I think JMC’s explanation for the noise is excellent. With that much fan exposed, you would definitely hear a difference. There is probably no change in the working of the fan.
I recommend electric fans. This is one of those upgrades that gave a good seat of the pants improvement in performance so the mechanical fan must have a significant drag on the motor.

I have a stock clutch fan free for postage. It ain't light. It is a high mileage unit but worked fine when removed. I just hate to throw good parts away...

 

My Chilton manual said the fan clutch would be screwed on with LH thread but it wasn't. My clutch was loosened by screwing it counterclockwise as looking at it from the front.
The first time I did it I used a long, large screwdriver and used it as a pry bar between 2 opposing bolts on the puley. This worked OK for taking it off and putting it on. First I loosened the clutch then unbolted the shroud. I then unscrewed the clutch the rest of the way and lifted the fan, clutch and shroud out at the same time. Be careful because the fan blades are sharp.
Put it back in the same way and screw the clutch on before setting the shroud in it's final position. This way you can move the shroud around a little bit to give yourself some room for the wrenches.
The 2nd time I did it I bought a cheap tool for the job at Tools-N-More here locally. It grabs 2 pulley bolt heads and holds it while you tighten the clutch. Good luck.

 

davet,
Thanks for the help. What year and motor do you have? I'm guessing that they are all the same as far as the thread goes, but you never know.
slarson

 

My 89 302 doesn't have that large clutch-to-hub nut, just the 4 smaller bolts from clutch to water pump, and 4 bolts from fan to clutch. Dave, thanks for the tip on removing and installing the shroud and fan/clutch together, makes a lot of sense. I picked up a 87-96 Chilton manual tonight, and it looks like a piece of cake. Could be hard to get a torque wrench in there to tighten though.

 

Well, I knocked off work after lunch today, and came home to swap fan clutches. In and out in under an hour, didn't even have to loosen the shroud, much less remove it. I torqued the fan-to-clutch bolts to 18 ft.lb. specs, but had to settle for ball-parking it on the clutch-to-hub bolts. Wow, what a difference, I actually have SOME low-end torque again! It's truly amazing how much that stuck clutch was dragging down the performance of my stock 89 302. Hmmm, thinking I should order underdrive pulleys and a belt from Mike...

 

97 Expy, 5.4.

 

i have a 99 f150 witha 4.6 and a 3": body lift and have no
problems with my fan and have 80000 miles on it i would replace your fan clutch

 

I ALSO HAVE A FAN THAT SPINS TO FAST IN THE AM .
BUT ITS ALL STOCK/NO LIFT SO YOU CAN RULE OUT THE LIFT THING!

 

OK. I tried a new Ford fan clutch. Not as bad as I thought it would be to put in. Same noise. Tried blocking the openings created by the body loft at the radiator. No change. I just don't get it. I'm really starting to think it has to be something to do with the fan shroud location. I did block all of the openings that were created by the lift, though. I can see the fan sticking out from the shroud. When I look down at the shroud and fan, the fan sticks out from the shroud toward the engine about 1 inch. Does that sound about right? I don't thind there was any adjustment for that. Last resort is to take it to the dealer and see what they think, but I really don't want to do that.