I ran a 89 for 60k miles without a cooling fan or A/C.

Now have two more bricks, turns out both fans have been toast for a bit, my 91 with A/C had boiling liquid in radiator bottle when arriving in the driveway (road home is 800 foot elevation change up over two miles). Temp guage is always in the middle.

I thought my head gasket was bad, got the $50 tester from NAPA, all tests were negative on the air space in the reservoir bottle for combustion gasses.....Good, the headgasget is likely still good.

Bought repalcement fan from Autozone for $195, put it in, aftermarket but identical to orginal as far as frame and mounting was concerned.

So far so good.

My question, the 1990 (all non turbo 4cyl engines) has a busted A/C (so less heat load). So should I fis the fan....Any sources for a cheaper one, this car cost $250. It has 250k, but the engine still runs great and I guess to keep it that way I should replace it (temp does not raise, maybe slightly above winter level, not near red, but the car was calling for the fan yesterday when my wife drove in from a normal trip in 78 degree weather (the hill is pretty long).

Any opinions are appreciated.

Eric
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1990 745 258k Rex, 1991 745 160k Bosch, (RIP 89 745 250k)