Electric Cooling Fan

[Boomlander]

Hi, Are there any problems when fitting an electric cooling fan to Minors?
Do they work regardless of polarity?
Will we ever get a proper Summer?

[bmcecosse]

Summer is gone..... Can be fitted - many do - but the Minor single blade fan is a very minimal thing anyway, and power saving from fitting an electric fan will also be distinctly minimal. If you can get one for ~£5 from a scrappy then well and good, but the huge cost of a new one is hard to justify........

[chrisryder]

Polarity is just dependent on how you wire it. If you plug it in and it spins the wrong way, swap the wires over!

I've got an electric fan on mine in place of the metal one, and it certainly seems quieter, and warms up faster. As for a gain in power, it's barely noticeable, but every little helps!

[IslipMinor]

Power saving is minimal, but the reduction in noise is well worth the time and effort fitting an electric fan. At the same time I would also fit a thermostatic switch so that the fan is only on when it is required.

[charlie_morris_minor]

i have fitted an electric fan in the past purely for cooling in stop / start traffic not for gains in power etc. the problem in slow crawling traffic is that is when you need the fan to be working at its most.. which of course is the very point where the engine / fan is turning at its slowest revs..

[Boomlander]

i have fitted an electric fan in the past purely for cooling in stop / start traffic not for gains in power etc. the problem in slow crawling traffic is that is when you need the fan to be working at its most.. which of course is the very point where the engine / fan is turning at its slowest revs..

That was my intention, to make sure the engine stayed cool in traffic and as my radiator already has a take off point for a thermo switch I might invest in an inexpensive fan to try it out, Thanks Guys.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Might be OK without a fan... I run mine without fan and it sits at 70c all day on hot days even in heavy traffic. Certainly not needed in winter.

[IslipMinor]

There are 'puller' and 'pusher' electric fans (pusher in front of the radiator, puller behind), and have to run 'the right way round' or they are much less efficient. Spal do a very good range of fans that are 50mm thick. Their 9" pusher fan fits on the radiator (in front of it) with a pin kit and behind the grill (in between the 2 vertical bars). You can just see the label on the fan behind the grill on the picture below.

We used to run the original 948 without a fan and never had any problems, but with the 1380, even with an uprated radiator, it doesn't take very long in traffic for the temperature to start climbing and the fan switching in.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

That's right, even 1275s can easily become boilers.

[bmcecosse]

Oh! I like boilers.........

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Aye - especially when you have to crawl into the firebox and clean the damned thing out.

[bmcecosse]

Cozy - on a grim winter's day.........

[linearaudio]

I would concur-my 1098, even with the 1275 head etc still doesn't get over-hot! Ihave a slim Metro radiator so the engine warms up appreciably faster than normal, although there are those who have proclaimed that rad size doesn't affect warm-up , and a Metro electric fan on the engine side(puller) mounted to the left side where there is better clearance. Only in heavy traffic in mid-summer does the fan ever kick in.
However I realise it would be more sensible to keep the original setup and just keep the engine screaming in traffic to spin the old metal fan in the hope that it will dissipate more heat than it produces