anyone got a favourite fan?

[YMJ]

OK a fresh rebuild and I feel like a change of fan. I have got to hand.....
a 5-blade tropical
a 11 blade plastic 12G2129
a 11 blade plastic 12G1303? has narrower blades at the ends
a 2 blade steel
a 4 blade steel (2 x 2 blade)

The 5-blade tropical looks the business but is very heavy. Heavy enough to affect power output and/or acceleration? I couldn't give a stuff about noise - I want power and cooling!

[SMOKE GREY]

OK a fresh rebuild and I feel like a change of fan. I have got to hand.....
a 5-blade tropical
a 11 blade plastic 12G2129
a 11 blade plastic 12G1303? has narrower blades at the ends
a 2 blade steel
a 4 blade steel (2 x 2 blade)

The 5-blade tropical looks the business but is very heavy. Heavy enough to affect power output and/or acceleration? I couldn't give a stuff about noise - I want power and cooling!

4 blade

[Spider]

Actually, none of those! Just to add another in to the mix, the Metal 6 Blader, P/N 2A998;-



(They are normally Yellow). In the local Factory Parts Book, they refer to these as an 'Export Fan'.

I've been using these for a number of years now, and interestingly, I happened across this ST Info about a year back, if you can't be bothered reading it all, just scroll down to the last few paragraphs;-



Though, I've never run them with the stiffener, they really are stiff enough!

[mk1coopers]

I've also got the one above fitted to a car, it's almost too good at its job

http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/2A998.aspx

[dutchacme]

@ Spider,

did you clip the ends of your export fan?

Wim

[Spider]

@ Spider,

did you clip the ends of your export fan?

Wim

That particular one did have a hard life! Not clipped, but worn!

I have found though that the current range of new ones (they have the Heritage symbol on the bag) don't run true, I very gingerly machine them in the lathe.

[In the shed]

I ran a 6 blade fan on my 66 and it was VERY VERY NOISY! When I say very noisy, you could hear the fan coming, rather than the car

[YMJ]

Hmmmm. .......including my PM to Guru, I can now count 4 different options to date, so I'm none the wiser.
Of course I could always just follow everyone else and use a 12G2129 but that 6-blade-export-tropical johnny looks like it could cool the Sahara. I have one but it's sooo heavy!

P.S. what the hell is a stiffener 2A 803 ?

[YMJ]

Actually, none of those! Just to add another in to the mix, the Metal 6 Blader, P/N 2A998;-



(They are normally Yellow). In the local Factory Parts Book, they refer to these as an 'Export Fan'.

I've been using these for a number of years now, and interestingly, I happened across this ST Info about a year back, if you can't be bothered reading it all, just scroll down to the last few paragraphs;-



Though, I've never run them with the stiffener, they really are stiff enough!

I'm glad I could be bothered.....I picked up two more tips that I never knew about before! Thanks

[Chalkie]

I've ran a 4 blade and a 11 blade found the 4 blade a bit better but rad wasn't helping as it was oringal and weeping a bit

[Spider]

I'm glad I could be bothered.....I picked up two more tips that I never knew about before! Thanks

Glad it was of help to someone!

Which tips did you pick up on?

[In the shed]

A while ago, I picked up a NOS Dowty Fan, which I plan to use on my 1430.

It'll hopefully be as good as a 4 blade, but not so rowdy at High RPM.

[rich@minispares.com]

A while ago, I picked up a NOS Dowty Fan, which I plan to use on my 1430.

It'll hopefully be as good as a 4 blade, but not so rowdy at High RPM.

dowtys are rubbish, they oscillate and wear the water pump bearings out! - there is a reason there is so many n.o.s ones still floating about!


in my opinion for race use you cannot beat the modern plastic fan, both from the points of view of cooling, fitment and reliability - if a plastic fan fails (due to impact damage or a stone) it rarely damages an (expensive) radiator, if a metal fan gets hold of the cowl it will bend and chew through the rad in the blink of an eye.

my race car has never, ever struggled with heat using a plastic fan and a minispares two core rad, and I thrashed it like a rented mule

[In the shed]

Right. Back to the 6 blade then. I'd consider a plastic one, but I imagine they are ££££ now. I'll use what I have.

