Fitting fans to radiator

[Dimi Terleckyj]

Hi Trevor

As per your diagram the fans should sit on the shroud not on the core so that the air flow from all parts of the radiator can be drawn and not just the area in front of the fans.

Not only does the shroud give you something to mount the fans onto but it also forces airflow through all the core and through the fans.

Dimi

 

[Tim Kay]

Trev, I've seen many fans mounted in the manner your doing and it certainly works so it could come down to personal preference. I'm in the camp with Dimi and if room allows why not elevate the fan away from the radiator, as Ben's 3D drawing shows, thereby taking advantage of pulling (you are using "pullers"?)from the total surface area of the core, not just directly in front of the fans?
Tim

 

[TrevS]

Thanks guys, that actually makes things easier by mounting the fans onto the shroud. I wasn't sure which way would be more effective but once again the community comes to the rescue. Does this look better?

Trevor

 

[Randy V]

Thanks guys, that actually makes things easier by mounting the fans onto the shroud. I wasn't sure which way would be more effective but once again the community comes to the rescue. Does this look better?

Trevor

I like that Trevor.. Much like the way I did my own.

 

[EGLITOM]

H Trevor

to add to the confusion

Would never do a shroud, it obscures the free flow at high speed to much. Just do the maths it covers the rad from something 20 to 30%. Fans are only to support in heavy traffic. For that they need to be mounted either on a shroud (again not recommanded) or very close on the rad core, best sealed with a rubberfoam stripe, in order to loose nothing of their anyway poor sucking power, much better would be to mount them as blower, but that is very ugly. If they will run all the time , your rad is to small or the flow obscured to múch. Instead of a shroud i would rather focus on sealing the front inlet to get the full pressurarised air flow at speed through the rad ( will be my next project on my car)
Check my build log, i have welded tabs on the rad to mount the fans. Imho the most easiest an cleanest way to do it.

TOM

 

[TrevS]

Thanks for the info Tom. I think mounting the fans first on tabs fitted to the radiator sounds like the best plan. I can then add a shroud easily if I think it's needed. Can I ask what thickness the aluminium you used for your tabs is?

 

[Stephen Tonks]

Hi Trevor

I'm with Tom. However, I will qualify this by saying I am an enthusiast amateur and can only base my agreeement on my experiences. The fans are only really needed when the car is stationery, or in slow moving traffic. At speed, you want the maximum amount of air through the radiator with little or no restriction. Unfortunately, the fans will get in the way, as would anything else. I have never fitted a shroud and never suffered from overheating. The biggest problem I have had is making sure the cooling system is bled properly. Once this is done, I find the system works fine. I have used Water Wetter, but not all the time.

I'm not too sure how the climate has affected all of this. The car is used in the UK and France, for road use and track days, for the last 18 years.

Hope this all helps, rather than confuse.

Regards

Stephen

:thumbsup:

 

[EGLITOM]

Trevor, think the tabs are 2,5 -3mm thick alumnimum, i´m away from home since next week friday , so sorry that i can not give your the exact dimensions now.

TOM

 

[TrevS]

Hi all

Time for an update on my rad brackets. I bought some 3mm aluminium flat bar and made four brackets to fit the fan. They feel nice and strong and I think will work a treat once welded onto the radiator.

I nearly took the brackets to be welded on Friday but thought I'd just get the thumbs up from you guys so what do you think, will this be OK? I know the brackets won't be able to sit this close to the bottom edge of the radiator as there will need to be room for the weld but it was the only way I could take a picture of the brackets and rad.

My only other concern is the air conditioning radiator and how that will be mounted. Does anyone know how the Tornado AC rad i mounted or the dimensions as I don't want to block off a section of the radiator that I might need? One idea might be to make the smaller individual brackets like this which is what I think Keith baker has done, would this be better?

 

[René]

you also will fit some rubber buffers between the fans and radiator were you mount them I guess?

 

[David]

Are those the Tornado supplied fans? What size are they?
I was thinking of a set of 12in fans, something like these
UNIVERSAL 12" STRAIGHT BLADE ELECTRIC COOLING RADIATOR FAN KIT CAR PUSH PULL | eBay

 

look at My build log Trev. That's how I fitted my A/C rad.
It's a Solid fixing, allow for these welded on fixing brackets when the rad fan brackets are welded on.
My A/C works a treat

 

[TrevS]

That's what I am trying to do Keith but the problem I have is I don't have the AC rad yet and it looks like the Tornado AC rad is much smaller than yours so I want to leave the right space on the radiator to mount the AC rad at a later date. Looking at this image below it looks like where my brackets are should allow enough room to fit some additional brackets for AC Rad.

What do you think?

 

[TrevS]

you also will fit some rubber buffers between the fans and radiator were you mount them I guess?

Correct

 

[BruceA]

I have just done exactly this to my Lotus Esprit. The factory shroud was cracked, broken and rusty. I mounted some 'L' brackets to the radiator frame and, well you can see the rest. It originally had 3 fans but had been running on 2 for years, so decided to replace the old Ford Escort fitted ones with the 2 you see in the picture.

 

[TrevS]

Looks really nice Bruce. I like the idea of fitting L shape rails to the inside of the Radiator, how did you fit them? Looks like you have rivetted them into place

 

[BruceA]

Trev - I did rivit them on. The "L" brackets are aluminium 3mm by 30x30. But ...
I cut one side of the aluminium so it would fit nicely against the frame, so its like about 30 x 25 or so now. The fans were, as you probably guessed, a bit shorter than the size of the core, so I had to overhang the L bracket into the core area, but its only like around 7mm or so, so wont affect air flow. The fans sit about 3mm off the core and narrow strip of 'door sealing' foam was placed around the circumference of the fan housing between the fan and core so the blades wont suck air from the sides. The foam is about 6mm wide and sticky on one side - found at the local hardware store. The radiator is actually brass (bless Lotus cotton socks!) and the frame is steel. Had no problems with cooling with only the two fans.