Sometimes Older is Better
My son and I wanted to replace the old Mopar metal fan that was cooling OK with something lighter, to get rid of the some of the HP load and low RPM belt loads. We could not fit a new nylon Flex-a-lite fan and still clear the Sanden type AC compressor clutch because the blades are so deep.
So I noticed my old 70's fiberglass Flex-a-lite fan hanging on the garage wall, and decided to clean it up and try it out. Dang.....it cools 5-10 degrees better than the 7 bladed Mopar fan on a 1000' steep climb on Afton Mtn! And it's Hemi-Orange!
This fan was on my old Ranchero for years and I ran that engine all the time to 6500 RPM and put over 50k miles on this fan. No cracks or anything; just some surface rust on the rivets. I see a few of these on eBay; now I need to see if there are any new ones like this around. Of course, this was made in the USA, not China, so with a new one, YMMV. I see that Flex-a-lite has stainless bladed ones nowadays with this blade shape, but I don't trust stainless balded fans after having 2 of them crack blades on that Ranchero; this fiberglass bladed one replaced them and was trouble free.
I had to laugh when I read up on the history of Flex-a-lite and these fans: "In 1962, Eddy Davis founded this company with the original “flex fan” concept. He developed the first flexible fan out of hand-cut fiberglass roofing material. The concept was to create a lightweight fan that would flatten out at high engine rpm."
The photos are of the old Flex-a-lite, and the Mopar 7 bladed one.
My son and I wanted to replace the old Mopar metal fan that was cooling OK with something lighter, to get rid of the some of the HP load and low RPM belt loads. We could not fit a new nylon Flex-a-lite fan and still clear the Sanden type AC compressor clutch because the blades are so deep.
So I noticed my old 70's fiberglass Flex-a-lite fan hanging on the garage wall, and decided to clean it up and try it out. Dang.....it cools 5-10 degrees better than the 7 bladed Mopar fan on a 1000' steep climb on Afton Mtn! And it's Hemi-Orange!
This fan was on my old Ranchero for years and I ran that engine all the time to 6500 RPM and put over 50k miles on this fan. No cracks or anything; just some surface rust on the rivets. I see a few of these on eBay; now I need to see if there are any new ones like this around. Of course, this was made in the USA, not China, so with a new one, YMMV. I see that Flex-a-lite has stainless bladed ones nowadays with this blade shape, but I don't trust stainless balded fans after having 2 of them crack blades on that Ranchero; this fiberglass bladed one replaced them and was trouble free.
I had to laugh when I read up on the history of Flex-a-lite and these fans: "In 1962, Eddy Davis founded this company with the original “flex fan” concept. He developed the first flexible fan out of hand-cut fiberglass roofing material. The concept was to create a lightweight fan that would flatten out at high engine rpm."
The photos are of the old Flex-a-lite, and the Mopar 7 bladed one.
