Jump to content
SAU Community

Thermo Fans?

davidl

By davidl,
in General Maintenance

 Share

Recommended Posts

Sumo Mentor

Sumo

Posted
Posted

I was talking to my boss about the electric fans just yesterday, asking him how hard it was to set it up. He reckons it was a piece of piss and he even told me that I could have the brand new fan out the back that he never got round to fitting on his old mazda.

Just gotta make sure that when you set up the electrics, you make them trigger off your A/C switch and also from your adjustable thermometer.

Sumo

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-690303
Share on other sites
cul202 Experienced

cul202

Posted
Posted

yeah i think i'm going to get one myself. the clutch fan packed it in so i took it off which means that all i've got left is the little thermo on the front which seems to be doing well so far. gotta drive with one eye on the temp until i fit a thermo tho

if you can fit a thermo to make good use of the factory shroud it should work efficiently with one fan.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-690346
Share on other sites
blind_elk Grand Master

blind_elk

Posted
Posted

Two things to look out for:

1. You have to set up a system that forces the air to go thru the radiator. Otherwise, the air simply passes out underneath the car and the engine overheats.

2. You need to re-wire the small fan out front of the A/C radiator. This is a thermo fan, and only comes on when the engine gets too hot. Without cooling air (normally provided by the standard clutch fan), the A/C gas over pressurises, and it sounds like a BOV going off.

IMHO, the power gains (couple of kW) are not worth the headaches.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-690611
Share on other sites
pinoi_boi_r33 Community Regular

pinoi_boi_r33

Posted
Posted

where do you get these thermo fans from. I looked on the davies craig site and a 16 inch is over 300 bux (for all the 16 inch kits). Thats a bit much don't u think, I want to upgrade to clear future piping but does anyone kno of any other good fans that are a little cheaper.

Also couldn't u hook up the wiring so that the fan will only work when the thermo opens. That would be good for those cold morining starts, coz the clutch fan always spins.

rom.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-691060
Share on other sites
Sumo Mentor

Sumo

Posted
Posted

I know a fair few of you are sceptical of thermo's, but all the big semi's run an electic clutched Horton fans, and if setup correctly from the start have no problems with them what so ever. I was thinking of getting a shroud off a car with a similair size radiator and modifying it to suit.

Sumo

P.S. Only problem I have is how do they stop the thermo's from overspinning at higher speeds?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-691529
Share on other sites
davidl Collaborator

davidl

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ok I have now installed a 14inch daviescraig fan, brought from Burson auto parts, cost me $120 but i get cost from there.

It works great, you can also get a themro switch which you place in the radiator housing and once it is up to the temp you want it to it will kick in, takes a while to adjust but it works nicely.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-691695
Share on other sites
Jay95R33 Grand Master

Jay95R33

Posted
Posted

My 16 inch Davies Craig hasn't missed a beat in over 12 months.

Temps are stable, engine responce up a little, and had no problems.

As said before, you need to re-wire the AC fan to come on as soon as you turn the AC on - I've got a thread on this so do a search.

I'm running the thermo switch as well and have found that in winter it pretty much never turns on with normal driving, and only comes on occasisionally when stopped still for 5+ minutes.

Summer it'll come on for 1-2 minutes then stays off for 3-4 minutes.

One thing I found with the Davies Craig kit is that the fuse holder you get with the kit is CRAP... Replace it straight away with a good quality one that can handle heaps of current. Mine melted after about 3 months !!

The 16 inch version draws 19 amps while just spinning, on startup it'll peak upto 30 amps.

The only reason why I ditched my old one clutch fan was cause I thought it was stuffed, and I got the DC 16 kit cheap. I later found out that it wasn't the clutch fan that was stuffed !!!

