My son and I are just completing a 1986 K10, rebuilt 350. Wondering about radiator cooling. He is 16 and his first vehicle. We've been thinking about an electric fan, but wondering about reliability, especially with short driving experience and keeping up with over heating, etc., or should we just go with the stock fan and shroud? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
E-Fans Both are good although you'll hear a lot from folks who simply don't understand . An E-Fan run via a relay and wired live , is the way to go as it allows you to delete the stock fan & should , freeing up a few HP and reducing noise considerably . Use the biggest fan that'll fit and no , pusher fans are NOT less efficient . Plus , by wireing it live , it'll come on a few moments after you've parked & locked the truck on hot days or after a hard run and cool things down , reducing underhood " heat Soak ", this is a very good thing indeed . I personally , like to re-core the stock radiator using the widest core that'll squeeze in (more rows of tubes) as this way , the thermostat does all the temperature coltrol work as it's supposed to , not having the marginal stock radiator mandated by GM's bean counters , be working overtime and barely keeping up . That's my story , backed by years of real world experiance and I'm sticking with it .
I agree with what vwnate1 has said but I like the clutch fans set up but like to run a E-fan for cool down, to help the reduce underhood Heat Soak down . ( puller fan I like the most if you have room helps cool the fan motor to ) I used two relays in tandam to save the switch perlong the relays. With the clutch fan depending on your set up size rad 5 blade fan or 7 blade fan is what you want.
Looking At Your Avatar ; I got to thinking to-day as I was perusing the aisles @ Pick-A-Part ~ there's scads of good 454 engines in there as no one can afford to feed them anymore . Last time I bought an engine there , fan to clutch it was only $350 Sadly , few InLine 6 bangers .
