Blowing from the front or behind 🤔

[Dcsinclair22]

Hi guys, currently my radiator is mounted sideways (remember having the sideways mounted rad conversation last year) but is it best to have the electric fan blowing from engine side out through the rad towards the front of the car or mount the fan on front of the rad blowing air through the rad into engine bay? At the moment mine is fitted blowing out from engine bay through rad toward front of the car, but recently seen a few builds with the rad blowing from front to back and just wondered if there's any advantage to this?

Edited May 30, 2024 by Dcsinclair22
Because mounting the rad in front of the rad made no sense at all

[nelmo]

Sideways?! Over a hundred years of car design really suggests that 'at the front in the airflow' is best - surely you're going to have lots of heat problems? 

If you have to, it doesn't matter where you put the fan because you can get it to push or pull just by changing the wires to the motor. Whichever way, you want cold air blown over the rad IMO, so air from the outside pushed into the engine bay, I would say.

[Dcsinclair22]

Yeah honestly it's sideways and ive just realised that me stating SIDEWAYS  could mean mounted along the side of the car, what i actualy mean by sideways is turned 90° what's even stranger is.... it works, and apparently a few others have fitted the rad sideways too, my rad is fitted pushing air through the rad put the front of the car, same as on my motorhome and on my 23plate vitara, just wondered how everyone else's was and if there was any benefits to fitting the other way

[Dcsinclair22]

Picture of rad for reference 

[phaeton]

I too thought you meant you had mounted it at 90 degrees to the engine along the chassis rail as it were, not that you had simply turned the rad 90 degrees on it's mounting, not sure what advantage this gives. However to the actual question, if you are not using a shroud & simply have a fan against the radiator I don't think it makes a difference. I believe the 'best method' if there is such a thing is to have the fan mounted on the inside, between the rad & the engine, spaced slightly away from the radiator in a fully enclosed shroud. This then pulls the maximum amount of air through the whole of the radiator.

[Dcsinclair22]

22 minutes ago, phaeton said:

I too thought you meant you had mounted it at 90 degrees to the engine along the chassis rail as it were, not that you had simply turned the rad 90 degrees on it's mounting, not sure what advantage this gives. However to the actual question, if you are not using a shroud & simply have a fan against the radiator I don't think it makes a difference. I believe the 'best method' if there is such a thing is to have the fan mounted on the inside, between the rad & the engine, spaced slightly away from the radiator in a fully enclosed shroud. This then pulls the maximum amount of air through the whole of the radiator.

I have no idea why it's mounted like this, previous owner did it, I was considering buying a new rad and mounting it the correct way but upon further inspection this rad has a bit more surface area than the one at cbs so maybe that's why it's mounted like this, 

[nelmo]

11 hours ago, Dcsinclair22 said:

Yeah honestly it's sideways and ive just realised that me stating SIDEWAYS  could mean mounted along the side of the car, what i actualy mean by sideways is turned 90° what's even stranger is.... it works, and apparently a few others have fitted the rad sideways too, my rad is fitted pushing air through the rad put the front of the car, same as on my motorhome and on my 23plate vitara, just wondered how everyone else's was and if there was any benefits to fitting the other way

Aaahhhh, that makes sense, phew  

Mine is mounted outside the chassis (Zero) - if yours could be mounted outside the chassis, it could probably go the right way round. But I can understand why it works, shouldn't make any difference if it's rotated or not (the top input is still at a high point of the rad for airlock prevention).

You definitely don't want the fan sucking air out as it would be competing with the normal airflow - you want to add to the existing airflow, not fight it. I've never heard of anyone doing that on purpose - when I first wired mine up, it was going the wrong way (50/50 guess on the fan wiring and I got the wrong one).

Edited May 31, 2024 by nelmo