Another cooling question....i.e shrouds

[midnight sun]

Okay so I finally got the fan situation solved.  I had bought a 16" manual flex-fan but the engine sits so low in the frame that the fan was going to hit the tranny lines and the fan wasn't going far enough into the shroud to do any good.  I would have had to use about a 13" fan to clear everything.  I thought I had this scienced out but that was also when I was still planning on using a long water pump.  When I found that I didn't have enough clearance between the pulley and the radiator I went to a short pump.  Of course I had to build some spacers because of the composite timing chain cover.  Anyway I did some measuring off of my Model A a found that I could now use an electric fan which would then allow me to still use the stock tranny cooler lines.  Got the fan today and its gonna work just fine.  SOoooo I packaged up the flex-fan and cooler and sent them back.  

I said all of that to ask this question.... Do I still need to use a shroud??? I don't have one on my Model A but the engine compartment is pretty much exposed.  The 47 Coupe is going to be pretty well closed in.

Thoughts.................

[ONE37TUDOR]

I put an electric fan on my 428 Ford when I rebuilt the engine. The fan came with a nice aluminum shroud. Engine ran hot, very hot all the time. I changed everything I could think of and it still ran hot. I removed the fan shroud and bingo no more overheating even in this Texas heat.
Would never have believed it would work that way but I believe that because the fan was smaller than the radiator the shroud was trapping enough air to cerate the problem?
So from my perspective you do not always benefit from a shroud!!!

Scott..