Starting with some aluminum sheet I had I made measurements and laid out the size and put some bends in the body of the shroud. Next the body was temp mounted by the 2 top screws and a circle was drawn using the fan blade for the centering device. Then the circle cut out.
You can see that I couldn't just mount a stock shroud as my engine is offset for some reason.
It took quite a bit of mounting, checking for fit, dismounting and pounding with a hammer to get the bend on the bottom to fit the bottom hose. Once the body was set with the hole I measured the side holes and drilled them for the mounting on 4" centers as indicated by the exhaust side of the radiator. This also fit with the drill pattern of the old radiator in my shed.
A cowl was made to enclose the fan itself and clamped in place and marker holes drilled and then I put in 1/4-20 rivenuts to hold the cowl. again the body was temp fitted and the cowl fit checked, bummer, I had made it too long and had to trim the ends shorter to clear the alternator and the bottom hose.
How it looked on the body;
Once the cowl fit and the body ready the fun really started..............the holes on the battery side were not on 4' centers and due to my hammering on the bottom hose area the body had spread and the sides did not line up any longer. It took many fittings to square everything up and then find the holes were not correct. *^$#@$#@!
Those holes were measured and redrilled and in some cases Dremeled out oval. Now those screws are damn small, #6's, and my hands and forearms fat and if you have ever worked in there it is not condusive to tools either. But I got it on! Only to have to take it off again to make a top cover piece. The top cover has to have a relief in it to allow for the top hose. You can see it in the last pics. So it was cut and the top made and fitted and then reinstalled and the holes for the rivenuts predrilled then removed and the rivenuts installed and all was put back together and the fit checked for interferance.
Once it was all OK I put on the top hose and fired it up. No weird noises and no leaks!!!
All this work took me 2 days, about 5 hours just to make the body, I have no metal brake so I clamp everything to my welding table and bend it with a deadblow hammer, Using a jigsaw the shapes are cut out. It took about 6 hours to fettle the cowl and top piece and get the darn screw holes right, lots of bending over with my head under the bonnet.
By now you might be asking yourself if it was worth it, I was, but I was too tired to take it for a drive. So what else could I do......I had a late lunch and took a nap! :^)
Later I did take it for a quick drive, One of the roads around here climbs 2000ft in 3 miles, on the drive over to it the temp guage seemed a little cooler. I couldn't tell for sure as it's one of those numberless guages. The last time I test drove this hill it was 20F hotter outside, the temp guage seemed to get up to the red later but by the time I reached the top the needle was over halfway into the red.
I have a small infrared thermometer, I don't know how accurate it is but it should be relative to itself, using it the head by the temp sender was 258F the top hose was 195 and the bottom hose 165, the oil cooler hoses showed a delta T of 45F. Once home the head showed a 180F and the top hose @150 and the bottom 125. I don't remember the oil cooler temps. I have a 180F thermostat.
Now if I can only find those Defender bits........cheap.
Hey, Paul does this help with your fix? ;^)
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