Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 06:01 pm, by: Drew Hiron(Frag)
Hi guys, my mechanic is about to install my lovely Blitz FMIC (thx aaron) into the soarer and I have a quick question.
From the drivers seat, on the left hand side of the radiator there is an electric fan that only seems to activate while the a/c compressor is running. Can anyone tell me what this fan actually does & can the soarer happily live without it?
The reason i ask is because this cooler is 100mm thick and looks as thou it may foul on this fan.
Btw I did search but couldn't find anything specific.
Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 06:22 pm, by: Robert Jeffs(Robert)
Is it the fan on the front of the radiator Drew? Im pretty sure the A/C fan is the one located on the rear left of the radiator and that to fan on the front is temperature activated. I have a Trust FMIC kit installed and although it is only 76mm thick it doesnt come anywhere close to the radiator or fans.
Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 07:46 pm, by: Michael Sztyk(Sli1)
Yeah i can confirm the fan on the inside is the thermo fan, the sensor for that goes into the radiator just below it. I think worth keeping. I got an 80mm Hybrid front mount and removed the fan at the front of the radiator. Still had room even if i wanted to keep it.
Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 09:15 pm, by: Daniel Clarke(Dieseltrain)
I have an 80mm Hybrid FMIC on my car, CLearly it fits with the fan still in place! Hope you didnt remove it, as it is used as a temperature based fan! It will come on and off anytime the ECU decides it needs it. It is NOT only just for A/C purposes. I dont know of any cars out there that have removed it. But your mechanic should have kept it on the car if he knew that it was used for normal temperature controls, and not purely for the A/C.You might get lucky in winter with it, but in summer time, you may experience overheating problems. What alot of people forget when fitting a FMIC. It is installed in front of the radiator. The radiator is designed to get maximum airflow from the outside ambient air. When you have a FMIC in front of it acting as some kind of heat transfer, the heat it dissapates is then used to cool the radiator. Hence the Ambient Air temp(22 Deg) may then change to (35 deg or more, im just using baselines) therefore the cooling efficiency of the Air going through the radiator is minimalised. If you then remove one of the helpful air flow forces( in this case the push through style thermo fan) you may be somewhat jeopardising the efficiency of the cooling system. Sure it may be done on show cars and race cars. but you will find the thermo fan in question mainly works when sitting standstill or moving at minimal speeds to aid airflow through the radiator in which the Clutch style motor driven fan, may not have enough pull to keep temperatures down.
In my opinion. Hope this may help anyone if they may experience temperature problems and have removed the push style thermo fan.
SOrry for the long post, but alot of people always forget about the most vital part of any motor vehicle, the cooling system. Without it running efficiently, you either end up destroying engine parts, or stuck on the side of the road. Hope we all keep the flow so we can keep on the go! I suffered 2nd degree burns to my quadracep(upper right leg) from an overheating car, as the clutch fan decided to spit the dummy. I dont like to or want to hear about anyone elses misfortunes. Coolant gets hot, Damn hot and hurts like hell. Cheers, Daniel.
Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 09:38 pm, by: Drew Hiron(Frag)
Hehe, very into your work
No he hasn't taken the fan off, this is actually why the cooler wasn't put on my car last week. He wanted to know what everyone else did before anything was taken/cut off
Monday, March 29, 2010 - 11:43 am, by: Camron Garcia(Killacam)
Whats the talk of an electric fan being in front of the radiator? My soarer only has a clutch fan and a tiny electric fan behind the radiator and bolted to the shroud
Monday, March 29, 2010 - 02:45 pm, by: Troy Tappenden(Moredhel)
The electric fan in front of the radiator is there (besides the post that Daniel did a few posts ago) is to cool the Air Conditioner condensor. When you turn the air conditioner on, the gasses get hot after going through the system and come out through the condensor to be cooled. If you remove the fan, the compressor can be damaged by trying to compress the overly hot gasses, rather than the cooler gasses. Most of the time the damage would be done when stationary, ie when you first start the car and aren't moving yet, at traffic lights, sitting at a cruise with the car on, but talking, etc, etc. Definitely keep that fan at all costs, unless you remove your air conditioning system (i.e. Drag car, etc, etc).
If you don't have one, I would try to source on and install it back on there. They should be cheap, and all of the wires and bolt holes will be there, so it would be a very simple installation.
Troy, most cars do have measures to protect against compressor damage by means of shutting down the system before pressures get too high.
Some cars only use a high pressure switch to activate the condenser fan when head pressures are too high in the system, some cars use that switch to turn the system off when head pressures are too high.
The bottom line is when installing an big front mount Intercooler that will create hotter airflow over the Condensor and radiator, should be the more reason to keep the fan not remove it.
Dan McColl Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Active V8 and the Beast.
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