When I started my truck and was letting it warm up after school yesterday, and started to pull out, my big manual cooling fan in front of my engine and behind my radiator exploded. My shroud got destroyed but it didn't cut any of my hoses. It did however put a really small hole in my radiator that now leaks very little when under pressure.

My question is, I live 5 minutes from school and I drove today with no fan at all, but it's also relatively cold outside, so should it be fine? I'm not driving it again until I get a fan, but should it be fine although I did it just once today?

 

You should be fine. If it was the water pump that went bad I would be more concerned. When you get it apart check everything really well to see if it didn't damage something else.

 

Well I just rebuilt the top end of the engine and finished it like 3 days ago. Completely new water pump, timing assembly, heads resurfaced, valves, etc. Just the fan blew up because I had it nutted on with 4 mis matched nuts so it was wobbly. I knew it'd go so yeah lol but I got the new nuts now for the new fan.

 

One so loves self induced problems.

Just think if for some reason if you had your face right there when it let go.

 

As long as you dont overheat its fine, Ram Air will keep the radiator cool, its the stop and go is when you need to worry about a fan cooling the radiator down.

 

I don't know what engine he's running, or if a 22RE is the same, but 3VZEs don't mount the fan to the water pump. It's a bracket that straddles the pump and mounts to the block. New from the dealer, over $600. I picked one up from a pull-a-part for $5. The bearings in it tend to go bad and lock down...if that had happened though, you would have shredded a couple of belts too.

 

Yeah its a 3VZE engine, but my temp gauge also isn't working since I rebuilt it, I'm sure it's pry my sensor or my gauge. But that's what scares me. And the radiator feels really really hot after driving short distances. Just hoping driving one day didn't do anything bad to it. Waiting for a fan before I drive anymore

 

I wouldn't necessarily blame the fan letting go on you. I've seen many, many 3.0 fans let go. Your lucky it happened at low speed. I saw one that let go on a friend of mine on the interstate. He said he had it in fifth gear at about 85-90. When it went, it pushed pieces through the hood, radiator, cut both hoses and shattered the upper timing cover.

I've heard of people swapping to a 3.4 fan, since it's balanced and doesn't have the stupid integrated shroud that causes them to fail. Might look into that for a replacement.