Fan Explosion - Please read

[Hotrodpaul]

For all of you car enthusiast's out there, many probably own GM Trucks and/or SUV's with the Votrec V6 or V8 engines and plastic fans. My wife was on her way home in our 2000 S10 Blazer last night and had to exercise the beast when BOOM, this happened:

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The car has 135,000 miles and obviously the Fan, over time, had become brittle and failed from fatigue, sending shrapnel all over the place. I even installed an underdrive pulley at 95K miles. Check out the hood, I am glad I was not leaning over the engine when this happened!

Lesson: Replace the Fan every 80 to 100,000 miles to keep this from happening to you.

Paul

[mockingbird812]

Gosh Paul, glad all are okay. That is unsat to have to replace a fan ever in the life of a vehicle http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif . Any recalls on this? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

[BTL]

Is the motor mount broken? Causing the engine to lift, allowing the fan to hit the shroud?

[beater68427]

Ouch!! the motor mount might be a good think to look at, The day I sold my 69 Z the guy who bought it was runnung through the gears and the water pump broke made a real mess of things..

[Hotrodpaul]

That is a good idea to check. I did replace them with new one's several years ago. Thanks,

Paul

[Ngtflyr]

Great, my 2000 GMC Sierra is at 95,000, something else to worry about. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

[x Baldwin Motion]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the motor mount broken? Causing the engine to lift, allowing the fan to hit the shroud?

[/ QUOTE ]


I also find it odd that several blades of the fan would self destruct. It would seem that lift from bad motor mounts or some other obstruction caused this. Are there any fatigue marks on the remaining blades ? Any fur under the hood? I have what looks like the same plastic fan with 105,000 miles. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

[Tommy]

I replaced the fan on my GMC Sonoma with 4.3 Vortec around 220,000 miles. It had major cracks around the center section of the fan. We caught it while doing a water pump replacement. I didn't lose any blades but it could have exploded at anytime I suppose.


Tommy http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burnout.gif

[al8apex]

that hood looks just like my 70 Z28 did when the 1st aftermarket flex fan gave out

then I bought another thinking that aluminum would be better than the fiberglass unit ... wrong

so then I decided to go pony up and buy the L82 / LT-1 GM OEM flex fan, you know, spend more than $15 that Lopers charged for the other flex fans that went through the shroud ... figuring that since I now had new paint on the car, it would be a good idea to stop the madness ...
that would be the third fan that had kissed the underside of the hood, now I have a nice bump in the stripe ...

apparently high rpm in my car does not tolerate flex fans, of any make or quality ... back to the clutch fan I guess ...

[L78steve]

This reminds me of the Ford metal flex fan failures of the late 70's.

[six-corners]

Oh Jeez...that's all I need to happen....I just turned the 100,000 mile mark on my 1997 Blazer tonight(49,000 of those miles in the past two years). I will check on it tomorrow to see if I notice stress cracks.

[HEMIBEE]

I see the bottom of the shroud is also missing, I work on a fleet with many GM trucks with the same fan, most of these have more than 100.000 miles on them and I have not seen a problem with the fan blades? I am in Michigan so I don't know if the Texas heat would make alot of difference or not, I would think something could have hit the shroud from under the truck and put it in the fan also, when the truck got warm and the clutch engaged if it was in contact with the shroud, boom, up here the fan shroud is a popular spot for cats to take a warm nap I have seen that, but I think you would know if that was the case.

[Hotrodpaul]

After removing the radiator I noticed a crack in the upper drivers side tank which could have caused an overheating problem. The added stress of high RPM with an engaged fan clutch could have overstresses the fan. Got it fixed this weekend and added a strap to control engine lift. Replacing that motor mount looks like a PITA.

Paul

[Mark_C]

The blazer and jimmy radiator tanks all crack on the front side of the drivers side tank directly opposite the upper radiator hose connection. Mine went around 150K. Traded the truck in during the C4C debacle last September with 267K on it. My fan was fine at that point, no signs of cracking or bad motor mounts at that point and they were all original. Suspension bushings were shot at that point, but thats about it, the 4.3L started first crank all thru its life. Probably could have kept it running for another 100K if I did all the suspension bushings, shocks and probably new rear springs, but it was time to go. May it rest in peace.

[Hotrodpaul]

Yes, that is exactly where it cracked. The hot coolant hits that tank at the spot of the crack and might waeken the plastic over time.

Paul