It's been warm so far this summer, and the noise from the cooling fan bugs the crap out of me in traffic. That coupled with a bit of play developing in my fan clutch has me considering an electric cooling fan conversion. I've seen photos of the beautiful Dikke Damme, but I'd like to keep A/C and I believe that the condensor occupies the space that a pusher fan would mount. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Cost and originality aside, are there any good reasons why I shouldn't go this route rather than just replace the fan clutch and deal with the noise? I'm conderned with cooling capacity (does anyone know the CFM rating of the stock fan??) and reliability as well as noise reduction.
Well, if you removed the Viscous coulping & mechanical fan you'd find
all the space you needed to fit an electric fan in its place...
I wouldn't do it myself (if it aint broke etc..)
And the technical gurus such as Farrell would flattly dismiss replacing
the main fan, especially as it provides constant air flow even when
coasting...this prevents "hot spots" in the engine bay.
Regards,
Alan.
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You know that you already have an electric fan right? There is a secondary auxilliary pusher fan that runs when the AC is on or the coolant reaches ~90 degrees. It's situated in front of the AC condenser. It moves a considerable amount of air at high speed (enough that it is the only fan you'll find on many newer BMWs)....
Replaciing the mechanical fan with a second electric fan is not going to help in the noise department... Replacing both with a single unit might - but it would probably be more trouble than its worth considering all of the original parts involved can be replaced for ~$500 and function more than adequetly....
the noise that bugs me is engine speed related. seeing as the mechanical fan has straight blades and there are curved blade electric fans available, how would it fail to reduce the noise? I have actually been thinking of replacing both the mechanical fan and the electric pusher fan with a higher flow electric pusher fan with curved blades. I don't think it would be too difficult to wire up a multi speed control unit for this setup. My Audi 200 20v has a pretty simple setup for its cooling fan that would work well in this application I should think. My main goal is reducing the fan roar, the added morsel of power would just be a bonus.
Well, if you removed the Viscous coulping & mechanical fan you'd find
all the space you needed to fit an electric fan in its place...
I wouldn't do it myself (if it aint broke etc..)
And the technical gurus such as Farrell would flattly dismiss replacing
the main fan, especially as it provides constant air flow even when
coasting...this prevents "hot spots" in the engine bay.
Regards,
Alan.
I'm not sure if I agree with the hot spot comment, I'm pretty sure after you get moving (say 55mph for arguments sake) there will be enough airflow through the engine bay to eliminate any hot spots.
As part of my upgrades for going FI I'm replacing my radiator with a slightly oversized fully aluminum unit (rated for 600hp) and viscous fan and secondary electric fan with the electric fan off of a E60 M5. This is exactly what BMW themselves do in the E60 and there are more thermal demands in that engine bay with the S85B50 V10 and limited convection room than in the E34 bay with the S38B3X. With my setup the fan and radiator should be a straight drop in setup thanks to the integrated shroud with the OEM E60 fan and my radiator design that incorporates the OEM chassis mount points for the E34 and the fan and shroud points for the E60 fan unit. Unfortunately Im waiting till Im ready to replace the radiator before I drop everything in and send out for the radiator because like you I dont think the fan is worth upgrading unless its broken or power requirements demand it.
Now I do agree a viscous fan does offer benefits over an electric unit but at the same time the electric fan has lots of benefits as well. So its a trade off but one that leans towards the electric fan when done correctly. I will post some pics of my E60 M5 fan unit when I make it home.
Here you go guys I attached some pics of the E60 M5 fan Im integrating into my E34 to give you an idea of the size of the unit. It fits almost perfectly in the space that is available and with its nice integrated shroud and my custom radiator it should turn out to be a rather nice fit.
are you gonna clear the thermostat housing on the right side?
Yea the pic doesnt show that but it does clear with a pretty good amount of room. When I get my pulley holder for the fan back from a local BMWCCA member I will pull the fan and the shroud and get some better pics.
[quote=93FIM5;1599372]I'm not sure if I agree with the hot spot comment, I'm pretty sure after you get moving (say 55mph for arguments sake) there will be enough airflow through the engine bay to eliminate any hot spots.
Quite right at that sort of speed (55mph) air flow is no problem...
I'm thinking more like stuck in traffic senario, 90C ambient...20year old
wiring harnesses etc etc...
The viscous fan always provides air flow even when not locked up
(and yes a degree of HP sap too).
That having been said, that E60 fan looks like a heavy duty mother !!!
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///M5 the only substitute for capacity is even greater capacity...
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