Vortec 454 Fan Upgrade

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

I have to put a new fan clutch (Probably Hayden Severe Duty) on my 98 454 as the AC isn’t up to cooling the truck at idle even with the whole heater core bypassed. With the fan coming out anyway, is there an upgrade for the blades? I have the black aluminum bladed version (verified with a magnet), is one of the 11 bladed plastic units an upgrade?

Thanks

 

[454cid]

I swapped in a plastic 11 blade and like it. I have no empirical data on the job it does.

If you look at my past posts, I have a thread on it.

 

[yevgenievich]

I was planning on trying to adjust the mechanical clutch fan and swap to the plastic fan as well. Had the 11 blade plastic fan on my 91 and it worked well, but that was a change from a really poor 5 blade fan

 

[BeXtreme]

At idle, I would expect most of the AC work to come from the electric pusher fan mounted on the front... do you not have that?

 

[Supercharged111]

At idle, I would expect most of the AC work to come from the electric pusher fan mounted on the front... do you not have that?

I have that and my AC at an idle still leaves a lot to be desired on my dually. The 1500 with a MarkVIII fan hangs in there a bit better at idle.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

I have that and my AC at an idle still leaves a lot to be desired on my dually. The 1500 with a MarkVIII fan hangs in there a bit better at idle.

Weird because my Tahoe never had an issue hanging on at idle. That was with dual evaporator cores, the GM 11 bladed fan, and factory pusher.

I have never had electric fans work better than a clutch fan for ac cooling either.

 

[Scottm]

Losing ac at idle can also be a charge issue. If the system is overcharged, evap pressure and temp goes up and cooling power goes down. Where i live in Phx, we hit 119 three days in a row this summer. Detroit can't even imagine that kind of temp, so the factory charge will be too much. I want the low side around 40-45 psi and the high side under 300 psi on the hottest days. In cooler weather, the compressor may cycle off and on too often due to the low side cycling switch, so that's when I put a little back in.

 

[Supercharged111]

Losing ac at idle can also be a charge issue. If the system is overcharged, evap pressure and temp goes up and cooling power goes down. Where i live in Phx, we hit 119 three days in a row this summer. Detroit can't even imagine that kind of temp, so the factory charge will be too much. I want the low side around 40-45 psi and the high side under 300 psi on the hottest days. In cooler weather, the compressor may cycle off and on too often due to the low side cycling switch, so that's when I put a little back in.

One other thing it does is it will get cold enough to freeze the evaporator brick if you run it on max cold with the fan below 3 clicks.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Losing ac at idle can also be a charge issue. If the system is overcharged, evap pressure and temp goes up and cooling power goes down. Where i live in Phx, we hit 119 three days in a row this summer. Detroit can't even imagine that kind of temp, so the factory charge will be too much. I want the low side around 40-45 psi and the high side under 300 psi on the hottest days. In cooler weather, the compressor may cycle off and on too often due to the low side cycling switch, so that's when I put a little back in.

We hit 112-115F a couple of times as well here.

Critical charge volume does not change in regards to heat load. Decreasing the charge volume will overheat the compressor and increase the pressures.

 

[CTX-SLPR]

11 blade fan ordered and went with a Four Seasons clutch since RockAuto shipped it from the same warehouse and the Hayden was the only thing on the 12 item order from other warehouse so here it goes. It's cooling off again so I'd really like it to not hit temps where it gets tested and I'm going straight over to the 11 blade.

Yes I have the auxiliary pusher and it's working well but the system will basically end up in a heat loop if I run it too hard too fast after it's been sitting. I suspect it's over charged but the shop that did that will charge to do all of this so I'm getting the whole thing fixed up (new actuators and heater valve too) and then we'll argue about the system pressure.