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Fitting electric radiator fan


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After over heating in a long queue of traffic on bank holiday Mondays hot day. I'm wanting to fit an electric fan Rimmer Bros do a kit. The two question I have: Do I remove the plastic fan from the water pump. Letting the electric fan do the cooling which I would fit with a temp switch in the bottom hose and secondly which side of the radiator would I fit the electric fan! Welcome comments.

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Fit a Revotec puller fan on the engine side of the radiator. It comes with a dedicated mounting frame and is easy to fit. Remove the plastic fan.

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Depending on your approach to DIY and engineering skills on the TR....

 

I am selling a NOS Spal pusher fan on BST.

https://www.tr-register.co.uk/classified/2017/Sale-NOS-Electric-Cooling-Fans-Pusher-type-Qty-1

 

I bought it to mount in front of the radiator as a manual self switched supplement to the standard engine fan.

I think I have the plastic tie wrap type mounts to attach it to the radiator core somewhere if you are interested.

This sort of thing. https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/fans-fan-kits/spal-fan-mounting-kit-set-of-4

Cheers

Peter W

 

PS The full Revotec kit available for TR6. https://www.motoringclassics.co.uk/classic-car-parts-uk/electronic-cooling-fan/revotec-triumph-tr5-tr6-suction-cooling-kit or https://www.revingtontr.com/product.asp?productid=rtr1483-c&affiliateid=

Edited by BlueTR3A-5EKT
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Dont buy a fan. Just fit an oil cooler and cool whats best for your engine and gives better oil pressure.

I live in a hot climate drive hard and have traffic to and from my garage (I live in town center) I even ran my car once with an empty radiator (due to a leaky lower hose) and the engine survived fine thanks to the cooler.

There is another thread here where a blown fuse meant no fan and now a damaged engine.

Better the devil you know????

If I remember there also used to be stuff about crankshaft balance after.?

Edited by Rem18
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There has been considerable previous chat here about oil coolers Rem and the consensus seemed to be that in the UK for road use they are unnecessary as the oil doesn't really ever reach the proper temperature anyway. A high oil pressure is not necessarily good if it is caused by thick oil which doesn't flow. Oil flow is important - pressure not so much.

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I cannot see how an oil cooler would help in traffic when there is no air flow. Fit an electric fan with an override if you wish. By all means leave the plastic fan on for belt and braces but it will be fine without. Dont worry about crankshaft balance, there is a damper fitted and the mass of the plastic fan is not significant.

Edited by peejay4A
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As you wish.

Just referring my personal experience. Even standing the cooler gives off significant heat and I dont think I have ever seen the car go significantly hot.

My indication regards pressure was just indicative and as a point regards an extra you get with the cooler.

I dont really agree regards the temperature as my car normally sits just below half temp on a cooler.

All I can say is that 30 years driving in temperature ranges of -10 to 40c° here just below the alps where we have hot summers and cold winters with no problems so far, same engine good bearings etc (touch wood). A fan is just another thing to go wrong IMHO. But as you prefer

There has been considerable previous chat here about oil coolers Rem and the consensus seemed to be that in the UK for road use they are unnecessary as the oil doesn't really ever reach the proper temperature anyway. A high oil pressure is not necessarily good if it is caused by thick oil which doesn't flow. Oil flow is important - pressure not so much.

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My car came with no engine fan and some strange electric thing which didn't work very well.

 

Replaced with a Kenlow front mounted kit from Rimmers afterwards I saw the revotec unit and it looks a better made unit , the mounting brackets are certainly better.

 

After a sensor failure I also fitted a second relay fed supply direct to the fan with switch and indicator light in the dash

 

Brian

Edited by brian -r
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My experience with the Revotec switch s has been negative both didn’t last long.

 

Fit a switch in the bottom hose the usual TR vendors sell the stainless bottom hose with a 22mm boss for a switch to go in that takes standard switches. I’ve forgotten which this is.

 

Alternatively get a 22mm boss soldered into the top of the rad and fit a switch with an off setting 4degrees c above you thermostat temp.

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Agree that an oil cooler can be over kill. But worth sharing one experience. We did a trip to Spa for the classic and did a few track laps. We spent the whole set off track laps behind a beautiful TR5 in my beat up TR6. After the 5 laps the TR5 had 0 psi at idle and an annoyed owner (engine had been rebuilt). We had the same oil pressure as when we started. The previous year we had no cooler and were in the same situation as the TR5 owner. So in this case an oil cooler is perhaps a benefit.

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80mph + with an oil cooler and with lots of airflow I can buy. Stationary in traffic though I am doubtful about other than the increased volume of oil taking a bit longer to dissipate heat.

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Haha Tim your contradicting yourself.

Seriously thats still my point, an oil cooler is great if you want to put your foot down a bit, once oil gets a bit of a paddling the oil cooler shows its worth, all I was saying is that its no more overkill than the fan, mods, wires and stuff.

I live in a hot climate with a 6 bought from new by my father and my 5. Neither have an electric fan, the 6 has uprated relief spring and rocker feeder, the 5 just an oil cooler without thermostat.

I just warm her up a bit and dont accelerate hard at first.

The 6's oil thins out in traffic or after a burn and pressure drops. The 5 doesnt suffer in a burn or traffic and as I wrote previously once the bottom hose had leaked all the water out overnight and I hadnt noticed and thanks to the cooler I drove home through town and 'I didnt blow the head', with a fan probably it would never have cut in without water.

