22" Radiator & Fan Shroud
Purchased Metal Fan Shroud from 1968 Polara: 2-part, 1962-1968 according to eBay seller, with mtg brackets $173.75 included tax and ship.
Champion EC2374 Aluminum Radiator: 22 inch core, installed in my 1972 Plymouth Fury, along with 18" factory fan. The car runs well for medium distances, like 34 miles one way. However if I stop somewhere on the way home in the summer heat, I do risk vapor lock after I restart the car and get going up the road. I decided that the cooling system was not doing it’s job perfectly. Most cars need a fan shroud, and my car is no exception, even though it doesn’t have air conditioning. Just so you know, the factory radiator that was in the car when I bought it and that began to leak, had no fan shroud mount on it.
Original Radiator (recycled)
I bought the Champion radiator because it did have a shroud mount and because it was much cheaper than getting my radiator with no shroud mount fixed. Champion has predrilled 7/32" holes at bottom of shroud mounts, but no holes at upper corners:. I drilled 7/32 holes .25" from top and from inside of mount. Test fit top piece.
Upper half of fan shroud installs to the outside of the lower half. Removed 2 screws and removed upper half. Side with wall facing the engine is on left side. Fan is offset right versus the back of the radiator.
Lower half of fan shroud: a stiffening ridge on the bottom directly above the lower radiator hose was making the lower half sit too high so that the slot did not match the position of the hole at the bottom of the shroud mounting surface on the right side. Grind off the stiffening ridge above the lower radiator hose. Test fit lower half: it did install, 5/16 inch short socket, ¼ – 3/8 adapter, 3/8 inch stub ratchet. For the upper half I added a 6 inch extension.
Upper half of fan shroud: install over top of lower half. Awl: Mark the bolt holes for joining the upper half and the lower half by using the tool through the screw holes on the upper half to scribe the paint on the lower half. I used a 5/16 inch drill bit and exhaust cutoff wheel to create the appropriate holes. For the lower half I also had to grind off the stiffening ridge at the outside, right side, where the 2 halves joined together. Then the lower half was able to sit flush against the upper half, because the upper half could be pushed towards the front of the car, so the 2 surfaces engaged.
It took several test fittings along with more drilling and grinding, but eventually I got everything to line up. Tightest area was the curved edge at bottom of the lower half where I had about 3/8 inch of clearance. If you have a factory 22" radiator, you should have about 17" between top mounting hole and bottom for fan shroud mounts. A lot of this could be avoided.
Test Drive: the factory 18” fan did not hit the shroud even on hard acceleration. In revving the engine at idle using the carburetor throttle linkage, I found that the fan does not draw much air through the radiator at idle, but it draws a huge amount as the engine is revved up. I tested to make sure the fan was mounted the right way by placing a rag over the front of the radiator. Even at idle the fan could hold the rag against the radiator. So it is always pulling air.
Have driven 250 miles since install. No vapor lock. It's too bad someone is not reproducing these 2-part fan shrouds.
POR 15 Black on outside of shroud to cover rust and grind marks/edges
