Bibo1985

So, the people at O'reillys will have left & right motor mounts, another 2" core, and a 1" core that should fit in the morning. Trying to decipher what my problem is.
Put in a new 2" core radiator Sunday, cranked up and ran fine even though the fan was roughly 1/4" from the radiator. Went to leave in it today, shifted from 1st to 2nd and heard a god awful racket. Stopped, radiator was beat to hell, fan hit it, bent the blade.
Question being; if this is bad motor mounts, wouldn't it torque side to side rather than forward? I'm thinking tranny mount. Either way, the 1" core will be a temporary fix so I can get to work. Any advice/ideas/suggestions appreciated

ymeski56

What's your fan doing 1/4 in from the radiator to begin with. The 2 inch core on my 87 302 is 6-8 inches away from the fan. The fan blades just enters the plastic fan shroud opening.

Got Pics?

grilljames

Did you have the new radiator mounted correctly in the radiator support? If it was lose it may of fell back into the fan when you took off and rocked forward when you stopped. Other wise check the play in your water pump where the fan blade mounts? Could be the motor mounts but if your motor is moving that much you'd feel that as well.

Nitehawkjr

Yeah the ¼” space should’ve been a dead giveaway that something wasn’t right. What was the space on the old one?

paintgiant

going off of what grill james said, check the radiator core support, our models seem to have rust problems in that area, when I bought my truck the support and radiator were immediately replaced.

Bibo1985

It was mounted firm, I double and triple checked that. No fan shroud. The old one was a bit further away, guesstimating, 2-3"?
The chilton book was no damn help on making sure I mounted it right, and the old one was mounted with coat hanger & clothe line, so it wasn't helpful either.
The J-clips on the radiator support lined up perfect, the bottom flanges caught in the rest as they should've. I didn't think it looked right, but it seems to be the only way it could fit? I'm gonna go over it more tomorrow, can't today because it's storming like crazy spoutin off tornados.
Anybody make note of where/how your radiator mounts up in the same model? I was thinking it looked like the flanges up top belong behind the support, but there's no way it'll fit the way they're made. I think the parts store has their parts catalogued wrong. I feel like an idiot for even trying the 2" core with it mounting that close, but it's supposedly the right one. I just don't know what the hell to do anymore.

grilljames

When the weather clears up post a few pictures of what we are working with. That may help. If you got ur old radiator and new one post pics of them too.

Bibo1985

I will A.S.A.P.
Thinking back, I really am an idiot. I'll bet those J-clips we mounted it to were the ones for the friggin fan shroud. When you install these, do you normally have to go down past the support and back under the lip to position the top mounts? I'm at work now so I can't check it, but I'd bet that's where I screwed up.

ridge903

Easy fix for you Bibo as you were talking to me in the other thread you put a dual core radiator in this truck no need for the dual core on the 4.9L. There is nothing wrong with any of your motor or trans mounts if there was you would definately know with how what torque little bulldogs of a motor the inline 300 is, as far as the water pump you would definately know if you had that much play in the fan as you would hear it well would be spitting coolant out.... SO with all that said go to orielly and tell them you just want a single core radiator got mine at auto zone for 115

Bibo1985

Thanks! That's what I was hoping to hear. When I called Oreilly's today the manager answered and he told me we could just swap em out so it wouldn't cost me more $$$. The whole reason I like this particular parts store, is for one, I know everybody working there, and two, they've always done right by me.
I was thinking the single core would work, because the previous one WORKED, but leaked BAD