Hey guys I need some help. A while back my fan went into the radiator and caused it to leak. This happened while I tried teaching my little brother how to drive a manual in it. After that I replaced the radiator along with the motor mounts (which I found to be broken in half) and my tranny mount was replaced a couple months ago when I replaced the clutch. But just the other day after I went thru a small mud hole the fan ruptured the radiator again. I am at a loss as to what is still causing this problem and I would like to fix it soon since I need my truck to get me to and from college. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

I wouldn't think the fan should sit that close to the radiator. My guess would be some of the part(s) are not the right ones. Fan? fan spacer? radiator mount?

 

I would say your fan clutch is bound up. (Had this problem with my 5.0 Ranger swap.) The fan isn't supposed to spin fast enough to dig the blades into the radiator. The clutch is supposed to let it slip at higher RPMs.

Go out and see if you can turn the fan by hand with the engine off and cool. If not - bad fan clutch. They're relatively cheap at auto parts stores.

 

Well the actual baldes didn't cut into the radiator, it was the clutch itself. You can see a nice round indention on the radiator from the fins on the clutch. I will check the clutch tomorrow when I get home, though, but it is a brand new unit also. I'm thinkin for now if I can't find the problem I'm just gonna throw a mechanical fan on there for the time being so I can drive it, then later on down the road put an electric fan in.

 

Well I just checked the fan clutch by hand it it spins fine, so that rules that out.

 

But now I found that a few of my tranny crossmember bolts were loose, so I tightened them up. Could that allow the engine to move enough to cause this problem?

 

Here's some pics of the damage. Once I got the radiator out I only found one core to be damaged.

 

Well that's not supposed to happen... Either your radiator has moved rear or your engine mount(s) are worn out, allowing the block to twist on acceleration. I doubt the tranny mounts alone would allow the block to move forward that much.

You can probably eyeball it while someone sits in the cab and revs the engine. Also, if the tranny mounts were loose, has someone done a recent swap (engine/trans) - and maybe didn't tighten everything down to spec...? Once you get the belt off, are the fan pulley/mount bolts tight?

 

Well, after taking everything apart the only thing I found to be bad were the loose crossmember bolts. I put Bar's Stop Leak in the radiator and put it all back together and so far so good. And yes, we had recently dropped the tranny to replace the clutch and apparently we did not get the bolts tight enough the first time around. The loud clunking noise I had before is now gone after tightening the bolts down. I am going to get some lock washers to put on those bolts tho just to make sure they stay tight.

 

Does anybody know if my fan is supposed to sit that close to the radiator? If someone has a pic of their 4.9 so I can compare how close it is that would be nice.

 

I'M having the exact same problem with my truck.Were you able to fix your issue? If so how?

 

Check your radiator support and mounts, especially the passenger side. The passenger side mount is under the battery tray, and tends to rust. Once it rusts through, it will allow enough flex in the radiator support to cause the problem.