Chev radiator fan

[Wayne Henderson]

Which fan is correct for a military chev 216 fitted to a 1942 C15.?
The fan for the radiator on my restoration is a 6 blade version and I thought this was a modification post war/farmer.

I always thought that the blitz had a 4 blade fan but this seems to be correct only on long nose civillian type chev trucks.

The radiator shroud on my vehicle has been cut to allow for the wider fan.
Maybe the radiator is from another model chev as it is the only radiator fan shroud I have seen on a Chev blitz.

Ideas or comments most welcome.

[Grant Bowker]

The parts manuals claim that both 4 and 6 bladed fans were used on Chevs. They also indicate that other parts such as water pump assemblies are different depending on which fan is fitted. I don't have information to make it clear if this was a running change, a difference depending on planned theatre of use, depended on weight class or body type to be fitted or completely random.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Wayne & Grant

All three of my CMPs have the six bladed fan, `41 C60L, `42 C60S, and `45 HUP. So I suspect that the intent was to use the six bladed on the CMPs, this seems to be born out in all the manuals I have. The modified conventional Chevys may have had the 4 bladed and I believe this is mentioned in the service bulletins.

As has been mentioned before it is very important when mixing and matching the pulleys and fan belt width to be sure to maintain the relative match of the crank and water pump/fan pulley. Wrong pairing and you can really over speed the fan. With several results, lot more noise, lose of power as the fan tries to pull the truck down the road working as a prop. But more important catastrophic failure of the fan.

When running one engine on the test stand I discovered that in replacing the water pump with a new pump it had the wrong size pulley, much smaller. Started the engine just to check things and at 2000 rpm the fan was howling and blowing so hard it was sucking oil out of the engine breather and spraying it my face. Needless to say shut the engine down removed the water pump pressed of the pulley and replaced it with the correct size.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi Wayne - our 1942, 216, Chevrolet Blitz (half-track) has an original six blade fan.

Bob

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

I had 216 x 2, one 4 blade, one 6 blade. Went for the 6 blade as I thought it might be more effective in the summer.
Rich.

[Mike K]

Came with a 4 blader ... As far as I can work out, it's original to May 1940 production

Mike