I got the fan clutch out today and the bad rumbling sound went away. I did notice that I could rock the pully a little bit. Is there supposed to be any play in that. I put the belt back on And its running good. my second question is that I have read about guys running without putting the fan back in. I have the v6 3.9 and the weather is cool now. can I drive it around until I get a new fan clutch or figure out how to put an electric fan in. I know there are lots of posts about that.

 

depends. where do you live? Canada? OK. Arizona? probably not. i do know some people just leave it off for the winter, but i wouldn't.

 

I live on long island ny,just noticed that the waterpump is the origional. I have 116000 on it so I bet it cant have that much life left in it. thanx richie

 

its more of a try and see method i've seen guys from arizona take it off and be fine and from anywhere. I'm taking mine off this afternoon since its finally cooler here and it was running a little to high for my liking so i put it back on for the summer. did you take the belt off just to remove the clutch fan? because you can get it off by just unbolting it.

 

i actually just took mine off and plan on running it like that all winter long as long as your electric fan works properly i dont see any problem with it unless you overheat.

 

I just put the new fan clutch in. cost more then a new waterpump. It did start to run a little hot so I bought a new one sooner rather then later. also the heat seems to work better. what would the fan clutch have to do with the heat.I had to use a strap wrench on the pully, I couldnt get it to budge without it

 

As soon as the highest temperature of the day
drops below 70 F
I think you can run without the stock clutch fan.

Once the truck gets over 30 mph
you will definitely find that you don't need a fan.

A special highway MPG test this way
is a good way to find out in advance
how much fuel economy gain you might get with an electric fan,
but the best test is with two trucks, convoy style
where the two trucks swap having their fan installed or not.

It takes an especially accurate test like this to find the small percent
gain from taking off the clutch fan,
which when unlocked uses a small 1 to 2 hp.

If you are worried about running hot
with conventional 50/50 antifreeze blend
and a 16 psi radiator cap
you are good to about 240 F

Evans Coolant is good to well over 300F
but costs about $20 per gallon

 

thats good to know, thanx. how about the clutch fan itself. i had to put a heavy duty clutch in because thats all i could find. the stock was smaller. will it still work without putting a different fan in. its slightly larger then the stock . but it is listed as replacment for
my v6. I dont know if I could fit a bigger fan in there. Its running great now but will this put more strain on everything thanx richie

 

I'm thinking that a heavy duty fan clutch is more for towing applications, but is made to be a stock replacement.
Part of the inherent design of a fan clutch is to put a bit of a parasitic drain on your motor, but the heavy duty shouldn't really be any worse than stock and you shouldn't need a different fan.
When your motor is running, you should not see the fan blades moving forward and back at all. This is the showing of a bad fan clutch and often when the fan clutch goes bad, it takes the water pump bearing with it. My fan clutch caused my water pump to go bad, but the water pump didn't show any signs of being bad except for once when it seeped a little coolant.

 

thanx for all of your responses, I know Ive asked alot of questions about this part, but this is a part Ive never delt with in any truck ive had. im glad to hear about the fan. I think your right about the pump. I was thinking of maybe keeping it in since the truck is running better after changing the clutch. it does have 116000 on it. Ive learned alot on this site and appreciate all the response and the great info ive picked up in all the old posts. richie