1971 cutlass 350 fan hits shroud help?
 

hi recently bought a 71 oldsmobile cutlass with stock rocket 350 the fanblade touches the stock plastic fan shroud at the bottom i have over an 1" of clearance up the top my first theory was engine mounts these look to be new. does anyone have any suggestions i have tried all adjustments the front sheetmetal looks to be all original with no evidence of ever been damaged/or invoved in an accident. my last resort was to get a heat gun and try to bend the shroud but this has only produced less than 1/8" clearance at the bottom top is still over an 1" . trans mount is in ok shape and looks to be stock. i dont want to remove shroud its doing my head in any help ideas?

Could be the body mounts.

thanks will check

Is there any chance that the car had a 455 at one point? The landing pads on the frame are different.... the motor will sit lower by almost exactly the 1" that you are talking about if you put a 350 onto the 455 frame pads.

In 1971 350 engine mounts won't work on 455 pads. The holes are WAY off.

They would if the 455 mounts were left on the pads and the 350 was bolted up to the 455 motor mounts......... just a thought.

Hey bam_bam1ca,

Nice to see a fellow Canadian.

No offense to you or anything, but I've never seen a 350 fit the 455 mounts, a 455 is wider than a 350 but hey, if you've done it then I won't argue.

Just a thought to the original question, have you bothered to check and see if a)It's the right fan and b) if it spins correctly? I had a fan pulley once that had some worn bolt holes in it and after a while it started spinning in an elliptical shape rather than a circle.

Just a thought.

I had the same problem with my 72 350 with the original clutch fan. Out of nowhere one day, (literally), the clearance at the bottom of the shroud shrank to nothing and it made the most godawful racket as the fan ate the shroud. I checked everything out, motor mounts, tranny mounts, etc... to no avail. I finally just broke down and replaced my original fan with an after-market flex fan. It has a slightly smaller diameter and actually does a better job, so go figure.

If anyone can figure out why this happens, let me know, wouldja? I've always wondered.