Well, there's the issue. One blade gets loose, flies off. Fan is now severely imbalanced, shakes the water pump so hard the pump casting breaks. Hilarity ensues. Show me a broken water pump casting...I'll show you a fan missing a blade or two.
Here’s a a less worn one I have: The timing cover looks fairly worn compared to the one above. Is it too worn?
Fan blades can and do just shear off. Had it happen on a 68 firebird. Car backfired at about 40 mph and started shaking like a dog ****ing anchor chain. Turned oua a fan blade flew off and hit the alternator. Had to replace the fan, bend the alternator fan back into shape, and nothing else. Water pump, radiator, shroud -- all good.
Ok, I went to George’s website and read his fan shroud article. If you flip the shrouds in the same direction, not back to back like he has them, the bottom slots look the same to me
What about flowkooler? https://www.flowkoolerwaterpumps.com/products/1618-1970-1972-buick-455-3-1-4-tall-water-pump
Ah man that sucks Matt! I just put a TA 1537 BHP water pump on my car yesterday and it lowered my running temps by 13°. I've heard good things about the flowkooler pumps too! Not sure but I hope your fan shroud isn't one of those super rare hard to get ones that you need to sell off your first born and remortgage the house for
look at the blade next to the one that broke off. I see a crack and rust. Seen a buddy lose a fan blade actually stuck in his hood looked like a shark fin, what was scary he was bent over it minutes earlier in the pits.
Airplanes fall out of the sky due to metal fatigue. I guarantee it happens to fan assemblies. Anything is possible...but the likelihood is that you lost the blade before you lost the water pump.
68 GS... probably super rare. Even more rare now, Lol That TA1537 is 4-1/8” long and it looks like the flowkooler is 4” long. Should I be concerned? https://www.flowkoolerwaterpumps.co...ck-455-water-pump?_pos=2&_sid=e54be47ba&_ss=r TA1537:
