Fan blades are close to top edge of radiator trans cooler...

I've got a 26" big block aluminum radiator and I placed it into position. I can barely get a finger between the space of my viscous fan blades and the top edge of the trans cooler. Is this a normal spacing?

Nope, thinner clutch necessary, or a thinner spacer. leading edged of the blades should be about half way into the shroud and I would say at least 1/2" back from the core.

Need a bit of room to get the air moving.

Can't tell from your pic, but I imagine getting the bolts in was a bear.

with a viscous fan the clutch itself is usually the closest thing to the radiator, not the blades?

The spacing from the radiator core itself seems to be fine. I've got about 1/2" of space between the clutch and core, and about 3/4" space between the blades and core.



But the space that I'm refering to is between the tip of the lowest blade and the top "shelf edge" of the rad cooler like in my first post. I can just barely squeeze a finger between the two.

ha, I thought that was the side not the bottom, I wasn't looking at it correctly!
The radiator is sitting all the way down and flush against the support all the way? Is it to be a direct fit or just a generic one?

It's sitting all the way down. It's supposed to be direct fit, but I would be interested to see what the spacing would be with a stock rad.

What kind of movement is to be expected with a motor? I assume if much movement it would be relative to the power it's producing?

as the engine torques over it would raise slightly, but if you let off suddenly it'd come back down.

Not sure what the factory spacing is supposed to be to core face.....however, I would never run with only 1/2" clearance to radiator. I used to engineer fan clutches and typical "rule of thumb" was 1" to core face and 1" tip clearance to anything underhood. Once you install the shroud your fan is going to be too deeply immersed leading to poor performance of the fan. Also, the clutch will engage much too soon as it
is getting radiant heat from the core face.