J

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/34468-thermo-fans/#findComment-691761
Share on other sites
  • 7 years later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      So I mentioned the apprentice, @LachyK helped take the bonnet off. We just undid the nuts on the hinges and unclipped the gas struts, then pulled the bonnet back a little as the front was catching on the front bar.  I had a good look at everything today and have removed the rams, repaired/reset the hinges and bolted it back together like it never happened. I'll do a separate write up on the repair, and I also removed the poppers from the Fuga today too to save grief down the road.....as said above it is at least $5k to repair retail. I'm also happier about my ability to prepare a race car, and less happy about Nis-nault's engineering (I can hear @GTSBoy sAfrican Americaning) because the top hose of the radiator didn't slip off.......it snapped clean off. By practice I put the hose clamp hard up against the flare on a neck to make it least likely to ever move (thanks @Neil!). I guess that puts a little more pressure on the end of the pipe as it is further away from the rad, but still, that is pretty shit. I've put it back on for now as there was a fair bit of neck still there, but obviously there is no lip on the neck any more so I don't think I'll track it again until I have a new rad. Speaking of which....more research required. It looks like Koyo makes a standard size radiator in ally which I'll grab in the meantime, but I really want something thicker so might have to go custom in the medium term (ouch) Coolant still needs a refill and I have the pressure tester on it over night, but other than a wash down of the engine bay it seems alright. And @MBS206 noted something noisy on the front of the engine and I think I agree....time for a new accessory belt and tensioners I think.
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      our good friends at nismo make a diff for it, I have one (and a spare housing to put the centre in) on the way. https://www.nismo.co.jp/products/web_catalogue/lsd/mechanical_lsd_v37.html AMS also make a helical one, but I prefer mechanical for track use in 2wd (I do run a quaife in the front, but not rear of the R32)
    • GTSBoy
      R33 persistent issues. P/steering and lag/misfire

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      What are we supposed to be seeing in the photo of the steering angle sensor? The outer housing doesn't turn, right? All the action is on the inside. The real test here is whether or not your car has had the steering put back together by a butcher. When the steering is centred (and we're not caring about the wheel too much here, we're talking about the front wheels, parallel, facing front) then you should have an absolutely even number of turns from centre to left lock and centre to right lock. If there is any difference at all then perhaps the thing has been put back together wrongly, either the steering wheel put on one spline (or more!) off, and the alignment bodged to straighteb the wheel, or the opposite where something silly was done underneath and the wheel put back on crooked to compensate. Nut there isn't actually much evidence that you have such a problem anyway. It is something you can easily measure and test for to find out though. My money is still on the HICAS CU not driving the PS solenoid with the proper PWM signal required to lighten the load at lower speed. If it were me, I would be putting either a multimeter or oscilloscope onto the solenoid terminals and taking it for a drive, looking for the voltage to change. The PWM signal is 0v, 12V, 0V, 12v with ...obviously...modulated pulse width. You should see that as an average voltage somewhere between 0V and 12V, and it should vary with speed. An handheld oscilloscope would be the better tool for this, because they are definitely good enough but there's no telling if any cheap shit multimeter that people have lying around are good enough. You can also directly interfere with the solenoid. If you wire up a little voltage divider with variable resistor on it, and hook the PS solenoid direct to 12V through that, you can manually adjust the voltage to the solenoid and you should be able to make it go ligheter and heavier. If you cannot, then the problem is either the solenoid itself dead, or your description of the steering being "tight" (which I have just been assuming you mean "heavy") could be that you have a mechanical problem in the steering and there is heaps of resistance to movement.
    • MissMintyR33
      R33 persistent issues. P/steering and lag/misfire

      By MissMintyR33 · Posted

      Little update  I have shimmed the solenoid on the rack today following Keep it Reets video on YouTube. However my steering is still tight. I have this showing on Nisscan, my steering angle sensor was the closest to 0 degrees (I could get it to 0 degrees by small little tweaks, but the angle was way off centre? I can't figure this out for the life of me. I get no faults through Nisscan. 
    • Dose Pipe Sutututu
      Dose's Sometimes DIY and Pay Someone Home & Boat Improvement Thread

      By Dose Pipe Sutututu · Posted

      The BES920 is like the Toyota Camrys of coffee machines. E61 group head is cool, however the time requirements for home use makes it less desirable. The Toyota Camry coffee machine runs twin boilers and also PID temp control, some say it produces coffees as good as an E61 group head machine.
×
×
  • Create New...