I'm happy to report that the C7 fan install is now complete. I really liked how my current shroud covered the entire core so I wanted to find a way that I could mount the fan assembly to it. I started by removing the shroud and then test fitting the unmodified C7 fan.
The picture makes it look bigger than it is, but it has about 3/4" on both sides of the shroud when centered. Just way too deep and needs to be trimmed down. First picture is unmodified and mocked up. Could definitely be used as is, but I wanted it to fit tighter to the radiator.
Here's a close up of the motor. The 600 in there means that it's the 600 Watt version of the C7 fan. The earlier models could have come with a 500 Watt version.
I also debated on removing the fan from the shroud and making my own custom mount similar to what VA does with their aftermarket fan for 67-69 Camaro's. It fits nearly perfect in the 16" fan opening.
This is a VA shroud for my car that I saw at a Car show this past weekend. I think that is based of the Gen6 Camaros as it uses an even bigger 850 Watt fan!
Problem that I didn't want to deal with was how far away from the shroud it was going to sit. I could have fabricated something, but I didn't want to do that at this point.
One thing that was pretty interesting was that the inside of the fan shroud has these little ribs that are the same depth the entire way around the inside of the shroud. Stock there are 4 of those ribs, so after deciding that I as going to modify the C7 shroud, I cut 2 ribs off which was about 5/8".
With the 2 ribs cut, you can still use the stock mounting tabs, but since my radiator wasn't quite wide enough to easily use them, I decided to cut another two. Ended up being quite a bit of material that I removed.
I took measurements before and after cutting and the shroud must be parallel since the measurements were the same. Width is 21 3/8", side height is 13.5" and the height at the center is 15 3/8"
Here is right before one of the final test fits. I found that in between two of the ribs for the upper part, it lined up perfectly with the upper nuts that were already on the shroud. For the rear, I found a space between two ribs, but added my own Rivnut. Really easy and mounted very solidly.
Then I mounted up a 70 amp breaker for the fan. It draws a lot of juice and this was recommended to me by Andrew. I was able to use a little pillar and threaded a bolt I had into it for a solid mount. Very pleased with how it all came out. I had a few missing "flaps" and found a guy on a Corvette forum who had a few spares. So they are on the way, but for now I made a few temporary pieces. I'm not sure if I will end up trimming the shroud in front of the "flaps" to encourage more airflow at speed or not. I want to run it and see how it performs. If I am not getting the cooling I want I'll modify them for more airflow.
Installed in the car and ready to wire up. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
I bought some more 8 ga wire, a 70 amp circuit breaker and a Yazaki connector kit (bought on eBay) with an assortment of terminals to get it all wired up.
I found that my big crimpers did a great job on the open barrel terminals once I bent them over slightly. One thing on this connector that was a little different was there is this inner white locking piece that had to be popped up in order to insert the terminals into the slots. Otherwise it was very straight forward.
Used some appropriately sized terminals and glued heat shrink. I didn't get any pictures, but the ground side goes directly to the battery. The positive side goes from the connector, to the breaker, then directly to the battery. From all my research it is critical to get the appropriately sized wire for this job. You will not be able to get away with 12 ga wire. According to Spal, this wire could get hot enough to melt the connector, so make sure the wire is sufficiently sized for the job.
The last thing was adjusting the tune in Holley to use a PWM- signal rather than a straight ground. I tested it in the garage and it worked great. I didn't get a chance to test it as it was raining, but I'm hoping to within the next few days.
Thanks,
Ryan
