Thermostat being used.

 

Col Flashman, thanks for telling me about your experience, that makes me more confident that'll it work.

 

Yeah, I figured I'd just get some rod, cut to length, flatten and drill ends and bolt'er up.

 

Found it. I'll call them tomorrow and see if they still make the Ford "riser" unit.

 

I might have one laying about on an old radiator support. I can take a look if you like but it won't be until tomorrow evening. Let me know

Bobby

 

Bob, mine originally had a cross brace about a third of the way down from the top of the rad suppt. The PO cut it out but left the right and left ends, I'm sure because it is riveted in, and would be a bitch to take out. It was a piece that was "U" shaped in cross section with flat ends that were riveted to the rad suppt with two rivets at each end. I appreciate the offer but you'll have to do some work to get it off. I think I'll just take some rod stock, cut it to length, flatten and drill the ends, and install them in a cross pattern like I've seen on some 48-50 trucks. Thanks for the offer.

 

No problem.

It should be a fairly easy thing to fab up. Don't you just love PreviousOwners??

good luck with it
Bobby