You shouldn’t need an electric pusher with a good mechanical fan, and you shouldn’t need a mechanical fan with a good electric fan(s). Do it right once.
I run a 400+ hp, .060” over, all iron 340 with a 26” Champion 3 core and an electric fan set up from a Ford Contour. The rest of my set up info is earlier in the thread. Works great, has for years now, I daily drive it in temperatures well over 100*F and have no issues with it.
What does the rest of your cooling system look like? What thermostat are you running? What fan? Do you have a fan shroud? Have you checked your temperature gauge against an IR thermometer to check if it’s accurate? Gonna need more info.
Doesn’t matter if you offset it or not, not as far as the radiator is concerned. No matter where you put it, if you put it in front, you’re blocking and disrupting the air flow through the radiator core when the car is at speed. Maybe not enough to cause problems, but that’s what’s happening regardless of whether or not it “works”.
I think people believe clutch fans are magic or something. All they do is keep your mechanical fan from running all the time, or at the same speed as the water pump shaft, depending on the style of clutch. They don’t increase the air moved by the fan compared to a simple direct mounted mechanical fan, they reduce it. Either by letting it turn slower at high rpms or by freewheeling it at certain temperatures. They’re saving power and improving efficiency compared to spinning the fan all the time.
If you have room for a mechanical fan, you have room for a shroud. Maybe not a stock one, but something. That allows the fan to pull air directly across the whole radiator core, and improves efficiency. If you heat up at idle, your fan isn’t moving enough air. Or your radiator is too small, but that would be apparent at speed too.
Adding a pusher fan to a mechanical system is just a band aid. All you’re doing is stealing efficiency from you cooling system at speed to make up for its shortcomings at idle. If you use the right fan, be it mechanical or electric, you shouldn’t need both. If what you’re doing “works”, good for you. But it’s not the best or most efficient way to do it.
