I drove my 65 Cutlass in a Canada Day parade. Stock 330 4bll with duals and Jetaway. It ran perfectly except for overheating. I wasn't too surprised because i don't have a fan shroud and we were crawling along at approximately 5 mph for over 1 hr. and it was 75 F .
Will a fan shroud solve this? In normal operation the car never overheats. Also will a shroud from any other GM intermediate 64 to 67 or other years fit?

 

It should, and if it turns out to be something else, fan shrouds back then should of been auto optioned anyway. My 67 330 always ran hot as well in those same conditions. I tried everything over the course of 3 decades except the shroud. I thought I could correct it my way... Swapped out 4 blade, moved up to a 3 row, went electric fan. No dice.

Meanwhile the 69 was born 7 blade clutch and shroud. 100 degree real feel, 2 hours to and from the track and thoroughly wrung out in the middle... no issues... knock on wood. I on the other hand gave myself minor heat stroke... Black car, black vinyl interior, beaming sun, too much clothes not enough liquids. My forearms cramped up terribly, like I massively overworked them at the gym. Took a couple of days to feel completely normal again. I was otherwise a fairly healthy 50 year old.

 

Temp gauge or light? How hot did it get?

A shroud will only help and make it safer under the hood, without a shroud the fan is mostly redistributing hot air under the hood vs pulling outside air through the radiator and cooling.

 

Did the car actually puke coolant? If not, what indications of "overheating" were there? GM tested these cars at the Desert Proving Grounds outside of Phoenix. They didn't overheat when new. Is the car stock? If not, what has been done to it? Is the vacuum advance working correctly? Is the carb adjusted properly? Inadequate advance or lean mixtures can cause overheating. Is the radiator in good shape and not plugged? Has the block been flushed? Understand the cause of your problem before throwing money at bandaids.

 

The car is stock, initial timing is advanced slightly over stock, plugs look the right colour for proper air fuel mix, rad is clean. As I stated there is no problem with overheating in normal highway or city driving. The only time it has overheated was in the parade (about 11/2 hrs at 5 mph) where it hit 230°(yes i have gauges) and puked out a couple of quarts of coolant over the course of the last 1/2 hr. It never boiled over.
my question is do you think a fan shroud would increase the cooling enough so I could run in a parade without problems. Also will a shroud from any A body 64 to 67 fit?

 

What shroud will fit? I don't know.

Will a shroud increase the cooling enough? It will definitely help; but proper installation is critical. The fan blades should be about half-in to half-out, the shroud needs to cover as much of the radiator as possible and it must be sealed around the perimeter.

Air must also be blocked from going around the radiator with flaps.

Check everything else in the cooling system too; but, IMO a shroud will help.

 

Thanks SB, I'll do some research on finding a shroud that will fit.
if anyone has any ideas about what will fit please let me know.

 

So my 65 cutlass has AC so it has a 4 row radiator, 6 blade fan, fan clutch, and fan shroud, all from the factory.
I never had a problem with overheating with the 350 I had in it, nor have I ever had a problem with the 455 I have now.
I used to cruise the gut back in the 80's every weekend with no problems. (lots of stopping and going)

 

Cutlass fan, I ended up making my own shroud for my 65 . The pic with the cardboard is how I came up with the initial layout, I added 1" all around the fan blade for clearance, Its just a short square to round fitting, actually. If you know any sheetmetal guys in your area possibly you could have one made. Just a thought. Good luck. Robert.

Shroud layout

shroud fab

finished shroud

shroud installed

Additional layout view

 

Yes. If you had an automatic with air conditioning (HD cooling), on a 442 you should have gotten the plastic shroud.
If you had a cutlass. You had a metal shroud that looks like all it did was protect your fingers from the fan as it’s very open.

Although the texture of this re-pop is way off the dimensions look correct.

https://www.opgi.com/cooling-heating...s-C241514.html


Heres an original. Note, that it used a special radiator Top plate.
The shroud attaches to it with a screw. This was before adjusting it

 

Agree with the finger protection. That's another BIG reason I built and installed a shroud on my car.