MTFCA Forum

I have a 1927 roadster pickup. It has a 1920 engine but it has the 1927 water outlet that is adjustable for the belt. I replaced the fan pulley and bushing with the updated ball bearing and pulley today. The fan is now 2.5 inches from the radiator. Should I put a spacer to get the fan closer to the radiator and how close does the fan need to be to the radiator?
Phillip
Nashville TN

If you used the new alum pulley with the late style fan blades, the distance should be much closer. My 27 fan is 1/2" off the face of the radiator, measuring from the closest cutting edge of the blades.

You may have the two row core radiator These were used for a while in 26 or 27. A special longer nose pulley was needed with these radiators.

I have a 1924 Speedster that I can drive without the fan as long as I am not sitting still. You have a roadster, so I assume you do not really need the fan because you have a light car. The fan will help moving air through the radiator even if it is 2+ inches away. How well does your radiator cool? Are you having cooling problems? If not, just plan a future project to move the fan a little closer.

As long as I am moving it runs cool. On a hot day with driving around town in mostly stop it gets hot. Cools off when get back on road at about 30 MPH. Sitting still it get hot even when I run the rpms up. I removed the water pump because it leaks and I wanted to try without the pump. Has a recently redone radiator.
Phillip

If it doesn’t actually boil, I wouldn’t worry about it

Phillip,
To paraphrase a historic statement...
"How hot is hot"?
Does the radiator boil over?
I have a '15 Touring with a 4-5 year old Brassworks radiator, and yes..my engine gets "hot" in stop and go driving -with a fan...the engine will cool down as soon as I drive a few minutes about 30 mph.
I have a motometer. The red liquid stays below the small circle in the face while driving....the engine gets "hot" in stop and go traffic - "hot" being the red stuff rises into the little circle almost to the top. I think that's "normal" for me....

How do YOU define hot ?

I have a motometer and the red gets all the way to the top and steam would come out the overflow when going slow in low and stopping at red lights on a hot day, it would cool to the lower part of the motometer when I got so I could run about 30 MPH for a few minutes. I also have an infrared thermometer and the reading at the water outlet got up to 240 with steam and water coming out the over flow and that is when I stopped the engine. It was running about 1000 to 1200 RPMs. (???) The last was while running in my shop and I had made sure it had antifreeze and a cooling additive. I am thinking that the fan is too far from the radiator to get enough air to keep it cool when not moving. I plan to install a spacer tomorrow and give it a try.

Phillip

Phillip: Check to see if your radiator is a old Ford 2 row core, many were used on base model roadsters. They used a longer fan bracket to make up for the thinner core, you should look for one of these and try it. Ron Patterson posted a picture back in a 2015 Forum. I riposted it here if all goes well. Ford went back to the regular radiator as the 2 row only worked OK in cooler northern locations.

The pulley I removed looked like the one on top. The new pulley with ball bearings looks like the bottom. I installed a 2" spacer and boy can you feel the air going into the radiator. With the old pulley you could barely feel the air going into the radiator. I ran it in the shop for about 15 minutes and the temp ranged from about 190 at the rear of the head to 210/230 at the water outlet. At the outlet the temp would go up and down some. Radiator temp about 180. I think I got it whipped just before it whipped me.

PS
The radiator one row of tubes that are flat, 1" wide 18"' long and with 36 tubes. Is this the proper radiator?