Engine Fan, Motor In!

So the parts car had an original Ford plastic timing case fan. Those things are rare with all 5 spokes still attached, ones that aren't cracked are basically unheard of. The one on the parts car was dirty and had a single big crack but wasn't missing any pieces so I wanted it for my motor.

Looking all dirty, these fans are goofy because they aren't symmetrical. Removing them is actually pretty easy. Fouir bolts go in the outer holes then use a bearing puller to pop the pulley underneath off the case.

There's the crack, the blade obviously warped under some heat after it cracked but there were no missing pieces of plastic.

So the process I used was fairly simple. I clamped the fan gently in the vice with the cracked blade facing up. Then I used my heat-gun on the "Low" setting to soften the plastic and make it a little more malleable. Used some 220 grit sandpaper to rough up the edges where the plastic was going back together. I then used some plastic epoxy in between the gaps, with the epoxy in place I slowly bent the fan blade back together and taped it in place. Then let the epoxy dry. I used a soldering iron to "weld" the two halves of the fan together in the back. This weld isn't meant to be structural just provide some more surface area for the second coat of epoxy to hold onto. 

Cleaned up and the crack repaired

So with the fan repaired I cleaned up the pulley and bolted it and the fan onto my motor. I do really like the look it has with the red fan, black timing case, and blue valve-covers/block/heads.

So with the engine finally finished it was ready to go back into the car. Quickly during this process I figured out my previous plan of having the trans in first and bolting up the engine in the car wasn't going to work. There's no amount of adjustment in the trans mount that will allow the clutch shaft to properly align in the clutch and flywheel so the bell housing can bolt up to the engine. So I pulled the transmission back out of the car and bolted it up to the engine.

The tricky part then is getting the CV axles back into cups on the side of the trans-axle so that it can actually drive the wheels. I was doing this entirely by myself and that was a terrible horrible pain. The hard part is making sure the spindle caps on the axles aren't knocked off in the process, if you can have a second person manning the axle and telling you how to adjust the engine on the lift. I would also recommend 4 points of lift on the engine instead of 2, a carburetor lift plate would probably be even better than that.

After several hours of struggling with the power-train I finally got everything in, trans linkage hooked up properly, trans-mount bolted up, and engine mounts in their proper holes and torqued down. At this point I realized there was a minor problem, the new fan hits my ignition box where it is currenly mounted but that's an easy fix: relocate the box. Hopefully soon I can get the coolant lines, exhaust, starter, and points hooked back up, then hopefully she'll run and drive again! I also need to bolt back up my new flywheel cover.