Fan blade on Dart broke today

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Dartnut said:
I was thinking that the fan was slightly bent at one time, the water pump was bad, or the fan was just fatigued by constant high revs.....
I'll bet your water pump is toast now too if it wasn't before.
Yes, i agree that you were very lucky that it wasn't worse!
Just thinking/typing out loud.........
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I grabbed the fan that was left and I could not wiggle it on the water pump or move the shaft. Doesn't matter though. That water pump is staying on the motor, the new motor already has a water pump on it. I think I will drive down yoday and take off the rest of the blades and check it out.
 
This is a perfect example of why you NEVER stand at the side of the engine bay in line with the fan. I was at our local dirt track a few years back watching the modifieds when one of these fans let go in the pits and hit a guy in the face. The fact that it was just sitting there, and didn't do any damage to the hood/rad, is incredible. I would almost guess that it broke off when the motor fired up.

Grant
 
I knew a guy years ago that had a beautiful red 66 SS 396 Chevelle that was making a noise. He pulled into is Dad's yard and raised hood and was revving the engine when blade came off and into his chest and killed him.
 
I have had a waterpump shaft pulled out twice in a month on a 440 Roadrunner.
About 6,500 rpm's both times, and both times destroyed the radiator.

Sucked!

Both times it took the pump, fan and radiator out.
I went to electric after the second time.
 
OneOfMany said:
This is a perfect example of why you NEVER stand at the side of the engine bay in line with the fan. I was at our local dirt track a few years back watching the modifieds when one of these fans let go in the pits and hit a guy in the face. The fact that it was just sitting there, and didn't do any damage to the hood/rad, is incredible. I would almost guess that it broke off when the motor fired up.

Grant
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Not a chance. I started it up and it ran smoothly. I was 20 miles down the road when it started shaking like a flat tire. I pulled over and at idle it shook so bad I thought the dash was going to fall off. It came off at 65 mph on the highway. The other blades are still attached and unbalanced the motor like you wouldn't believe.
 
How close to your alternator belt does it sit? Wonder if it did not flex over and hit it. Just a thought. It sure is strange it was just laying there. You would think at the RPM you say you were at it would of went flying off.
 
The belt was the first thing I noticed. It was off but intact. I thought it had wrapped itself around the dampner and destroyed it. That was my first thought. I cut it off and restarted the motor and it shook so badly I shut it off. Then I saw the blades.
 
Just thinking out loud here. Could the belt have come of then hit the fan? That may have been enough to brake it.
 
Burntorange70 said:
Just thinking out loud here. Could the belt have come of then hit the fan? That may have been enough to brake it.
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that makes the most sense, i would agree. unless the fan had been bent in that area and then re-bent back straight, weakening the metal.
 
This is a good reminder to not position yourself in the plane of the fan when you're under the hood if you can help it. Especially when reving the engine.

I had a fan break once. One blade blew through the inner fender and ended up laying on top of the tire. There was a large instant bubble in the hood. The water pump tore completely off the engine. Blasted the radiator. I remember holding up the heater hose with the water pump hanging off the end.
 
Burntorange70 said:
Just thinking out loud here. Could the belt have come of then hit the fan? That may have been enough to brake it.
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This makes the most sense. If the belt fell off at 4000 rpm and hooked on the fan it could easily have caused the blades to snap off. It could also have been the reason for no additional damage.

~Michael
 
Burntorange70 said:
Just thinking out loud here. Could the belt have come of then hit the fan? That may have been enough to brake it.
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I would buy that, but when I went to cut it off, there was not a mark anywhere on the belt. I wanted to cut through the frayed part but couldn't find one. It makes absolute sense though. I saved the belt. I am driving down tomorrow morning to bring down a head for my daughter's car. I will look it over more closely then. And I will take off the rest of the fan.
 
Ok guys. Quit trying to over engineering the failure. The fan was 42 years old and it let go. It probably had a crack in it previously and finally fell apart.
 
I was thinking that when it was first posted.


toolmanmike said:
Ok guys. Quit trying to over engineering the failure. The fan was 42 years old and it let go. It probably had a crack in it previously and finally fell apart.
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Ya! Who cares why just through another one on and hope it don't happen again....... No reason to find a problem if there is one and fix it.
 
If your battery is still under the hood, I would give a glance and make sure the fan remnant didn't karate-chop it. If it did it may be prone to leakage in the future.
 
All right, I got down to the shop today. There is a very small nick on the underside of the hood. The belt itself has no marks on it anywhere. It did not hit the fan. All the bolts, including the ones holding the rest of the blade where half the hole was broken off, were tight. One of the blades of the fan part still attached to the car was bent a bit and had a slight crack. I have no idea what happened. I am inclined to go with age and stress, as has been mentioned by toolmanmike.

View attachment Fan blade.jpg
View attachment Fan blade broken.jpg

This is the bent and cracked blade.

View attachment Fan blade cracked and bent.jpg
 
It hurts to see the scratch on the underside of the hood. I spent 43 hours making that hood perfect. It looked as good on the underside as it did on the top.
 
..............I've seen fans break apart........1ce 1 went thru the hood and 1 other time the blade stuck in the pavement........kim...........
 
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