86 par car, broken engine fan

[Yttermayn]

So, my engine cooling fan/squirrel cage broke. Replacements are hard to find and expensive (Googled). I am looking for alternatives. I was thinking of taking the shorter HD fan off of the flywheel of my parts cart and using it (It was good enough for the HD, why not the columbia?). Also considering using something like a 12VDC leaf blower and custom cowling or something. Anybody have any experience at this? Anybody have any idea what the safe temperature range is for these engines?
I was also thinking that if the thing has only lost a few blades, will that significantly affect the cooling ability? What if I removed a few more to make sure it's balanced and let it be?

[Lochlin]

These fans get brittle with time. I have had two of them splinter on me now.

ANY HD / Columbia fan will work. As you say the older ones are a bit shorter but they'll blow plenty of air to keep you cool. They don't even make the longer ones anymore as the shorter ones work just as well. You can still get those new but they are pricey. I want to say close to $200.

My fear with removing some blades to balance things isn't so much moving the air you need but rather the other blades being ready to break too. With the cart I am working on now, I was able to pull all of the blades off with my hands. I had an older HD fan sitting around so I out it on. I say put the older fan on. You'll be fine.


Your leaf blower idea is interesting. I suppose if you could one with similar dimensions it would work.

[Yttermayn]

Thanks Lochlin, that is outstanding news! I had a closer look at the fan and the first bladess that came off had sheared the rest off, so that idea is moot. God, this is the best news I have had lately.

[73eldo]

Problem with any electric fan is by the time they move enough air they will take a lot of power. The generator on these cars is barely strong enough to keep the battery charged so it really does not have the capacity to run much else.

If you used the earlier fan I would think you would want to build up the gap in the housing. Maybe something like weatherstrip? Knowing the 82+ fans are brittle is going to make me want to but the screen back on mine so nothing gets in there and tears it up.

Here is a cart I bought. It didn't have a fan in it. It had that small car radiator fan kinda aimed at the head and a smaller squirrel cage fan down on the frame with that silver pipe cut into the top of the housing. It had about 15 psi of compression. Took it apart and you could not tell if it had rings in it or not things were so melted and scored. Once I got that fixed also found the regulator was bad. Replaced that and found the generator was shorted and that was taking out the regulator. Was not planning on spending that much on that cart but had too much into it to give up.

[Yttermayn]

Hah, sorry it was such a hassle, but whoever did that does not have much of a clue about airflow.

[73eldo]

The silver pipe had fallen out of its hole, there was a hole drilled in the top of the housing. It just fell off in that photo. But as you suspect there were a few flaws in the plan. One was he didn't block the original vents so I suspect a significant amount of the air likely just blew out the inlet.

That whole cart was kinda a mess. The guy could weld pretty good and buy random parts but that was about it. It had a 900cca truck battery in it. Guessing that was to keep the fans running and what maybe overloaded the generator. After putting everything back stock its been a decent cart.

[Yttermayn]

Update: The HD fan is working great, seems to be doing the job just fine. Also, when you are reassembling your engine DON'T FORGET TO RE-ATTACH THE GROUND WIRE!!! :-) A lot of frustration was had by me because of this.