Thermatic fan upgrade

[Dulagarl]

On a recent trip to Innamincka and Lake Eyre, i managed to short out one of my engine fans and it stopped working. I repaired the circuit while out there, but in the meantime the pressure built up in the radiator and forced a minor leak.

While deciding on a new radiator, i got some advice about fans.

basically, most of us have factory fans which don't have a particularly high flow rate. I have upstream mounted fans, so this is particularly important, and they were basically a davies craig which aren't that great.

Burnout cars and the like have higher capacity fans. I settled on Spal fans, which you can get in Australia for less than $200 each.

https://www.xtremeautoparts.com.au/...r-Spal-Airflow-2080m3-h-11-8Amps-627p3229.htm

https://www.xtremeautoparts.com.au/shop/pc/Spal-Fans-c627.htm

I know some people have gone the fan 'always on" switch, which i am not attracted to.

the advantages of a higher flow fans are huge: shorter fan cycle, more stable temperatures.

have a think about it: particularly if you do a lot of sand driving / mud driving / slow climbing etc.

I'm really pleased with this mod.

 

[AndrewT]

Sounds like a good upgrade. How come your fans are mounted upstream, it's better to mount them downstream isn't it?

 

[tuckerbag]

I think it got to do with the h6 engine in the forester bay.

 

[Dulagarl]

^ exactly right. I don't really have much room in the engine bay because of the way the H6 radiator is mounted. No choice other than to have upstream.

 

[duncanm]

upstream is also better for water crossings -- if the fan turns on, the blades will want to pull away from the radiator rather than towards it