Extra Front fan mounting

[Joseph Adamek]

Hi,

I have a 71 Challenger that I'm looking to mount an extra electric fan in front of the radiator just behind the grille. Has anyone else done this and if so, do you have any pictures that you can Post please?

I have an idea of where and how I want to mount it, just looking for some other ideas maybe.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Ricks72Chlgr440]

Joe, I assume you are having overheating problems? Mounting another fan may not help your issue and actually may cause more problems because it restricts airflow.

 

[sixpactogo]

I agree with the above statement. You really need to figure out what is causing the issue. Do you by chance have an underdrive serpentine belt system? It seems like we can never leave well enough alone with what the factory gave us. I had to learn those lessons the hard way too. It costs a lot of money trying to re-invent the wheel.
What system do you have at this time?

 

[Joseph Adamek]

I agree with the above statement. You really need to figure out what is causing the issue. Do you by chance have an underdrive serpentine belt system? It seems like we can never leave well enough alone with what the factory gave us. I had to learn those lessons the hard way too. It costs a lot of money trying to re-invent the wheel.
What system do you have at this time?

I agree with you but it's not a "standard" 440. It has a 512 stroker kit with large headers and dual electric fans. I did install a serpentine setup on the front. I can't run a shroud because there is just not enough room to put one. I really only need the front fan when I'm in stop and go traffic, that's when the temp starts to rise too much, so I only want to turn it on in those cases.

 

[sixpactogo]

Joe, The reason I asked about the serpentine set-up is because I went down that same rabbit hole with my 6 pack Challenger back in the late 80's. I installed a March Performance serpentine on my stock 440 because it looked neat and immediately started having heating problems in stop and go traffic. No issues on the road. While sitting in line waiting to get into the Mopar Nats I had the heater on full roar and my feet were roasting trying to keep the needle from going out of sight. I had a new Glen Ray 3 row radiator with a thermo clutch 18" fan and shroud. It got so hot under the hood, it melted the red caps on my battery. I tried water wetter, a Bee Kool water pump and the electric fan in front all to no avail. I finally figured out it was the underdrive pulleys on the crank and the water pump causing my issues. The serpentine guys do that because smaller pulleys robs less horsepower supposedly and it probably does. However, what happens is at idle the water pump is not moving enough coolant back to the radiator causing the coolant to stay in the engine too long. The factory did their due diligence giving us the correct combination of circulation needed to keep things cool. We go and mess up the works by adding components that refuse to work together as a team. I ended up re-installing the factory pulleys and belts and my heat issues were gone. Another thing I noticed was my amp gauge stayed in the middle at idle with the lights on instead of a slight discharge once I went back to the factory stuff. The extra fan may help cool the radiator but not the coolant in the engine.

 

[Bret Schneider]

I agree with you but it's not a "standard" 440. It has a 512 stroker kit with large headers and dual electric fans. I did install a serpentine setup on the front. I can't run a shroud because there is just not enough room to put one. I really only need the front fan when I'm in stop and go traffic, that's when the temp starts to rise too much, so I only want to turn it on in those cases.

You might want to consider a fan controller that can adjust the speed of your existing cooling fans depending on the engine temp.
There's a lot of good and not so good suggestions/ideas on the Internet but I would suggest talking to someone who builds them.
There's a company in Iowa that builds the controllers. The guy that operates it used to be a developmental engineer at Spal Fans. He knows his stuff. I called him with a technical question once and got a call back within 15 minutes. Maybe give them a call and explain what you have going on.

Pre Programmed Fan PWM Controller [PWM Controller] – Creative Werks Inc.

 

[Ricks72Chlgr440]

I agree with you but it's not a "standard" 440. It has a 512 stroker kit with large headers and dual electric fans. I did install a serpentine setup on the front. I can't run a shroud because there is just not enough room to put one. I really only need the front fan when I'm in stop and go traffic, that's when the temp starts to rise too much, so I only want to turn it on in those cases.

I too have a 512 stroker and 1 7/8" headers. Also using a cvf racing serpentine kit with air conditioning. I got the high flow waterpump pulley with stewart components 180* high flow stat to ensure good flow. I am running the flowkooler pump and a 6 blade mech fan with shroud.

 

[sixpactogo]

I'm betting dollars to donuts your serpentine system is an underdrive unit as well. More than likely the cause of over heating at idle. What size is your crank pulley?