Hello My 68 dart had a new small radiator when i purchased it. great car. i get paranoid when i see the temp gauge rise...as it does...all the time-climbing hills etc...(not running Hot tho) A fellow slant 6er mentioned to me at a car show...why not try the easy simple fix first? replace the fan with a larger one...or one with more blades? any experience or input on this? what all does it involve? will it actually help? recommendations?
Thank you Slant 6 Forum for all your help and knowledge!
HAPPY MOTORING!

I use a 6 Blade fan from an A/C car as opposed to the stock 4 blade, and it only made the temp fluctuate 10-12 degrees. (with a shroud)

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1964 Dart GT

The first thing is see if the rising temps are actually abnormally high. The stock gauges can read all over the place. Buy or borrow a good hand held IR thermometer and do some readings on the front of the cylinder head and the rad tank or fins when it gets "hot" and see what the numbers are. Alternately, you can install an aftermarket temp gauge with numbers on it and see where you are. No sense in fixing a problem that is not there.

The bigger fan will only really help you at idle or low speeds, not at highway speeds or cruising reasonably steady above 30-40 MPH.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Double check the gauge as lou says.

I used to run an a/c spec 7 blade fan from a 74 dart, then switched to the 5 blade a/c fan and clutch from a 79ish volare.

No problems with a stock appering slant cooling system on the hottest of days crusing and highway driving and mountain climbing with a built slant.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

How small? Smaller than the factory item?
As has been stated, the gauge on the dash is not a precision item, so the first step is to check the engine's actual operating temperature when the gauge is in its "risen" state.
That's not it. If the fan were undersized for your car, you'd see it heat up when standing still or stuck in really slow traffic. When the car's moving at much of any speed at all, the fan's irrelevant; the car's forward motion moves more air through the radiator than the fan could.

There are numerous reasons why your engine temperature might rise abnormally under load. Some of them are to do with the cooling system itself, and others are not. To understand cooling systems, read this 5-part article.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Ok, in addition to what has been mentioned, if your new radiator is chinese, the tubes will be at least 25% smaller than the tubes in a US made rad are and will therefore be less efficient than a US rad that has the same number of tubes.

If you remove the rad cap and lower the water level enough to see the tops of the tubes then take a close up photo of them and post it, I should be able to tell you if you have a chinese or US made rad.

If it is chinese and doesn't have more tubes than the original rad, it is definitely contributing to your problem.