Electic cooling fan TR2

[EdwinTiben]

Hi there !

 

I'd like to add an extra cooling fan to my tr2 for some extra cooling (need some extra to rally in mountains, during jams, etc etc)

 

I'll keep the original one and put the new one in front of the radiator. but here's the catch... there's not really that much space because of the small mouth with grill in the back. my guess.. 4 or 5 cm?

 

Here's the Q: do you know any type which i can put in front ? (have a kenlow, that's too thick..)

 

Pacet?

a used fan from airco system?

 

looking forward hearing from you !!

 

Cheers,

 

Edwin

[Trevor S]

Hello Edwin, I will be interested in any replies you get as I have also investigated this problem but could find nothing narrow enough to fit. I suspect most replies you will get will merely suggest you do away with the original fan, and fit an electric fan behind the radiator.

My compromise was that I found an original Stanpart 6 blade hot climate fan and fitted this in place of the standard 4 blade fan. Regretably as I am still rebuilding my TR2 (finished this year hopefully) I don't know how effective it is. I can post a photograph of the fan if you like so that you know what to look out for.

Regards

Trevor.

[stuart]

The only other option is to fit a 3 front grill and then the Kenlowe type can be fitted in front. The Pacet fans are the thinnest profile as far as I know and even those wont fit between the rad and front panel with the grill fitted on a 2.

Stuart.

[EdwinTiben]

I guess you are both right, but perhaps there's someone how has a solution...

 

Like I said perhaps a fan for a modern airco system would fit.

 

I have recoiled the radiator with a larger cooling block so I should have some more cooling...

 

Last summer I didn't had any problems while driving but when I stop the car (traffic lights, jam, etc) you can see the temp going up even to 215

 

A 6 blade fan... perhaps thats an idea... is it an accessory or can i use from another triumph ?

 

Cheers

[Andrew Smith]

A 6 blade fan... perhaps thats an idea... is it an accessory or can i use from another triumph ?

Hi Edwin

 

There was a tropical 6 blade fan offered by S-T for hot climates but they are very rare nowadays, particularly in good condition without any blade damage.

 

 

 

They do pop up on Ebay from time-to-time, but a good one will usually command a high price (for what they are), although you could be lucky?

 

Cheers

Andrew

[Steve R]

Hi Edwin

My car is fitted with a plastic fan, 6 blades at least (It's a bit difficult to see), never had a problem with overheating, even with the radiator with the starter hole.

The helpful bit is that a different fan does seem to work.

The unhelpful bit is that I've no Idea what car It's from.

Steve

[rogeraero]

I fitted a Kenlowe fan behind the rad on my TR2 no problems..just told Kenlowe the model of car and they supplied..no hassle works well.

Regards

Roger

[Guest colinTR2]

Roger, did you remove the standard fan, and leave the wide belt alone?

I ran my 2 for around 15 years after its rebuild and became a firm believer that the 2 does not overheat, it never happened. Then a couple of years ago I had it tuned at Malvern. It runs very well, the petrol consumption improved from upper 20s to 32mpg, BUT it now overheats in a long queue etc, first happened on entering the Bromley Pageant. Mine is absolutely standard with a normal fan, radiator etc. I have just recently fitted a restrictor in the by-pass hose so we will see what happens this year, if this makes any difference. There was a thread around 3-4 months ago about this. My understanding is that the 3A has tendencies to overheat, particularly if the cardboard deflectors are not fitted to duct air through the rad. I could accept a fan with more blades but am reluctant to start down the Kenlowe/Pacet road.

Colin

[john minchin]

Overheating at idle may be due to the mixture going too lean as the throttle spindles wear the bushes in the carb bodies.

 

I think that this may have been happening to my TR3a.

 

Evidence of this wear is also inconsistent idle speed and difficulty pulling away from the line at low revs.

 

Good Luck.

[david ferry]

Tropical 6 blade fan on ebay

 

This is being sold by Steve Chapman, a TR Register member and forum user.

 

Regards

 

David

[Paul Down]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edwin,

 

Are you aware of the electric fans now fitted to large bikes. I bought a couple on ebay for about £20 They are popular with some guys who hill climb TVR Vixens as you can cram 2 on the TVR's small radiator. The pair I bought are about 20 cm diameter and 5 cm thick although the connector stands proud but this could be removed and the wires just soldered.

 

Paul

[tony-qld]

My TR came with a plastic multi blade fan of unknown origin that didnt seem to help with my cooling at all. Even after I had the Radiator recored with a more efficient modern core I struggled to keep it cool once the temp rose to around 30C. In the end I ditched the fan and long nosed balancer on the front of the crank and fitted a Holden harmonic balancer. I was then able to fit 2 electric fans on the back of the radiator and an electric water pump. I then of course had to fit a 75amp alternator to supply enough juice to power them and the 100 watt head lights. I can now venture out on 35C days and not have even a hint of over heating. The only problem I now have on stinking hot days is sunburn. There is a 6 blade fan for sale on Australian e-bay at the moment.

[rogeraero]

Hi Colin,

Yes I removed the original fan and I kept the original pulley and belts. However I still got overheating in traffic and if the engine stopped it would not restart due to petrol evaporation.

Here are the drastic measures I took and I have now solved the problem:

1) I rebuilt the engine and had the block put in a cuastic bath to clear the crud.

