Yes, it's another electric fan post.
Why am I asking about an electric fan? Because my new radiator just ate another new fan. In November I hit a deer while driving home from work, there;s a thread on it somewhere I think. The deer smashed the hood into the radiator shroud, killing the shroud and the fan. I've replaced the hood, nosepiece, radiator, shroud, and cooling fan. The radiator wasn't leaking, but I went ahead and replaced it with an aluminum ebay unit. When the deer hit it also pushed the upper radiator support back, which placed the radiator closer to the fan. The fan was lightly hitting the retainers for the top bleeder hose even after adjusting the upper radiator support as far as i could (short of using a very large hammer). I replaced the engine mounts, and that seemed to give me enough clearance, but a few days later while a few miles from home the fan caught the bleeder hose brackets and ripped two blades off and dented up the new radiator.
The point of that story is that I have tried to fix the car using the correct parts, but it's not working. To start from scratch and fix it right, unbending that which is bent, would likely cost more than the car is worth. As I am short on time and funds (due to having bought a house and not yet having sold the old one) I think the best option is to abandon the stock setup and use an electric fan. I do not intend to use the auxiliary fan for this purpose, as it was not designed to handle the entire cooling load and it's nearly twenty years old.
What I need is suggestions on what fan would work well and fit, whether to integrate the fan into the stock shroud or obtain a different type shroud, what thermostat switch to use, etc. Basically, if someone has done it, I'd like to know how they did it. Keep in mind, the radiator and thermostat are new, and I'm running a Stewart water pump with less than 3000 miles on it. I'd like to keep the project under $200, but it will not be a hack job.
If you have suggestions on how I could feasibly retain the stock setup I will hear them, but as I said my funds are limited at this time and I can't afford to buy a new shroud and set of fan blades every 3 months.
Why am I asking about an electric fan? Because my new radiator just ate another new fan. In November I hit a deer while driving home from work, there;s a thread on it somewhere I think. The deer smashed the hood into the radiator shroud, killing the shroud and the fan. I've replaced the hood, nosepiece, radiator, shroud, and cooling fan. The radiator wasn't leaking, but I went ahead and replaced it with an aluminum ebay unit. When the deer hit it also pushed the upper radiator support back, which placed the radiator closer to the fan. The fan was lightly hitting the retainers for the top bleeder hose even after adjusting the upper radiator support as far as i could (short of using a very large hammer). I replaced the engine mounts, and that seemed to give me enough clearance, but a few days later while a few miles from home the fan caught the bleeder hose brackets and ripped two blades off and dented up the new radiator.
The point of that story is that I have tried to fix the car using the correct parts, but it's not working. To start from scratch and fix it right, unbending that which is bent, would likely cost more than the car is worth. As I am short on time and funds (due to having bought a house and not yet having sold the old one) I think the best option is to abandon the stock setup and use an electric fan. I do not intend to use the auxiliary fan for this purpose, as it was not designed to handle the entire cooling load and it's nearly twenty years old.
What I need is suggestions on what fan would work well and fit, whether to integrate the fan into the stock shroud or obtain a different type shroud, what thermostat switch to use, etc. Basically, if someone has done it, I'd like to know how they did it. Keep in mind, the radiator and thermostat are new, and I'm running a Stewart water pump with less than 3000 miles on it. I'd like to keep the project under $200, but it will not be a hack job.
If you have suggestions on how I could feasibly retain the stock setup I will hear them, but as I said my funds are limited at this time and I can't afford to buy a new shroud and set of fan blades every 3 months.