Thread: model A, fitting everthing between rad and firewall

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If your firewall is set back 4", and your radiator is really 4" thick, I don't think your engine will fit unless you set the grill shell about 2" farther ahead of its stock position. I am building a model A with a 4" recessed firewall, a 2" thick radiator, and a short nosed waterpump. The radiator fits fully foreward as far as it can go inside a stock 32 rad shell, which is in the same position as the model A grillshell. From the inside of the radiator core to the end of my short waterpump shaft is only 3 1/4", and from the rear of the HEI cap to the indented firewall is 3/8". Don---I don't think your flex fan will work---it will set too close to the bottom of the radiator to be effective. To make a mechanically driven fan work you will need to buy an aftermarket hi-rise waterpump that will lift the center of the fan about 3" from a stock G.M. position. (Zips sell these). A 15 " diameter electric fan x 4" thick will fit just about perfectly by hanging the motor part of the fan back over top of the Chev water pump nose.---this also positions the fan closer to the top of the radiator, where it has a better chance of cooling the water as it enters the top of the rad and works its way downward thru the tubes. I bought one of these fans at a wreckers for $25 and fuilt my own supports and fan shroud.