Fan Shroud frustrations!!!!!!!!!

OK, so last week I took a working vacation to get some things done around the house with the idea that I would reserve Sunday for my car. Well, despite a surprise visit from the in-laws, I still managed to finally install a lot of stuff in my engine bay with my father in-laws help. I put on my new braided hose lines and finally installed a thermostat and even faked in the hoses that would normally go to the now yanked heater core. Last step to make it complete was to finally install that fan shroud I ordered like 2 years ago. I decided to remove the fan as opposed to the radiator and it actually went smooth and quickly. Of course as soon as I had it all bolted up I realized why the PO decided not to put one in. I can only assume that either the radiator sits a tad to high or the engine angle is off a bit because the blades rub against the bottom of the shroud and there is about a ¼ inch gap at the top. My father in-law suggests I either trim down all the fan blades or notch out almost the whole bottom half of the shroud. (Keep in mind, while he is very mechanically inclined and knowledgeable he is also a hack and will take the quick or cheap route over the correct one every time). I don’t like either of those solutions and chopping the shroud defeats its purpose. My thought is A) to just check and make sure the radiator is down as far it should/will go and if so, then to increase the length of the oval holes that the shroud screws into with my dremel by about an 1/8 of an inch so it aligns properly. It’s that or notch up the holes in the shroud which is easier to trim than metal but will require screws without washer heads to still fit in the recess and likely make a weaker but probably still sufficient connection.

Any other bright ideas out there or something I am overlooking? I’ve scuffed up the bottom of the shroud now by starting it and hoping for a self correction so I can’t return it and I hate to let it sit and not get used. What would you guys do?

Well, my car does not have cooling issues either, I did buy it for appearance and correctness sake, and now that I have it I hate to not use it. I hate the idea of butchering the entire bottom on a brand new shroud, and if it does not have a complete circle around the blade exposing half in and half out, then it might as well not even be installed from what I understand because there is no suction created between it and the radiator. Plus it seems that If I did trim all the blades (6 of em) then I would end up with even more gap at the top. Making the 4 half inch long oval holes in the radiator 5/8 inch long seems the easiest solution. I will have to notch out the section of the shroud that goes over the bleeder valve though anyway since currently it sits right on it and won't drop the 1/8 inch needed on both sides if I don't. But that is a pretty small notch compared to removing the whole bottom half.

I hope the mounts aren't the issue, but if they were and I replaced them at a later date, I still won't have lost anything by making the holes on the radiator longer, I can just shift the whole thing back into position.

OK, guess I'm settled on that then, thanks for the feedback.