2)I fitted a narrow pulley and belt system fron Revington

3)I made up a stainless steel heat shield which I fitted above the exhaust manifold to protect the carbs from heat

4) I used a bit of wire reinforced plasic vent ducting which is cable -clipped behind the grill and feeds ducted air onto the carbs.

 

Phew!!! sounds a lot but it happened over about 2 years and now the problem seems to have gone away!!

Hope this helps

Roger

[AMD333]

There is a mere 4 cm so I looked for everything and there is nothing that will fit. I rebuild the radiator with a high capacity net and got rid of the hole no one uses. This gives me a 15 % increase of cooling capacity and no problems so far.

Being X engine in the car which I do not want to break, I have put a fan between the radiator and the original fan by shortening the original pully axe.

As far as I know this is the only way you can do it.

 

Regards

Pascal

[EdwinTiben]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the replies. Took some time to respond....

 

it seems there's just not enough room to fit a electric fan in front of the radiator.. have browsed the scrapyards for electric fans of renault's citroens, etc. but kenlowe is really the thinnest option and even that one is too thick.

 

now i'm looking into the option to fit a different cooling fan.

 

I looked at the tropical 6 blade, but isn't that just the same fan as from the triumph gt6 mk1???

 

I own a gt6 mk1 and have the exact same fan, even one on spare. i held it in front of the original one, holes fit nicely.

[BrianC]

I'll keep the original one and put the new one in front of the radiator. but here's the catch... there's not really that much space because of the small mouth with grill in the back. my guess.. 4 or 5 cm?

 

Here's the Q: do you know any type which i can put in front ? (have a kenlow, that's too thick..)

I hope my memory is not playing tricks, but I'm sure that in the early days of the TR Register, there was a concours-winning, red TR2 owned by Chris Sergison, which had an electric fan mounted in front of the grill. He used to drive this with wife and two small children and towing a caravan

 

I probably have some pictures stashed away and there are definitely some in old TRactions (was it actually called that in those days?) of which I have a complete set. If I can find one, I'll scan it in.

 

BTW, if you are interested in concours, then you may have to enter in the modified class with this setup, but I guess it works which is the most important priority. Alternatively, could you fit a thin Pacet or similar and move the grill forward a little (I'm not familiar with the TR2 front apron/grill arrangement)?

Edited May 7, 2008 by BrianC

[EdwinTiben]

I hope my memory is not playing tricks, but I'm sure that in the early days of the TR Register, there was a concours-winning, red TR2 owned by Chris Sergison, which had an electric fan mounted in front of the grill. He used to drive this with wife and two small children and towing a caravan

 

I probably have some pictures stashed away and there are definitely some in old TRactions (was it actually called that in those days?) of which I have a complete set. If I can find one, I'll scan it in.

 

BTW, if you are interested in concours, then you may have to enter in the modified class with this setup, but I guess it works which is the most important priority. Alternatively, could you fit a thin Pacet or similar and move the grill forward a little (I'm not familiar with the TR2 front apron/grill arrangement)?

 

 

a caravan...

 

i'm not really into concoursthing. i have replaced the original starter with one of www.britishstarter.com. Starts on the touch of the button !!

 

hope you'll fin the article !

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Brian,

 

Your memory is fine - LMW 140. Concours types were different then, Chris would often enough take in a sprint or hillclimb on the Saturday, win his class, then win the concours on the Sunday - complete with Carol, the kids and the caravan.

 

I can probably track Chris down if needs be, although I haven't seen him for a few years.

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

[BrianC]

Thanks Alec.

 

I have just quickly flicked through the first 10 years-worth of TRR Newsletters and TRactions (1970-1980) and only found a couple of pictures of LMW140 - both at race/sprint meetings. Photos weren't too clear (not suitable for scanning) - the use of photos of any sort in the early newsletters was sporadic, monochromic and often simply poor quality photocopies. How things have changed

 

I definitely have some pictures of the car which I took, but these will be on 35mm slides archived under the eaves. If I find them, does anyone know if slides will scan well enough into a JPEG?

 

However, both the newsletter photos I found showed the car without the front-mounted fan, so either I imagined this (or confused the car with another) or perhaps he removed it when not caravanning? If this were so, then that could be a solution for Edwin - just fit it for rallies and visits to the big cities

 

BTW: Looking at these old newsletters made me wonder what happened to all the early concours and well-known competition cars and their owners. There were some interesting period pictures of many still-current members and contributors to the Forum. I wonder if any of the original photos are still in the TRR archives.

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Brian,

 

Slides can be scanned easily enough, but the quality tends to be considerably better using a pukka film scanner rather than just a flatbed scanner.

 

I do have such a device if you need the odd slide copying, no problem - providing it's a handful of slides, not hundreds !! Although results are good, it can be a bit of a fiddly and time-consuming exercise, although that probably has more to do with operator limitation . . .

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

[vanflyer]

i would have to agree with Paul on the fans used on large sports bikes, my 1200 Kawasaki had dual fans that were tucked between the rad and the exhaust down pipes. these were powerful enough to keep a cooking 1200 bike cool in 35 degree weather and only cut in during slow traffic. they couldn't have been any larger than 1-1 1/2" deep at the motor and were probably 10" diameter. iwould look at a bike breaker, there will be plenty of bikes that have taken a trip into the weeds.

[vanflyer]

Try this link

 

http://www.tripacintl.com/fans/mcycle.html