Real-World Test of FFR Radiator Fan

[gbranham]

I've seen many posts on the forum about folks upgrading the kit-supplied radiator fan, and how it may be undersized for bigger-cube engines. Today, I tested mine.

I have a Boss 427 stroker, ProFlo4 EFI and pretty standard coolant setup. I have all the Breeze bits for coolant...radiator fan shroud, etc. My body is on, but I have no nose aluminum installed. FlowKooler water pump, and FFR-supplied radiator. Haven't installed my Breeze upper cowl cover yet. Its nearly 100 degrees in KC today, crazy summer humidity, with heat indices approaching 110. I backed my car out of a temp-contolled shop, fired it up, and let it come upnto temp and idle in the sun for (literally) 20 minutes. My coolant temp came up to my tstat temp of 190 degrees, and the fan kicked on. At no time during the 20 minute idle did the coolant temp exceed 196 degrees, hovering around 192 the entire time. Folks, the kit-supplied fan works just fine. That's all. Have a great rest of your weekend. Longing for Fall driving weather...oh, hood was closed the entire time.

Greg

[JMD]

So that's what you were up to after our breakfast meetup! :p I don't think the issue that I've read about is whether or not it works, but how loud it is. Any observations about that? Can you hear it come on over the exhaust?

[gbranham]

I don't really hear the fan when driving. Maybe it's because I have a big-cube engine, but it doesn't bother me.

[TBull]

Also what year was your fan and kit from? I had the kit supplied fan from a circa 2014 kit. At almost 600 HP, It wasn't keeping up. If I sat at a light for a long time or held up for traffic, my temp kept gradually increasing. I looked up the fan after I took it off and it was around a 1400 CFM fan. I upgraded to a flex-Lite fan with 3300 CFM and now it just sits around 198-200 degrees. The fan is louder than the previous fan, but I'll take that over an over that over and overheating engine. I had made my own shroud from plans that is virtually identical to the Breeze shroud. I'm glad yours is working for you though.

[gbranham]

My fan and Breeze setup is from July 2023.

[MaxVmo]

Took it out for about an hour yesterday including highway and in town with the same fan on my 347, Breeze shroud etc. Local temperature was about 95 degrees and pretty humid here in TN. Happy to say my engine temp never indicated over 190. What I do notice is the fan is a little loud from the front side (duh) but almost unnoticeable from the back. I don’t hear it when I’m driving but it is apparent at a stop. For me, it works well so far and the sound isn’t a problem.

[CraigS]

I am fine w/ a fan I can hear when stopped. Like Max and TBull say, that beats dealing w/ overheating.

[cv2065]

Mine was from 2018 and never had a cooling issue, it was just crazy loud. I can’t even hear this new flex fan.