[HO455]

Originally Posted by vardenafil

Which way is the fan blades supposed to be orientated? I reassembled them the same way I took them off but who knows if the PO had it on right to begin with

https://ibb.co/GvckTf7

See my photo above for the correct fan blade orientation.

Your fan should be deeper inside the shroud like mine is. About 5/8 to 3/4 inch sticking out of the backside.

For the comon lengths GM fan spacers are available in 1/2" increments. So getting a longer one shouldn't be a problem.

Having finally figured out how to view your pictures I can see that your shroud has definite issues. First off it needs to be sealed around the radiator completely. The green area in photo needs to be closed up. Is the area near the red arrow open? It looks like I can see the radiator fins there.

Air being pulled by the fan will take the path of least resistance which is not through the radiator fins. The idea is the fan blades create an area of low pressure (A vacuum if you will) and then air rushes to fill the low pressure area back up. The air must be forced to flow through the radiator fins. On yours the air can bypass the radiator fins just about everywhere.

Then the fan blades need to be much deeper into the shroud
I'm not sure but you may not have the correct shroud someone else will know for sure. To me it looks wrong or maybe heavily modified. A last photo from a wider angle of my shroud.