Slimline Rad Fans

[James_m 0]

Anybody got any experience with these? looking to finally mount my rad properly and ditch the standard rad cowling as it sometimes struggles to contain the coolant temp at idle.

Been looking at the 'brand' name ones from rallydesign etc, but is there any point getting one over an ebay special such as this kind of thing? *edit* link failed but item no. 380159110458

Also what kind of size is sufficent? im thinking of a 10" blowing.

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated

Edited September 23, 2009 by James_m

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Pulling will most of the time give you a better cooling effect but its wether you can fit it in. 10" will be sufficent I imagine if it has enough draw.

[mrswampy 0]

Have a look in kit car mags for suppliers.

I like svc and the prices aint bad

[Cameron 16]

If you're going single fan you really want an 11" minimum, and that's a Pacet fan as they have higher airflow than the cheapo ones. I have an 11" on mine and its been fine even on the hottest of days, a 13" would probably be more suitable though. As Ed said you ideally want it sucking rather than blowing, but its not life-threatening if you can't.

[All Praise The GTI 3]

sorry to but in and ask a silly Q. but i fitted a cheap ebay 12" fan to my track car. wasnt sure if ive itted it sucking or blowing but its on the outside where standard one is normally. when you say fitt it sucking i guess you mean pulling air in and fitting engine side of rad so when your going fast its stil drawing more air through?

thanks

nat

[Goliath 94]

Yes, normal 205 fans are fitted infront of the rad and are setup to blow air through, fitting a fan behind the rad (engine side) and setting it to sucj air through is what these boys are on about

 

I am trying to work out how to do this on mine, but I dont have much room behind the rad, only enough for a small 8" fan, so I may endup with one sucking and 2 10" blowing.

[Cameron 16]

That's probably a bit overkill! I just have one 11" on the front of the rad and it does the job just fine. I think if I stuck it on the back it might be able to do the same job as a 13" on the front.

Remember these things sap some serious current, so 3 fans could be a bit of a stuggle for the alt.

Edited September 24, 2009 by Cameron

[Goliath 94]

Good point, I hadn't thought about the current. hmmm. I do need more then the norm though as I had problems with overheating before. I might just try 2 x 10" fans blowing and see how that goes...

[James_R 3]

I have one 10" Spal fan sucking and had no issues other than almost making the car cut out it's soo fecking powerful :s

[Cameron 16]

1 13" fan would draw much less current than 2 10" fans, and will do just fine. If your overheating problems are so bad that the 13" Pacet fan can't cope then you probably want to sort them out first.

[Galifrey 1]

Best overall performance would be a push/pull arrangement with a fan on either side of the rad.

 

Same method we use to cool high performance watercooled and overclocked aircooled pc's

 

Used this system on my Kitcar until I eventually realised the issue was the pump not flowing enough water!

 

Fitted a high performance water pump and the water stopped boiling in the block... at idle waterpumps are highly ineffective.

Edited September 24, 2009 by Porsche911r101

[Goliath 94]

1 13" fan would draw much less current than 2 10" fans, and will do just fine. If your overheating problems are so bad that the 13" Pacet fan can't cope then you probably want to sort them out first.

 

I don't think I could fit a 13" fan in front, certainly couldn't fit one behind. Check out my build thread and you will see, I think its more the 'big engine-small car' combination that makes it overheat as the actual routing of the pipes is good and the Rad is good, currently running without a thermostat though but it still heats up really quickly from cold.

 

I don't get any problems with overheating when driving above 30mph, it's only when stationary in traffic etc...

[Galifrey 1]

I don't get any problems with overheating when driving above 30mph, it's only when stationary in traffic etc...

 

This was the issue I had with my kit car, the pump just wasn't flowing enough water thru the block, and the water in the block was heating up too fast in slow traffic. Once the water was flowing fast enough, it reached an equilibrium and stopped boiling over. I was monitoring the water temp in the rad as well as the head to reach this outcome.

[Cameron 16]

Aha I seeeee!

Yeah you're quite pushed for space aren't you!

[welshpug 1,627]

sounds like its to do with that thermostat George!

[Cameron 16]

Ditch the thermostat and go electric water pump. Problem solved.

[James_R 3]

AS cam says, or get your hands on a clio Mk1 16v booster pump for idling???

 

side note, is the rad cap higher pressure on the 406's like GTi-6's have over the 205 std rad caps to let the engine run hotter without boiling over?

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

There's a company called Kenlowe right near my house. They build fans for cars etc.

[Goliath 94]

AS cam says, or get your hands on a clio Mk1 16v booster pump for idling???

 

Luckily I have one of those lying around left over from my clio which I am breaking It never worked on the clio so will have to give it a go and see if I can get it to run. Not sure where in the system I would put it though as it has small take offs so would probably need to go between the top of the heater matrix and the block?!

[James_m 0]

Thanks for the responses Think i will probably go for a 11" Pacet blowing and see how i get on.

One other question, it seems these fans take a lot of power to run, are people running the standard rad fan wiring without problems?

I was just going to solder my original plug to the new fan, should be ok right....

[Goliath 94]

Sorry for the slight thread hijack!

 

Tbh you should be fine with the normal pug fan wiring, its quite thick and can take a fair bit or current. I haven't hears of anyone changing it to run different fans.

[Cameron 16]

You might run into problems soldering the old wires, when they're even slightly corroded its very difficult to get the solder to stick. You'd probably be better off using crimp terminals.

 

The standard wiring should be fine current-wise.

[Galifrey 1]

I used an electric waterpump designed for a v8 hehe

 

The bosch electric booster pump was no good!

 

And that was in a tiny wee 1200cc engine

[Anthony 1,000]

Tbh you should be fine with the normal pug fan wiring, its quite thick and can take a fair bit or current. I haven't hears of anyone changing it to run different fans.

Personally, I'd make (or adapt a diesel fan loom to create) a proper relayed fan setup - the 205 GTi fan setup is marginal as it is in my opinion, and if you're running a higher current fan, that's only going to be asking even more of the thermoswitch (full current goes through it on a GTi setup) and the standard corroded connectors.

[Jamal 2]

Tbh you should be fine with the normal pug fan wiring, its quite thick and can take a fair bit or current. I haven't hears of anyone changing it to run different fans.

 

I'm using the fan relay box from a Xantia. It has got 2 steps: 1. both fans going slow, 2. both fans spinnig on 12V. So you can use the standard temp switch with the two 80W fans.