I did the 460 swap a couple of years ago and after the swap the belts would raise **** when I would step on it so I took off the clutchless fan that I carried over from the 351m. I put a thermostaticaly activatated electric fan on it and ever scince then it gets hot if I dont turn the fan on right away. Im still running the modine radiator that was in it when I bought it. I really dont want to go back to the clutchless set up cause the electric fan is supposed to move about 2500cfm I think. Im just curious what others who have done the swap have encountered as far as cooling problems go.
Cooling problem
- Thread starter Buckin78
- Start date
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Broncobill78
New member
I did this swap using a combination of L&L & factory parts. I had no cooling issues at all (and I kept my original 351 radiator both times) but I *did* ditch the clutch fan and just ran a direct-drive flex-fan. Those clutches have a way of leaking out their fluid and then they just become spinners that don't do much of anything. If you still have the parts then you can just get a new clutch for it and bolt on your old fan & that should work fine either that or just get yourself a flex-fan and a 2" or 3" solid spacer and run that. There's also no reason why you can't just bypass the thermostat & run your electric off a switch in the cab. The only other thing I can think of is that the original fan was just too small and you need a larger diameter fan. Not to impune the quality of your work but I have to say that I *have* seen some pretty hoakey swaps done and before I finally stopped goofing around with trying to modify various factory brackets and just bought L&L's I had nothing BUT belt alignment issues. I'd look to the how the accessory brackets are setup & the belt alignment to see if that isn't maybe the root of your problem, and of course you can always go for the serpentine swap which should also eliminate any problems.
I also used the L&L kit motor mounts, All underdrive and acc.pulleys and all of thier acc brackets. 10qt pan and the exit fenderwell headers. But I am still using that factory radiator. I think it may be time to upgrade to a 3or 4 core alluminum radiator.
Broncobill78
New member
Yup, one of those should do it. Before you spend the cash on one though you might try rehabbing the existing radiator. You have one of the old metal ones in there now and it's one of the few that this can still be done with. It's exactly what I did with my own and I never had problems from it even with a fairly modified engine (ran it in local & regional mudbogs). The one you have can be hot-tanked to clean out any debris & buildup, any weak or leaking tubes can be brazed and the tanks can be replaced. Modern radiators are throw-aways by comparison. You should have a local radiator shop capable of doing this for you.
