Affect of Fan Shroud on Cooling?
 

How much affect does the fan shroud have on cooling the engine? Is it really neccessary, or would it make a noticeable difference to remove it? I just finished installing a new Modine 3-row radiator that's a little larger than the stock unit and I had to drill a hole through the fan shroud to attach it. It is secure and I'm not worried about it coming loose, but the new radiator is thicker and it doesn't leave much space to maneuver around the fan shroud when trying to remove the belt, etc. And it makes the engine compartment look a little crowded.

Fan shroud is very important and has a major affect on cooling effieciency.

You can try to run it without to see how it works on your application, but generally speaking, you should leave it.

Your car is going to overheat at idle without the fan shroud. Without the shroud, the fan will have to be aligned dangerously too close to the rad to work at all.

The best thing to do is get a "slim line" electric fan will a shroud biult in. This will free up some HP and make the engine bay look real nice. I have a black magic eletric on a fliudyne radiator. It works as good as it looks.

What they said!!!

MUY IMPORTANTE!

Flex-a-lite makes a dual 12" electric fan that is like 2" thick. Sounds like that would fit your application.

Yep, if you don't go electric keep the shroud, it primarily focuses on drawing the air through the radiator to cool the water and to draw fresh cooler air from the front of the car instead of when there is no shroud it would recycle the hot air coming off of the engine and the radiator would get no circulation, hence overheating!! Good Luck!:D

yea that shroud helps create a vacuum between the fan and the radiator so it only sucks air threw the radiator creating a very efficiant cooling

These gentlemen are completely correct. The fan shroud is extremely important in the cooling process. I lost a set of bearings on my brand new 393 due to the overheating caused by me not using a engine mounted fan and shroud. It was not fun. Get the shroud.

Thanks everyone.

Will the electric fans cool as well as the stock, belt-driven fan? Will they cause a charging problem if I'm running Underdrive Pulleys (I have a 140amp alt.)?

The electric fans will cool just as well. you will be fine with a 140 amp alternator. My opinion is that "hardwiring" a thermostatic fan is the best way. That it stays on for a few minutes after you shut your car off to cool it down if the temp is high enough.

gotta disagree...I replaced my black magic with a stock fan and shroud and ran 15 degrees cooler with the same fluidyne radiator...the black magic shroud does not cover the whole radiator; the only cooling you get outside of the shroud is whatever air is forced through at speed. The black magic is rated to 225hp...since i'm running 600hp this should work just fine for lower power levels. It's all relative to your combination.

DirtKing's right, I talked to Black Magic people when I was having my cooling problems and they basically told me that it was my bad for buying a fan that's rated up to 350HP on a 302 for a bigger engine that makes more power. Wasn't ahppy about that.

black magic is crap i have a single flexalit unit inside of the stock shroud that pulls more than double the air of a black magic the black magic looks good and fits easy but isnt made for serious horse power I also have a manual over ride switch so i can turn the fan on early if i know im going to be driving it hard or getting into traffic/ I'm thinking of doing a dual set up inside of the stock shroud ( i need to get a camera so i can post picks i have a twin turbo and was running the stock fan and ussing this fan as a pusher mounted on the front of the rad my stock fan broke so i put the little electric 12" inside and it has been running great. about 2 months now and i havent had a overheating problem ford 3 core rad 180 thermistat nothing high tech

oh yeah dyno ed at 650 on pump gas boost set up for the street.

balckmajic sucks...ford oem is da bomb..need to get and installa sn95, mark8, or v-6 tourus fan and riud your cooling prblems and frew up some hp