Should be drowned out by the engine/gears.

[YMJ]

I've just fitted the 12G2129 and the engine's back in.
So bollocks to it......it's there for the duration....'hope it rains at the Classic!

[YMJ]

I'm glad I could be bothered.....I picked up two more tips that I never knew about before! Thanks

Glad it was of help to someone!

Which tips did you pick up on?

heater takeoff protruding into bottom hose
tapering the pump inlet

[CooperTune]

I realize my 85 1000E has little to do with MK 1. Having covered 87,000 miles with the 998 I replaced that with the 1275 Cooper S block crank and rods from my 67 S. Having owned and raced this engine since the early 70s I had .080 pistons made for it and retired it to street use. Roughly 1360 with a MG Metro 940 head ( mild intake and exhaust porting ) C/R 9.75 to 1. I had picked up a NOS Reed Cams Mega Torque cam. Idle from 650 to 750/800 has a little rump rump. At 950 /1000 that all goes away and it pulls smoothly to 5000. I have not tried to rev beyond that. The complete intake system is from 90/91 Cooper Carb model. Exhaust is cast manifold and down pipes from MPI into custom twin box. For cooling I have a new MSC 4 core rad, new water pump and tropical fan with large dia. pulley. I use new two part Cooper pulley and damper in all my builds.

The trick part is the tranny, DAM 5626 with the wide ratio Metro 998 gear set with the two grooves around the gear teeth. I'm running the 2.76 CWP with two O/D drop gears for overall FD ratio of 2.56. I also installed very nice windage tray. Running 145/12s the numbers are 23 mph per 1000 rpm. She pulls 35 mph at 1500 in fourth and I have had GPS of 93 mph at 4000. She was still pulling but I ran out of road.

To the point, this is running warn with outside temps in the high 90s. Around town 35/45 mph it's 200 and at 75 mph closer to 215. If I back off the temp falls a little. I have a spot light grille which blocks air flow a little. The reason I mentioned the windage tray is my oil temps are low ( no cooler ) in the 165 range. If I could get the water to 165 and oil to 200 I'd be happy. I have mech. oil and water gauges as well as a tach and O2 gauge. I use GPS for speed as the speedo is off quite a bit. Questions; is it possible the windage tray is keeping the tranny oil from splashing up into the block and pulling heat away? What are the chances switching to super two core will help? I have a metro water to oil exchanger. It would require trimming the front sub frame to get it in place. If heat travels from hot to cooler I'm thinking this will work in reverse and be a water cooler and add heat to the oil. Any thoughts along those lines? I can add an on demand electric fan, but low speed is not the problem. I had thought reducing the rpm would help quiet things down. I guess the tropical fan must be the fuss I hear. I think I'll install a plastic fan and see how I like that. I'm running a normal from lower hose to HIF intake then to the heater and back to the rear of head. I realize the flow runs the other way. I keep this closed off in the summer. Having no space for and aux. core I'm thinking about soldering a pet cock bung into the upper tank and running water from the rear of head to rad full time. The reason I bring this up is I'm planning a 700 mile trip next week.

BTW. 90s here yesterday and going home it started to rain. The water temp dropped 50 degrees before I got home. Out side temp may have dropped 10 degrees. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Steve (CTR)

[rich@minispares.com]

the other thing with plastic fans is to ensure that they are fitted the correct way round


I reckon that 50% of the cars we see at work have the fans fitted the wrong way round

and it REALLY grinds my gears

[Chalkie]

the other thing with plastic fans is to ensure that they are fitted the correct way round


I reckon that 50% of the cars we see at work have the fans fitted the wrong way round

and it REALLY grinds my gears

How can people put it on backwards?! if you clean it, it says "engine side" on it haha

[Spider]

How can people put it on backwards?! if you clean it, it says "engine side" on it haha

Yeah, the original ones did, but all the new ones I've seen don't, bugger it!

And, like Rich, I'd recon his 50% is about on the money.

I have found plastic fans OK in roadies, but off road they don't last a day.