I can understand the idea that stopped oil rad doesnt make a difference, but I think it does. Also the extra 1L of oil seems to actually help too as I think it means more fluid for dissipation.

A friend who was Tech head at 2x F1 teams and designed a world championship car once told me that Oil cools much more than water, he's credentials are right but I dont know, all I can say is it works for me. I have been an organisor of the 50in5 Alpine jaunt (50 alpine passes in 5 days on 2,000+kms which we are probably restarting), my 5 has done it many times.

Anyway plenty of mountains to climb and the pressure always good and no overheating.

I am no expert but with a family 6 that has 47 years on original engine and a 5 with 25 years on a cooler all I can say is 'Im still here' Oops should I have said that???

Mine was just a suggestion as an alternative on what has worked for me, I dont want to upset anyone or cause a ping pong.

The real solution is know your car.... :rolleyes:

Agree that an oil cooler can be over kill. But worth sharing one experience. We did a trip to Spa for the classic and did a few track laps. We spent the whole set off track laps behind a beautiful TR5 in my beat up TR6. After the 5 laps the TR5 had 0 psi at idle and an annoyed owner (engine had been rebuilt). We had the same oil pressure as when we started. The previous year we had no cooler and were in the same situation as the TR5 owner. So in this case an oil cooler is perhaps a benefit.

Edited by Rem18
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You shouldn't be overheating with the standard engine driven fan anyway.

Get your rad re-cored first, and flush the cooling system.

Don't treat the symptoms without dealing with the cause.

Jerry

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You shouldn't be overheating with the standard engine driven fan anyway.

Get your rad re-cored first, and flush the cooling system.

Don't treat the symptoms without dealing with the cause.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

I agree that you should sort out the cause first etc.

However with no forward movement (TRafic jam) the standard engine mounted fan will eventually the engine to overheat.

The electric fan can be brought on line before the engine gets hot and help cooling a great deal.

 

Roger

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Thanks Ed,

I didnt know it was that much!

Now the comparison:

Say that for TR we might loose say 5 hp or around 4kW on the original fan, based on the movie.

But the current draw of an electric fan is not that high, say 12A which equals 12X12 = 144 W, say 0,2 hp.

So why is there such a difference in power consumption between an electric fan and a mechanical driven fan?

I gues fan speed and blade design play a role?

Or is there more into it?

Regards,

Waldi

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The mechanical fan is a constant sink of power. An electric fan only cuts in when needed, usually at low speeds.

 

Sorry, I realise that I have just stated the obvious.

Edited by peejay4A
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Waldi--

 

That's the same question I asked myself--why the suspiciously huge difference in fan power consumption (25X in your example)?

 

Less power consumption would imply less air-moving capability so, assuming similar air-moving efficiencies, we'd have to admit that the electric fan can't move as much air as the engine driven fan. But the engine fan consumes the most power and moves the most air at high RPMs, which would imply higher speeds, when it probably isn't even needed!

 

The electric fan, OTOH, cannot move nearly as much air as the mechanical fan can at 5000 RPM, but it shouldn't need to.

 

So the higher losses from the mechanical fan are truly parasitic in the sense that at high RPMs where it consumes the most power, it isn't even contributing anything useful.

 

I don't know for sure, but would think that a good electric fan may move more air at engine idle than a mechanical fan does.

 

To Peejay's point, since the electric fan is only part-time, it's energy efficiency (in terms of fuel needed to provide the energy) gets even better.

 

Ed

Edited by ed_h
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Can't see the video, but you have to consider that a perfect electric fan is designed to move exactly the air required to keep the car cool. In contrast the engine driven fan pushes air at whatever speed the engine RPM dictates. It is designed to push enough air at idle to keep the car cool. Above that it is just pushing more and more air and sapping more power.

Interesting the comment that with an engine driven fan the engine will eventually over heat. This is not my experience.. early in my TR6 ownership I got caught in a massive traffic jam on the Second Severn crossing in mid summer. Really scorching and with an engine driven fan the car stayed perfectly at middle on the gauge.. these was even with the surrounding air temp being excessive.. we started wilting before the engine :-)

Saying that I am probably going to go with a solely electric fan system from now on..

 

Cheers

Tim

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I would have to say that I dont really agree with this statement that a standard fan and engine cant deal with traffic and have experiences similar to Tim D here in Italy (I have an oil cooler though and it helps a lot). Certainly an add on fan is a good solution. But all through the 70's My father drove his new 6 with a standard Cp and no oil cooler, to the West End in London to work as his day to day car and I dont ever recall a problem, if anything I only recall the plugs fouling a bit and my dad keen to give a bit of a burn once back out of town.

Hi Jerry,

I agree that you should sort out the cause first etc.

However with no forward movement (TRafic jam) the standard engine mounted fan will eventually the engine to overheat.

The electric fan can be brought on line before the engine gets hot and help cooling a great deal.

 

Roger

Edited by Rem18
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I would have to say that I dont really agree with this statement that a standard fan and engine cant deal with traffic and have experiences similar to Tim D here in Italy (I have an oil cooler though and it helps a lot). Certainly an add on fan is a good solution. But all through the 70's My father drove his new 6 with a standard Cp and no oil cooler, to the West End in London to work as his day to day car and I dont ever recall a problem, if anything I only recall the plugs fouling a bit and my dad keen to give a bit of a burn once back out of town.

I've had no problems with an engine driven fan in 40 degree Australian summers , the temp. needle moves up but never reaches the red zone.

 

And I run without a fan shroud - it wasn't fitted when I purchased the car and I've seen no cause to fit one since.

Edited by Mike C
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