I'm sure this has been discussed before,but searches aren't comming up with much,so I apologize if it's been beaten to the ground.How's the aluminum radiators with electric fans doing with these mopar big blocks?
I would think it helps in more ways than one.What's everybody using? I saw this on ebay,what do you think?
I'm thinking of it for my 383 70 RR.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Plymouth-...=item439e87c292

On my 440 i use a stock mopar 22" rad with factory 18" clutch fan and factory shroud. Runs 185 to 190 on hottest summer days. I got my rad from US Radiator in AZ. USA made.#348.00 Copper/brass just like orignal. Looks identical to factory mopar rad.

For simplicity on my 69 GTX I keep the stock clutch fan 7 blade set up. Griffin aluminium 2 row 1 inch tubes stock shroud. 493 stroker, 11.4 compression, pump gas, 4000 stall converter 3.73 gears. 10.80s on drag radials and NEVER goes over 190 in any driving in south FL. One less thing to worry about.

stock fan good 3 core or 4 core rad will work fine.

That being said, I chose to run electrics a long time ago due to a couple of lost rads due to the stock fans.

None of the aftermarket fans seem to do very well compared to a stock fan.

So go pick up an oem one. Either from the parts house or the junk yards.

The current grouping of electrics start out with the HHR fans, ford t-bird and cougar fans, and work their way around to the dual fan setup on the 90's maxima's.
I run one from a mercedes of some sort because feets got some that were being thrown out from work.

Stock rads work fine, but since I had to upgrade mine, I used a dual pass aluminum one. The catch there is both the inlet and outlet have to be on the same side.

I'm not sure about the radiator, but those fans are a joke. They won't cool worth a hoot, I can promise you that.
Like what the other guys said, use a stock fan and shroud. Shroud is most important.

I don't think ANY combination of aluminum radiator and electric fan will cool better than the stock radiator and mechanical fan w/ shroud set-up. that is...and still fit under the hood.

the mechanical fans will move WAY MORE AIR than an electric fan ever will...that's why they take up so much more Hp to turn than an electric fan. and apparently, brass has a better heat transfer rate than aluminum does, so more air and better heat transfer means that if all is working well, it should work BETTER than any aftermarket set-up.

so...before you start throwing money at parts, be sure you actually have a problem. are you SURE you are overheating? or is your gauge inaccurate? factory gauges can be misleading, especially since they don't even have temp numbers on them, just "C and H" use a quality gauge or thermometer to verify operating temps.

if you find that you really do have a problem start with the basics...is your thermostat opening all the way? is your radiator plugged up? are the rotors on the back of the water pump corroded away? is the lower hose sucking shut? (probably not the issue if it happens in town at low RPM)

then move on to verify that the radiator core is not plugged...remove it and have it back flushed, or better yet, have them boil it out to clean it. or...just have it recored or replaced if you find it doesn't flow well enough.

if all the stock parts are in place and working as they should, you should never overheat, even on a hopped up engine.

for what it's worth, though, my set-up on the big block Dakota is the stock single core, 1" wide aluminum radiator that's a cross flow design, the core is huge though, (its for a truck!) at 22x24. I'm using an electric fan out of a jeep liberty that I got on a deal from Jaime when his dealership was doing a recall on them and getting them from Mopar at dirt cheap prices...it's 19" diameter, and moves a TON of air!! he showed me on his, that the fan blades actually "suck in" 3/8" or so when they start spinning, and he said to be sure to give it enough clearance so it didn't hit the core when it spun up. my big block has a 160 degree stat, and once the fan kicks on at 185, the temps will drop immediately down to 170 where the fan shuts off...this is while not driving, so there is no air movement outside of what the fan is moving.

I'm happy with it.

where do you buy the clutch fans??? they are hard to find

I dont know! never shopped for one, I'd try the restoration parts houses...or swap meets, the online classifieds here, ebay, etc.

holy cow what a ton of misinformation. the electric fans will do fine to a cool a muscle car. i had similar fans on my 440 set to turn on at 215 and shut off at 180. worked like a dream, most of the time the fans were off and only kicked on while sitting in traffic. i had them bolted with a custom bracket to my aluminum radiator and it was cooling a 650 hp 440.

actually yes they were similar to the ones in the auction. i bought them at autozone. they were two 12" fans and i mounted them on a 26" rad. i had no problems with cooling. maybe i just got lucky, i don't know. but electric fans do work. are there better ones out there sure. i would get something that flows at least 2500 cmf. the taurus fan seems to be a popular upgrade and can be bought at the junkyard.
heres a pic of my setup you can just see it in front of the serpentine belt setup running a reverse rotation waterpump.

Don't bother with any of the pancake style electric fans. They simply will not move enough air. If they're turned on at speed your problems get worse. They actually block air in the radiator over 50 mph in my experience.
Our cooling systems were marginal back in the day. That's one of the reasons people didn't drive across the desert during the day.

The auto manufacturers figured out how to get the job done. They had to.

The Mercedes fan that works best for a factory 26" radiator is off a 2002 to 2008 Mercedes C-class. The shroud fits perfectly over the 26" radiator. A real bonus is the capacitor pack in the shroud to ease the startup. When tested, they peaked at a max of 53 amps for less than a second and then dropped to 40 amps continuous.
That's a lot of current draw for our old systems but there's no doubting the effectiveness. When you first power one up you wonder if it's ever going to stop spinning. They get stupid fast and pull an amazing amount of air.

If your electrics don't pull amps, they don't pull air. It's that simple.

I've spent years trying to cool a twin turbocharged 440 in the Texas heat and humidity. A Spal electric fan worked but didn't have a shroud and ate itself when the mountings slipped. The 1990 Maxima fans work fairly well but I'll be switching to the C-class fan when I install the aluminum water pump. The Mercedes unit has a BIG fan and draws far more air than any of the duals I've tried.

How thick is the mercedes fan?

3 and 3/4's
4 inches to be safe.

I have a 440 with 26" rad 18" blade with clutch and 180 t-stat and factory shroud runs 175-180 all day.I got my clutch at my local home town auto parts store.

When I got my 63 the factory rad was long gone. So I bought this aluminum Afco rad from Mancini that works great. But I dont have a shroud and use a basic flex fan right now and I have a 160 thermostat. So I also added this electric fan I bought at the local speed shop and installed it as a pusher. It really cools good and in fact so good that I put the electric fan on a toggle switch. The only time I use the electric fan is sitting in traffic on real hot days as it will creap up to 200. I flip the switch when it hits 200 sitting in hot traffic and in about 2 minutes its back down to 180 or cooler. Thats the only time I have to use the electric fan. If I can find a shroud I can afford I plan to get one as I know it will work even better and I may not have to use the electric fan at all. Ron