Norcal69's Common Sense Build.

Be very careful when trimming fans. I don't endorse it what so ever. Nothing worse than a wife coming home to a dead man. I've had a water pump fail and the fan took out a lot of stuff before leaving a large hole in the hood.

DANGER IN A FAN BLADE IN SOME OLDER GENERAL MOTORS PICKUPS, A FLEXIBLE BLADE CAN BREAK APART AND FLY OFF. DOZENS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HURT; SOME HAVE DIED. BUT THE AUTOMAKER, CITING A "MINUSCULE FAILURE RATE," REFUSES TO ISSUE A RECALL.

 

X2 on the Champion radiator. I have the wider one in my Dauntless powered '69 with the matching fan shroud from partsdude4x4. Nice stuff that cools great. It's worth finding the later wide shroud grill to run the bigger radiator or at least fabbing something up.

 

The HD flex fans are allot beefier than standard flex fans and move much more air.
I was very careful when trimming the fan to ensure that all the blades ended up the same. After trimming and sanding I placed the fan on a flat surface to ensure that the blades were equal height.
With every modification..... use common sense.

 

There is allot of information left out of that article and If one were to write the same article about CJ5's it would likely sound far worse in injury numbers.
As far as the primary injured at the beginning of the article, what we do know is that it was a 15 yr old pickup at the time and of 1977 ish manufacture. The injured claims he was "tuning" the engine. Had the truck ever been wrecked? Had the fan ever struck, scraped, bent. What about the rust/salt that is so common in the eastern United States.
What RPM was the truck turning when the fan came apart? Did he zing it off 6k a few times to clear the carb out? Was the factory fan shroud still in place?
What RPM was the GM factory fan proofed to?
The Fan that I trimmed is guaranteed to 10K rpm. 5k,6k,7k, ect..... is a whole lot more stress on a fan than the 4500 max rpm that I will ever wind my odd fire.

 

I picked up a second Ram Mount for the passenger side. This one is magnetic so the passenger can store their phone wherever needed.

 

It looked like you were very careful. Just putting the disclaimer out since common sense and hard work are hard to find and there are better alternatives. There are people that follow the leader without fully understanding what they are doing and could get themselves or others hurt.
That article I referenced was a quick search result and didn't have all the details I remember. It's mostly to understand that it is a danger to be aware of. I did some college stuff on these fans and the dodge caravan 3rd rows that ejected with passengers when t-boned.

I'll respectfully enjoy the rest of your work, but understand I can either say something when I feel there is an opportunity for serious injury or I can look the other way. I've had 3 people get hurt from items I've engineered professionally. None followed the warnings.

 

I get it and I do appreciate your concern. I assume that trimmed or untrimmed your choice would be to avoid a flex fan at all cost. To each their own.
If I were running high RPM I would not even consider trimming it. I have seen solid fans come apart in racing applications a number of times. Those all involved high RPM, some in crashes and some just under load. I have no problem or concern running a flex fan.
There is inherent risk in anything you do.... and I am more concerned for the guys running original fans from the 60's on their jeeps. Rust between the pieces, stress cracks, slight bends...
It really is something to think about no matter the design of the fan being used.

 

I think we are on the same page: kids don't do this at home trained professionals at play.

I have a 14" flex-a-lite on mine. Couldn't afford anything else at the time of the 3.3l swap (2011ish). I modified the radiator to clear. In 2020 Just before the tbi swap i made a sheetmetal shroud around the fan and changed the crank to an Overdrive pulley.

 

That is exactly what I was describing when I said I was more worried about guys running OE fans from the 60's.

 

I can't tell you how much this discussion has revived an old memory and probably saved me from re-living it...
My original fan broke in 1990 while on the highway near Stillwater, ok. The blade slammed into the hood put a huge dent in it and the motor felt like it was going to fly to pieces until I could get stopped on the shoulder. I limped the jeep home to my apartment in Stillwater. I had to find a replacement fan blade at the local junkyard. I found one on a 57 Buick.

I am STILL running that blade from 1957!

Anyway Thank You Kyle for opening my eyes. I just ordered a new Delare fan on amazon.

This just goes to show you what seems like posting minor changes on this forum may help someone out a lot!

 

I'm going with the wide grill on my '65 build, I got from Partsdude Sam, at the time he had a pallet of the wide radiators. Now, no, and Champion is indefinitely backed up. I'm about to steal one out of one of his Jeepsters. Moral of the story (for 2021) is if you see it, grab it.

 

Just a few final pre trip touches to the jeep.
Under extreme stuffing the front tire tread would catch the fender lips. I was constantly bending them back in, tires were getting chewed up...... it was making me crazy!
A couple XJ bumpstops OMIX p/n: 18280.09 fit the bill perfectly. This is the ultimate bump stop because it is almost entirely rubber and can be shortened to whatever length desired. All other XJ/jeep stops are metal about half way through which prevents cutting.

Full Stuff:




Full stuff on the forklift.

 

A little follow up to the fan/cooling situation.
Last week we had several days over 100. Wednesday it was 108 when I got off work. Of course I'm crazy and drove the jeep to do my irrigation.......
I let let the jeep idle for about 1/2 hr checking on it every now and again just to make sure the temp didn't run away on me.
Here is the jeep after idling for 1/2 hr in 108 degree heat.

 

What is the height from ground to tire ? seem real nice. I got about 33" with my coil spring set-up.

 

And when you ride it how the temp ?

 

I measured it a while back, it was nearly 28" I think.

While driving the temp stays pretty much the same.

 

Nice, happy that you got rid of the problem. I like to ride the jeep and forget about the gauge because of that situation.

 

Sooooo..........those Omix bump stops......could measure the spacing of the mounting bolts for me? My poly stops fell of my 5 (deteriorated after 25ish years). They were Rancho units that I bought with my 2.5" lift. No idea how tall they were but they mounted to metal spacer brackets. Just trying to figure what I'd have to do to make these work (lose the spacers, drill new holes in the spacers, etc., etc.).

Thanks

 

I don't have the measurements, but they area a little wider hole spacing than the stock CJ bump stops. There is enough material to slot the holes in the stop and use the original holes in the frame. I did them on my '71. Here's the post where you can see the hole spacing difference: 71 Wheeling Rig