Best fan type?

[YMJ]

Any preference on the optimum cooling fan? 'Not worried about noise factor

2 vane steel?
4 vane steel?
6 vane steel (tropical)?
16 vane steel?
12 vane plastic 12A2129?
11 vane plastic 12G3105?

I especally want to hear from you Portugese/Spanish/S African/Chilean boys!

[alexdenevers]

Don't know the difference between 12A2129 and 12G3105, but I've read that 11 vane plastic fan gives the best cooling for your engine.. Waiting for more specialist than me answers..

[wolseley 1000]

no idea ,
but with my South African 1967 Traveller came a 6 vane steel fan and so I will use it for rebuild.

[cheleker]

Standard plastic fan is 11 blade. Works OK but becomes less effective over time.
I've not seen any scientific tests of fans, but I can't believe any on your list will push more air than the 6-blade, "tropical" fan.

[Corrected for typo. Should be "can't believe...". In other words, if you need to push air, use the tropical fan.)

[sandman]

The plastic fan comes in two types - one for 998 and one for 1300's. The difference is the cord-length (width) of each blade... the 1300 being wider and thus pushing more air thru.

Nick Swift recommended to me that I'd use the 1300 variant on my race engine.

[Mini4Ever]

I think it may depend on the application, too much cooling is no good either...

[Sean1380]

OK from a South African point of view

I ran my 1380 pre A+ motor (11.5-1 compression, MSC Evo cam, home modded head) with the smaller / thinner plastic fan, with a small fan spacer and a Metro water pump pulley with a std 3 core rad. I had timing cover breather issues with running the wider fan.

The thing would get to 110 degrees in traffic. AND that was with an 82 degree VW Golf thermostat.

PS, i do also run a small 10" el cheapo electric fan mounted in the wing to help draw the hot air away, i would hate to think what the temp would have hit without it.

i bought a MSC 2 core from Rich @ Mini Spares (Guru_1071) put on the wider fan and clubby fan spacer to clear the timing cover breather, which leaves me the smallest clearances to the actual rad, BUT i sat in hectic traffic this morning and it never went above 90 degrees. Now i only put the electric fan on when i do hit traffic, but i've just done a 2 day 1300 km trip up to Johannesburg from the coast and back and the temp didn;t go above 90 once, not even at 130kph on the freeway.

Mini Spares 2 core rads rock !!!!!

Sean

[mk1]

too much cooling is no good either...

You can't get "too much" cooling if a sensible thermostat is fitted. I usually fit a 76 or 78° one.

[Vegard]

too much cooling is no good either...

You can't get "too much" cooling if a sensible thermostat is fitted. I usually fit a 76 or 78° one.

I guess that's why radiator muffs were invented

[madaboutcherry]

let's not get started on muffs again.

[LDR209H]

Is there an electric fan kit you can buy that fits inside the wheelarch which doesn't require butchering of the inner wing ?

[Mini4Ever]

too much cooling is no good either...

You can't get "too much" cooling if a sensible thermostat is fitted. I usually fit a 76 or 78° one.

True. Somebody over here fitted a 74 degree theromostat in an 850 plus an extra fan! The guy couldn't really understand why his engine didn't run that well...

[decarcer]

I especally want to hear from you Portugese/Spanish/S African/Chilean boys!

Hi there...

I have a 11 plastic blade on a 1275 a+ engine... Radiator clean, all the circuit clean...
It runs perfectly well even in the warmest summer here in Madrid... Only if I stop at a red light or in a traffic jam, temp rise up a bit, but nothing really worring.

worth to mention that summer in Madrid can be very hot... some days over 40ºC

[Richspec]

Is there an electric fan kit you can buy that fits inside the wheelarch which doesn't require butchering of the inner wing ?

Define butchering, Minispares do a kit which my brother fitted after the original inner wing fan died on his 93 sprite and I just fitted a cheapo fan off ebay, all it needed was two holes drilling to hold it in place?

[LDR209H]

Is there an electric fan kit you can buy that fits inside the wheelarch which doesn't require butchering of the inner wing ?

Define butchering, Minispares do a kit which my brother fitted after the original inner wing fan died on his 93 sprite and I just fitted a cheapo fan off ebay, all it needed was two holes drilling to hold it in place?

Sounds good Rich,was it this one ?

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?ty=pb&pid=35516

Some people cut away the louvres on the inner wing which I don't really want to do,I don't mind drilling a couple of holes though.
Thanks again.

[cheleker]

That Mini Spares fan is one of a few different ones I've used. It can be set up to work from a switch on the dash and/or to turn on automatically at a certain temperature. It is most effective at idle or slow speeds.