Shaunmac9128

Hello all. Been a long time since I've posted.

My grandfather has recently passed down his plymouth fury iii 318 convertible to me. It is something of a family heirloom however he has basically left it sitting for the past 15 years. It has serious overheating issues so the first thing I'm doing is overhauling the cooling system.

I have a new water pump, hoses, thermostat, aluminum radiator, fan and fan clutch on order.

Issue being I was looking into converting the belt driven stock fan to a (hopefully) more efficient clutch fan setup with a slightly larger/more blades than stock fan. I don't know too much about this conversion but from a quick google search it doesn't sound terribly complicated.

Wondering if anyone can help me with this conversion and also if anyone has any general tips on the 318 or older "muscle" cars in general because this is my first venture into older motors.

Grandfather got an oil change, tires, brakes, air filter, plugs, wires and distributor cap before passing it on to me

Any help is appreciated.
Thank you.

Shaunmac9128

Also wanted to share a couple photos just for reference etc.

Chromeshadow

Very cool! My Dad had the same car but a 4 door.
I think these have a baffle on the drivers side that is used to help warm up the intake or the carb.If it has one, make sure it can move freely. Seems like it was a heat actuated coil spring under a hand sized heat shield.
I did the conversion on one car and it was really easy, I prefer the electric fans though. Make sure the fan shroud is intact and funneling the air though the radiator.
The 318 is a pretty bullet proof engine, I'd check the compression and vacuum, save all the old plugs, you can tell the condition of the engine by the plugs.
These come with points that do need to be adjusted with a feeler gauge. You'll need a tiny bit of lube on the distributor shaft where the points arm hit , this will help keep the points from wearing and needed to be adjusted often. These do have a carb, I'm not a carb expert, I stay away from them, except spaying a little carb cleaners in there once in a while. I'd check all of the freeze plugs for leaks too. Good luck and have fun!

tbear853

That car has had it's original fan and thermostatic fan clutch replaced somewhere along the way to today.

Nice body, but a crate 360 with some perks would wake it up and keep current look.