Followup-- 2000 JGC V-8 still overheating

City. ;^)

Earle

everywhere.

I have seen fans get sucked into the rad when under water, let alone had the rad stuffed full of mud on 'many' occasions. I have even had to clean the rad in the bush before I could drive home... Same for the charcoal canister's air filter. Have had to crack open the gas cap a few times to get home too. I used to go through 3 or 4 fan belts a year when I was mud pit running. It also eats fan clutches. I like snowman's idea about the O-rings and waterproof grease to try and help seal them.

Strange things can happen when you have a bow wave pouring off the windshield....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail > It seems odd that you have never seen a fan sling mud and water everywhere.

At an off-road rally this summer a WJ hydrolocked because they failed to follow the line laid out by the safety spotters and tried to set a speed record crossing a water hazard covered with only 18 inches of water.. (the WJ cold air intake is at 36 inches stock)

I have seen it sling it a lot but not with enough mass to do any damage. THe beggest danger from water is it drowning out engine not from water flying off blades damaging things. You could even do like they do on a dozer for mud runs, have the fan blow air out instead of suck air in. THey do that to keep stuff from getting sucked in the front and plugging up core.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

THe fan does not get sucked into it. Eaither the radiator moves toward it on impact of engine shifts forward but even then if you did not have a shoe horn fit with 1 inch or less fan clearance it would not happen. If you have 3 to 6 inches of clearance or more in there it will never happen unless you break something. Low engine driven fan to radiator clearance on a off road machine is not a wise setup in my book.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

No no, the blades of the fan act like a propeller and try to pull water. The flex fan blades are not strong enough to do this so they get pulled forward instead of the water going backward because they are so flexible. This can make them tag the rad fins.

Water is 'heavy'. Grab a flex fan blade and see how far you can hand bend it in a forward direction, then talk clearance....

Up here in Canada, we have lots of beaver action on our trails so one trail that barely gets the tires wet one year, can be up over my hood on other trips. Bottom of my lights is 42".

Same for the local sand and mud pits. Here is a link to rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys member's various runs at the local pit.

I have all my engine and light wiring and dash components waterproofed and have crossed stuff where the bottom of the seats and our butts were in water with the 150 lb Bouvier/ Irish Setter mutt in the back making swimming motions as the back fills up.

One trail to our regular camping spot became the top of my 33" mud's deep over about 100 yd and around a corner for a couple years. It was trippy to cross!

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Mike would tear hell out of any shroud too with that fiberglass body he has.

Earle

LOL!

I have my rad hanging off two angle iron supports I welded to the frame rails. The shroud would have to have a frame of it's own.

Having the rad held with 4 bolts causes the rad to snap in half because the frame rails flex so much because the 'glass body lets it. I have a one piece 'glass flip front. No structure at all in it, it is just a water cover...

The side plates of the rad snap from the flex. I made my own side rails out of 1"x1/8" steel plate bar and welded it onto the stock sides. They stretched about 1/4". A bunch of my cores stretched and a couple snapped so I soldered them off.

I now just hang my rad off two top bolts and let it swing side to side free.

I was talking to a few other 'glass tub owners and apparently that is a common issue.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Mike is my belt still holding your front bumper on?

Take a look at your XJ - two bolts in the top, two fairly large pins on the bottom that drop into holes with rubber grommets. AIR,the oles in the cross member at the bottom are oval so that the bottom of the radiator can slide, but that may just be my poor memory. That makes a lot more sense than 4 solid mount bolts, especially under flex.

I agree with you about the flexible plastic blades. Mine have wear marks on the front of the tips that have to be from hitting the radiator - the fan I have has pretty flexible blades, so if you add any play at all in the clutch you can easily get it into the radiator.

I understand that but again if there was a lot of clearance it would not happen and if proper flex fan was used the blades would flatten out from water pressure (like with high air press at higher RPMs) and not pull the water or bend toward radiator as blades would "give".

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Unfortunately real life doesn't work like that. Even feathered out, the flex fan still pulls.

I have heard of folks actually stopping before a water crossing and tying their fan off so it doesn't rotate to prevent this.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

The proper flex fan with proper clearance would prevent this. I have forded water up to 4 foot deep in years past many times with no problems at all but them it was also with vehicles that had a lot of clearance between fan and radiator. Also if you where concerned about it, you could simpley remove or loose fan belt and then replace it or retighten the belt afterwards. This would also save you from sucking water into altenator YOu might have manual steering for a bit depending on belt setup but it is not a big deal for a short period of time.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

You keep mentioning having room for proper clearance. That might be easy to do on a J10 or other full sized rig, but most modern Jeeps do not have any extra space to 'play' with clearances. Even my 86 CJ7 with it's 'glass one piece front clip only has at most 3" between the fan blade and the rad. Something like an XJ has barely enough to squeeze your hand between the fan and rad and you are most likely to skin knuckles if you even try that.

If we could only build the perfect rig eh....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Even a CJ with a AMC V8 has more fan clearnace. When CJ was first designed it was built around a 4 cyl and a V6 (a 225 that was a GM engine that Jeep bought right too and then sold it back to GM in mid

70's) AMC kida shoehorned the straight 6 in there. Shame that they did not stick with the GM V6 or build another one like it.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com