Too Close For Comfort

[Guest Mr Pid]

One of the things i noticed when my engine went very wrong was that the fan had become stuck under the top part of the rad.

 

I noticed that some other hoods have the fan sat, as i do, on the engine side of the front crossmember thus making it sit very close to the fan.

 

Richard does mention on the vid that the fan may need to be trimmed or shaved down to ensure clearance and although i did this it still caught the top lip of the rad.

 

The obvious thing to do would be remove some more of the blades but if i take any more off there is going to be nothing left of it!

 

Another interesting point is that if for some reason the fan did become stuck again and stopped rotating would this jam the pulleys/water pump and damage the engine in any way? :boohoo:

 

Any thoughts very welcome!

 

Cheers

 

Stu

[Guest Ant]

I noticed that some other hoods have the fan sat, as i do, on the engine side of the front crossmember thus making it sit very close to the fan.

 

There's too many fans in that sentance for me! Are you talking about an electric radiator fan such as the one in the kit, or the thermo viscous fan originally fitted to the pinto engine?

 

If a thermo viscous fan gets stuck on something then either the water pump will stop rotating (and possibly the alternator), or the fan blades will bend or break. Remember that a viscous fan is free spinning until it gets hot so you may not know its stuck until you actually need it.

 

Ant

[Guest Mr Pid]

Oh yeah- that'll teach me not to proof read things!

 

Sorry Ant, you are right i did mean the viscous fan being dangerously close to the rad when it is mounted on the engine side of the crossmember.

 

I may have to see if i can get any smaller fans to fit- the viscous fan at present has a huge centre piece which is about 6-8 inches in diameter, cant really see the need for it to be this big. It takes up so much valuable space where some blades could be to suck some more air in.

 

Dont fancy it getting jammed again though, especially if it locks up everything else with it! could get very messy me thinks! :boohoo:

 

Stu

[Guest Andy Sparrow]

Y not remove viscous fan (thus release power to wheels) & fit a leccy Pusher or puller - as space allows

 

A

[Guest Mr Pid]

Space is the biggest problem in this situation. The fan itself if fairly thin but when the engine flexes under strain this is what causes it to come in contact with the rad. All the leccy pullers i looked at are thicker than the fan and so if it was mounted directly on the back of the rad and the engine flexed under load the pulleys would touch the fan.

 

It wouldnt be much but as both are critical moving parts its bound to go very wrong if this happens. :boohoo:

 

I have considered the front and squeezed a pusher in but i am not sure this is enough to cope by himself- the other pusher i fitted sits very close to the floor and im sure in no time at all it will be ripped off and not alot air actually passes over the rad, only about 70% of it.

 

I will try and get a piccy to post at the weekend to try and explain a bit better.

 

Stu

[Guest jetskijase]

Mr Pid

have you got a slanting rad set up?

 

If so, i got rid of the visc fan and got a sucker fan from a renault van, it comes with a frame is very thin and fits on the back of the rad in front of the top cross member.

 

If you haven't got a slanty one then maybe a normal fan to fit on the pulley instead of a visc one. less room taken up by the visc stuff as you said.

 

Jase

[Guest Bob Rowell]

Have a look at Citroens in a breakers, the fan motor on most models is very thin. It is probably the same one mentioned by Jetskijase, as a lot of Renault/Citroen/Peugeot parts are interchangeable.

[ibrooks]

The big boss in the middle of the Sierra fan is the thermo-viscous clutch. This means the blades are fairly free from the pulley when cold but as it heats up they are more directly connected.

 

The earlier Fords with Pintos didn't have a thermo-viscous unit but a true viscous fan which is held on with the four bolts that hold the pulley onto the water pump. Since it doesn't have the clutch it's centre boss is smaller and the total diameter is smaller whilst the blades are the same length.

 

Just an aside about these fans taking power from the engine. I had a thermo unit sieze on my Sierra (turning it into a viscous) and the difference it made was unbelievable - a tuned 2.1 felt gutless. The difference it made when I put a "new" thermo unit on was amazing - put the grin back on my face anyway. Fit electric if you can there are various thin fans out there. My personal favourite is the pusher from in front of a Sierra or Granada with air-con - large diameter and fairly thin.

 

Having said all that I may not be the best person to listen to when talking about cooling systems. Check the north-west pages and look at the Harrogate report from last year. Yep that first picture is me and my S7.

 

Iain

[Guest Ant]

i got rid of the visc fan and got a sucker fan from a renault van

 

Snap! Great minds ...

[Guest jetskijase]

Hi ant

Sorted

 

what have you used as a thermostat to turn the fan on and off?, I'm looking at the brass tube type that fit's inside the top hose, but i've only seen these new in mags. Anything in the scrappys i could use?

 

Jase.

[Guest Ant]

I turned one up at work - from solid brass of all things. The joys of free access to the workshops.

 

 

The temp sender is of 1.8 cvh Sierra spec. that said, it turns the fan on a bit early I think. Better safe than sorry, but check the haynes manual for the car which you get the fan switch from and try to get one from a car with similar thermostat opening and closing temps as the pinto Sierra.

 

Better still, premier wiring sell housings with variable temp thermostat switches. Not cheap though.

 

Ant

[Big Jim]

Better still, premier wiring sell housings with variable temp thermostat switches. Not cheap though.

 

Most of the motorsport aftermarket gang will now supply the tubes with the boss on, ie. Demon Theives etc.

But the switches from Premier wiring are very reasonable, I have a double switch and use it with a 2 speed fan. They have a few switches with different settings, he charges £8 for a switch.

Also they are 22mm thread size, which is the same as the Ford item from your CVH or Fiesta, and the same thread as a Vauxhall switch as well, so these can be used or carried as a 'spare'

[Guest Ant]

Can I have a bit more info on your setup, Jim? How does the two speed thing work? Is there two windings on your fan, or do you have a big resistor like on a multi-speed cabin heater fan? Also, how do you specify the on and off temperatures? It's not digital is it? Twiddle screws on a graduated scale perhaps?

 

Ant

[Big Jim]

Nothing fancy at all Ant, and it works brilliantly.

 

I made the tube at work, with a brass boss brazed on with the correct thread (In fact I made a few[all gone, sorry] we have one with a bog standard switch out of a Fiesta in for the Jeep)

I always lower the temparature of the thermostat that I fit to my engines, (I had 78º in the Pinto) and now have a stat that is open at 82º in the Vauxhall engine. (The Vauxhall stat is somewhat hotter) I noticed on the Premier wirings advert in the Kit car mags, that they did various temparatures, and had decided on which I would get, just to wire one side of the 2 speed fan. Actually looking through their box of switches at Stafford last year, I noticed a few had 3 connections, not 2, these turned out to be for 2 different temparatures on the same switch. So the first one comes on at 87º and off at 83º and the second one comes on at 93º, and goes off at 87º I have a fan from a 340 Volvo (I think!) which is wired for 2 speeds, so it was just simple to wire the first switch side to the slower of the fan speeds, and the higher temp side to the faster of the fan speeds. (As luck would have it, it's never needed to go onto the fast one yet!)

[Guest Andy Sparrow]

That seems a bit of a low temp to switch on at

- I seem to remember my stat doesnt open until 88 degrees ?

 

Is this right ?

 

A