Fibreglass electric fan shroud build TECH 101

Hey everyone, I started this some bit ago, posted in the tech articles and then it kinda got side stepped...aka lost...

Now I"m doing it again.

As some of you know I have a few electric fans and wanted to go that route with my cooling system

As such just prior to me installing my Champion rad, I started the needed work to create a custom fibreglass fan shroud that anyone could then cut and add in their electric fans of choice. I'm thinking this is a cottage industry creating a base for which others can do what they want.

I'm starting with my TALL narrow rad first, but I have the material for the WIDE short rad set aside and if I see enough interest I can duplicate the idea for those too!

So starting from scratch....here we go!

Stock fan shroud.....wow...wasting my time if I attempt to mod this beast I tell ya...not worth it for me...


Here we have the main fans I would like to use, clearly to large for the tall narrow rad


More fans...and these ones well...one looks good other too small


Without my base shroud, I'm guessing here that one from each of the two former pics layed out something like this would work well....


plain base rad.....ya that's a bigun!


Here I have cut some styrofoam to the outter dimension I need for a shroud...notice it's ONLY covering the actual core...no more up above core covering tank or below covering lower tank and in the way of the lower hose...


Stock fan on plywood for tracing and layout...man that's a monster for sure!


Basic layout setup...still showing fan opening and the small missing notch bottom LH corner of pic


Here I have placed my styro on the plywood...getting base setup done.


I duplicated this above for the Wide short rad...I have the styro and the plywood set aside and once I have completed my Tall narrow setup, I'll if enough interest start the Wide short rad shroud

I'll be shaping and setting up the styro for glass layup in the near future and will keep you all updated as I go about this.

Once I build the shroud anyone could cut a circle in it add in their fans of choice and be done! simple, I'll be doing just that myself and also documenting it. That should make it simple for anyone else to do the same

I am planning on adding on flaps like the European shrouds have too...eventually....

Got ?s suggestions...let me know...

Thanks for reading

Al

After you get it up and running you may think of doing a setup for the popular fan choice(s) for those that dont want to/trust themselves to cut the fiberglass for mounting the fans. Also as a little tidbit if you put weatherstripping along the edges it will seal better becoming more effective

kc0stp said:

After you get it up and running you may think of doing a setup for the popular fan choice(s) for those that dont want to/trust themselves to cut the fiberglass for mounting the fans. Also as a little tidbit if you put weatherstripping along the edges it will seal better becoming more effective

Click to expand...

On mine i sealed the shroud around the edges with ultra high temp furnace silicone and filled all the gaps running a few layers so teh fans would be pulling full strength through the rad Works great until i have to remove it for something,which has only happened once, but I had to cut it all out, which was a real pain, but at least I didnt have to fill it all back in going back together, just seal up the cut. When you fire up strong fans, they WILL pull from the path of least resistance, if you have any gaps, on the engine side, it will pull air from there before it will try to pull air through the rad

i thought i might have to seal up some cracks around my shroud (just used the factory dual windstar assembly) but turns out,the fans were overkill as is,and had to slow 'em down with a variable rate controller.

My shroud will fit differently than the stock one which clearly fits on top of tanks, I'll be slightly different as there is not a need for that design IMHO.

I've got to get some radius built into the foam prior to final glass work and a slight bevel to the edges so the parts pop off/out of the mould easily.

As for doing something for standard set of fans, I'm not really interested in that....this is a base shroud you can cut and fit what fans you choose to fit and have some control over design.

In all likely hood it will be simpler than modding the stock shroud IMHO.

it'll be really nice.im sure you'll be pleased with the e-fans.a very good upgrade over stock.
mine never was any good(didn't lockup) but iv read from lots of members that when the oem mechanical fans lock up while towing uphill,they feel the power loss.you probably did too?
with the e-fans even on high,i feel nothing at all.can't hear 'em over the diesel engine either of course,so i had to install an indicator light so i knew when they on low/med/high.
keep at 'er.looking good.

Ok 3-4 gallons of resin...lots of csm mat material and I have several glass projects lined up so this is getting revived and completed hopefully this month!

Then I can work on popping base sheouds out for folks...but most importantly...for me!