Looks like my flex fan has a small crack in it and I scratched up an old 7 blade clutch fan that fits my 68. Since I've ran a fixed fan, and the clutch is probably toast off of the clutch fan, is there any particular reason I dont just weld up the clutch fan solid and save $60 on a clutch?

If you weld the clutch, the fan will actually restrict airflow through the radiator at highway speeds; the stock (functioning) thermo-modulated clutch disengages over 3000 rpm for just that reason.

:beers:

Also, because an OE 7 blade pulls so much air, it will consume a good amount of power (5 rwhp I'm told) all the time.
Buy the clutch and let it work. When the engine doesn't need it, it costs nothing in power unlike any flex fan that consume power all the time.

BlackoutSteve is right; the cluch setup saves you alot of HP. Hotrod mag did a test and picked up 15HP on a 360 Plymouth Duster by relacing the fixed bladed fan with a clutch fan setup. The test is in the "horsepower handbook" that I picked up at B&N.

you do NOT want to give a solid connection to a 7 blade oem fan. I did that once, it cooled great, but the noise was gawd-awful (even at idle), and the drag musta been tremendous