My 68 Satellite 318 to 383 swap is coming along at a decent pace, might be on the road by the end of August

I've been researching all morning on electric fan setups and I still don't know if I should go that route or stick with buying a nice fan and fan clutch... My 383 will put out about 400hp at the crank and unfortunately my budget as of yet does not allow for a new rad or a re-coring of my 22" stock radiator. The radiator worked great with the 318 no leaks, no issues, nice n cool. But I'm sure this 383 is gonna put it to the test! Also unfortunately when I got the 383 it didn't come with a fan or fan clutch

So my dilemma is since I can't purchase a real nice expensive electric dual fan setup... Is there an electric fan setup that would mount up to my 22" radiator with little fab work and still cool the big block? Should I stick with the stock setup and purchase a fan and fan clutch? Should I take the time save up some dough and have my perfectly functioning rad re-cored to a 3 row? If I have my 22" rad re-cored which setup would be best?

Thanks in advance and thanks for all the help you cats have given me with my past issues,
Atom

Try the stock stuff first. If it doesn't work then do something about it.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Agreed. Green coolant. 180 Superstat.

Apples to Oranges here, but this may help you out:

I was given an electric fan out of an Omni so I fabbed it up to work in my daily driver, a 6000 pound, 4 wheel drive Ram with big tires, a 360, huge A/C condenser and oil coolers in front of the rad. So far, in 75 degree weather the fan is never needed at speeds above 20mph. Around town with a few stoplights I will turn the fan on (which does not suck near as much air as some of the new vehicles)for a few minutes and everything is fine.

If that puny little fan can keep that big thing cool, then I think you should be ok going a similar route with your build.

Wiring them in is a little bit tricky, but you will thank yourself in the end. There is a number of reasons why the manufactures have gone this route on all of their vehicles (including pick-ups), such as better fuel mileage, quieter running down the road and you are not turning a dead-weight steel fan that eventually ruins that little bearing on the water pump shaft.

I've had a couple Roadrunner 383 cars with 22" radiators, no problems if eveything's in good shape, but not much cooling left over. Fan shroud & overflow tank are worth doing. Several guys here are running the Chevy HHR electric fan & shroud setup on their 22" radiators, which are on Ebay for around $50 if you look around.

We have a 400 in my sons Dart that was a 318 ac car. Put the stock 318 rad , fan and shroud on the bigblock. We did recore the rad as it was clogged and added a row but that thing cools awesome. I mean in 95 degree days stuck in traffic it never goes over 195. Normal traffic and normal driving it runs 170 to 180.
Now my 63 has a 440 in it and I put an aluminum rad in it but it had no shroud. So I use the stock setup but I added an electric fan in front of the rad as a pusher to run in traffic if I need it. I put it on a toggle switch and just turn it on if I get stuck in traffic as I never need it otherwise.
But I would do as others have said and try the 318 rad and fan. You can always add an electric fan like I did or have the rad recored. Here is the setup in my 63. Good luck , Ron

Better pic of electric fan which I wired as a pusher fan. But I dont have to turn it on much at all. Its nice backup when if stuck in traffic and I see the temp creep up to 205 that I flip the switch and in a few minutes it s back down to 185 while still sitting in traffic. Ron

Anyone ever thought of useing a PT cruiser electric fan.I had one laying around in a box and started measuring it and it should be a good fit for a 22" rad in a B body...

use a 7 blade clutch fan, you'll never miss the 2 or 3 HP it uses, it will cool a mild big block just fine with your 22" radiator and you wont have any space issues with a stock-type water pump and radiator.

with all the wiring and space issues, electric fans arent worth the hassle, especially if you havent upgraded your electrical system (which it sounds like you didnt) I tried twin SPAL puller fans on my mild 440, they didnt cool any better than my stock fan and always ran the battery down

I'd offer my spare big factory clutch fan but it's bigger than the 22" radiator.

I'm going to dig around the shop and see if I can find a fan and clutch... Problem is the shop and storage sheds are my pops and he doesn't keep anything in order and now all our small block stuff is mixed in with what little big block stuff we have

Maybe this is a dumb question but is there a way I can tell visually which is a big block fan and big block fan clutch without having to run all the numbers? How many blades would be good enough to cool my 383 6 blades?

Thanks in advance and for all the great previous tips/info,
Atom