joehelendetroit

Just searched the list, but could not find a similar problem posted....

Yesterday at the 2,100 mile mark of my 2,300 mile cross country trip to return my new 1980 from its original owner
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...980-928-a.html in Santa Barbara to my home in Detroit, the cooling fan let loose and trashed the radiator.

After examining the parts in the light of a fresh day, it appears the Fan Carrier casting failed. It was in two parts amongst the broken lower shroud, broken blades and broken belt.

Prior to leaving LA I spent some 6 hours w/ Greg Brown in Anaheim going thru the car and getting an education on what could go wrong in driving a 30 year old car across the country. One of the things he mentioned was the fan letting go and launching itself into the radiator. The situation he described seemed more like the fan and clutch just letting go rather than what happened.

The fan and clutch are still attached to one half of the Carrier casting and the fan still turns freely on its shaft. In looking at the break in the casting (photo attached) it has a cross section that resembles an H on its side. We notice that the top of the sideways H has a clean break, but the lower part (this would be the underside of the casting looking down on the engine) was all dirty and has a hammered look to it as if it had been cracked for a while and then finally broke yesterday.

I was planning to do the TB and WP once I got back home, guess I have lots of room w/o the fan in place. Also looking for thoughts on a replacement radiator and what to do about the fan. I have reviewed a number of posts here regarding the 928 International aftermarket unit as well as changing to an electric fan. Any thoughts, i.e. there were lots of fitting problems listed on the 928 Inter. unit, but the posts were all 1-2 years old. Have they worked out the problems? And what about the elec. fans. I see lots of different posts, but at the same time I have read about issues with the reliability of the cars oem alternator and am wondering about adding to its load.

GregBBRD

That sucks, but that is pretty much what I thought might happen.

On this car, the fan clutch was pretty much "locked up"...something a bit different than usual (the normal failure is for the fan clutch to never lock up.)

This made the fan spin at engine rpm all the time. Transfers all the vibration right into the bracket.

pjg

I installed the C&R radiator this weekend, it is a very tight fit, I needed to cut the two rubber mounts that the radiators sits on in half in order for the hood to close, the lower engine oil cooler hose comes in straight and needed to be pushed back about an inch. The two bottom screws that hold the plastic fan shroud in need to be very short otherwise you will put a hole in the radiator.

WallyP

By "trashed" did you mean that you had coolant spraying from gashes in the radiator?

If by some miracle the radiator still holds coolant, and the alternator belt is still functional, you might possibly just drive it home. You don't need the fan or the air pump for an emergency drive...

joehelendetroit

WallyP,
Definitely had coolant spraying everywhere from the gashes in the radiator. Rather than take a chance, we just put it on a flatbed tow truck and brought it home.

Question now is what radiator to install, i.e. used one that has been tested or new aftermarket (C&R) and should I go with an elec. fan instead of the oem mechanical one?

GregBBRD

Buy a "universal" radiator from 928 International. Grind to fit, paint to match. Worth the small amount of fitting problems...cools way better than the stock one.

Save yourself a whole ton of brain damage and install the stock fan stuff that has been working on a whole bunch of cars, for a whole bunch of time. Buy a used plastic fan from 928 International, instead of the aluminum one that is stuck in your radiator.