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My friend's wife drove the Falcon Project
into town this evening and on the way home this happened.
Close as we can tell, the stock 97 Explorer fan let go at the hub and six blades all went their separate ways at the same instant. One went through the hood and one knocked a big chunk out of the battery and a third chopped the right horn wire in half. It appears that nothing else was touched and the big thing is that nobody was hurt. And, Jeannie's blood pressure will probably return to normal by tomorrow....maybe.
It fired up and I drove it onto a trailer and we hauled it home home, pulled the battery and washed everything down good with the garden hose. We are thinking that maybe the fan bolts had worked loose and the hub developed cracks.
Fortunately, they have a spare hood.
BB
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But Bob, now it is custom by Crash! You have a truely original bodywork feature that no one else will have. Everyone has smooth hoods, only Ms Jeannie will have that custom feature on her car.
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Oh yeah, thank your lucky stars that your head wasn’t under the hood tuning when that fan let go.
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That's what I told Adrian. That could have happened when we were running KOER EFI tests a couple of months ago when the PCM runs the engine up to 2500 or so while we are standing around watching.
BB
Online!
Wouldn't happen with an ELECTRIC fan!
jus say'in
6sal6
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Yikes! Sorry about the hood, but glad everyone's ok.
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A titantium fan shroud could have saved that!
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6sally6 wrote:
Wouldn't happen with an ELECTRIC fan!
jus say'in
6sal6
My immediate first thought.
My second thought was that it looked like the "speed holes" Homer put in his car on the Simpsons with a pick axe...
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That happened to me during the Gulf war back in 91’, I was an MP on patrol Messing around with my Hummer when the fan let go. actually pierced the hood ( not as bad as yours) but that will sure get your attention!
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Boy that gives me the chills, that will make you think next time under the hood checking timing or something. Just glad no one was hurt.
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Was that a plastic fan like the Foxbody Mustang used? Was it an original or a replacement? I just bought a brand new replacement plastic fan to use on my 56 F100. If they are going to act like that, Summit sells a nice stainless reverse rotation flex fan!
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MS wrote:
Was that a plastic fan like the Foxbody Mustang used? Was it an original or a replacement? I just bought a brand new replacement plastic fan to use on my 56 F100. If they are going to act like that, Summit sells a nice stainless reverse rotation flex fan!
Stock 97 Explorer steel reverse rotation fan.
Follow up report: This morning Adrian said that Jeannie reported that when she left KFC the throttle stuck and then the fan let go. I suspect she hit the clutch before the ign. switch but lots of us would have.
Later investigation indicates that the PCM which we installed behind the Gen 4 HVAC in a vertical position on top of the trans hump and against the firewall had slipped to the left and jammed the throttle. When we installed it we dang near couldn't move it and it seemed very secure and neither Adrian nor I felt that it could go anywhere.....Right! Since I was the EFI guy I guess I'll have to step up for this one as much as anyone.
No other damage was discovered....there's plenty as is.
I still don't think the fan should have failed like it did and I still suspect loose bolts had caused cracking at the hub. Anyway, we'll fix it and secure the PCM a bit better and they'll be going down the road grinnin' before long.
BB
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And this is why I am going electric fan…. My buddy had a brand new Derale brand steel fan go full thermonuclear and karate chop about everything in his engine bay, and the hood.
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A Welderup hood scope design. Glad that everyone was OK. I don't think my wife would have known what to do.
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'Nuther update: I must stand corrected. That was not a stock Explorer fan. It was a 17" Derale reverse rotation fat that my friend installed about this time last year when we built the car. He just told me that there seemed to me no evidence of the fan "working " on the bolts but...he also said that he had to use a wrench to break loose the bolts in the clutch. With nothing left for the bolts to clamp, it seems to me that those bolts may have been too long and never really clamped the fan hub as they should.
More to follow, maybe.
BB
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Bullet Bob wrote:
'Nuther update: I must stand corrected. That was not a stock Explorer fan. It was a 17" Derale reverse rotation fat that my friend installed about this time last year when we built the car. He just told me that there seemed to me no evidence of the fan "working " on the bolts but...he also said that he had to use a wrench to break loose the bolts in the clutch. With nothing left for the bolts to clamp, it seems to me that those bolts may have been too long and never really clamped the fan hub as they should.
More to follow, maybe.
BB
How long were the bolts that he took out??
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My buddy also enjoyed a most expensive Derale fan failure. Like within 100 miles of install.
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Bolted to Floor wrote:
How long were the bolts that he took out??
He's checking things out sometime today while exercising his new knee....stand by for the next exciting update.
BB
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Those chunks look very familiar, Bent. Same deal, the hub just let go.
BB
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So, two catastrophic Derale fan failures. Has, or will, the company be contacted by you fella's....?? Be interested in their response.
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I don't know if Adrian will contact them...we know there were contributing circumstances on this one, don't know Bent's buddy at all. We're still checking stuff. We do know there was a stuck throttle involved butt (TS&T), the fan is supposedly rated for 8K and the A9L computer shuts off the fuel at way less than that. I still think we will find something that had stressed the metal of the hub. Haven't heard from Adrian Re: bolt length.
BB
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The failure on my buddies ride was actually taken up with Summit Racing (where he bought the fan). They actually comped him quite a bit of parts, but for whatever reason would not allow him to post his scathing review of the fan itself. All this being said, the running joke is that Summit has a wing named after this guy since he has spent so much with them over the years. I'm sure that had something to do with them covering part of the cost to repair the damage... His fan with pulley ratio and where his ignition box was set would have topped out at about 7K rpm.
After seeing what it did to his pickup (transmission cooler lines, radiator, batteries, fan shroud, hood, hoses) and the fact the parts hit the hood with so much force that they actually bent it upwards and blew holes in the hood bracing to daylight I have no interest in running a traditional fan from Derale.
They didn't even want it back for failure analysis, it was like everyone involved was scared of potential liability.
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This one was purchased from Summit also. Don't know if my friend is planning on talking to them. He just reported that the bolts were not bottomed with the the thickness or the hub and lock washers. So the only thing we can find is the stuck throttle but, again, that should not have been more than a 6200-6500 rpm deal.
This also bent the hood where a blade hit the cross-support. Other damage seems to be limited to the battery and the horn wire. No radiator or hose damage. Very lucky, I guess.
He has decided to buy a new clutch and stock replacement Explorer fan (plastic).
BB
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Good feedback fella's.....Reason I asked was I recently purchased one of their 17in reverse rotation fans from Summit.......now I'm not so sure I even want to keep the thing on the car. My initial thought upon receiving the fan was, made in the USA.....great!. With my luck, I'd be leaning over the engine compartment when the fan decided to let loose. Weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow so I may just go visit the two pull a part yards and search for a contour or taurus electric fan.....
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Bullet Bob wrote:
I don't know if Adrian will contact them...we know there were contributing circumstances on this one, don't know Bent's buddy at all. We're still checking stuff. We do know there was a stuck throttle involved butt (TS&T), the fan is supposedly rated for 8K and the A9L computer shuts off the fuel at way less than that. I still think we will find something that had stressed the metal of the hub. Haven't heard from Adrian Re: bolt length.
BB
Factory rev limiter is 6,250 for all 5.0 factory computers.
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