Fan Blade replacement

[geoberni]

A couple of weekends ago, on the way home from the Sandringham Motor event including the Eastern Area Rally, the temp gauge I fitted was showing that Basil was getting a bit heated.
As most of you know, Basil has a restricted airflow through the Radiator due to his Police Sign across the front.

I ordered a fan blade from ebay advertised as Minor/Healey/A40 intending to double up as fitted on the Export hot climate Minors.
When it arrived I thought it didn't quite look right and a quick search online for "A Series engine 12" fan blade" brought me to these hallowed pages where I found out it's a 1275cc blade.

So I have a solution, just not the one I intended . It fits in place so following a clean up and paint, Basil is getting a bigger fan blade.

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[svenedin]

Interesting. So the 1275 blade is longer? Does that present clearance issues? My 1098 has a fan blade that comes perilously close to the top hose and in fact at one stage was fractionally clipping it. It did this because it was slightly bent out of shape.

Stephen

[oliver90owner]

Fans suck up power. I would go the electric fan route these days.

I both slowed the water pump and removed the fan on my Escort, back in the 70s. I rarely saw an elevated engine temperature - it was mostly travelling quite rapidly back then (1500GT plus a few HP, with the original 1100 radiator).

Engines generally run better when hotter - as long as they don’t overheat. I have never ever fitted a ‘summer’ thermostat.

[geoberni]

Interesting. So the 1275 blade is longer? Does that present clearance issues? My 1098 has a fan blade that comes perilously close to the top hose and in fact at one stage was fractionally clipping it. It did this because it was slightly bent out of shape.

Stephen

Yes, 12" overall, rather than 10".
It fits with just over 1/2" clearance from the top hose and similar from the radiator core top edge, which is the same as the 10" of course, which just barely overlapped it

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Are you sure you don't have a 12" blade fitted? The 10" was well clear of the hose....
That said, Basil has a SII High Top Radiator, so perhaps that might give a different clearance....

[les]

I seem to recall some Minors had two fans bolted together at 90 degrees.

[geoberni]

Fans suck up power. I would go the electric fan route these days.

I both slowed the water pump and removed the fan on my Escort, back in the 70s. I rarely saw an elevated engine temperature - it was mostly travelling quite rapidly back then (1500GT plus a few HP, with the original 1100 radiator).

Engines generally run better when hotter - as long as they don’t overheat. I have never ever fitted a ‘summer’ thermostat.

With all the other factors involving a 70+ year old car design, I'm not at all concerned about a minuscule difference in power from an extra 2" of fan blade length.
If I wanted an electric fan, I wouldn't have a Minor, I'd have something from the 80s or 90s that came with one.
I also have never messed around with different thermostats, no matter where I've been.

[geoberni]

I seem to recall some Minors had two fans bolted together at 90 degrees.

That was my original intention on getting the 2nd blade.
Export, Hot Climate, vehicles had a double blade.
Oddly enough, they didn't just list them as 2 blades reqd for Hot Climate, it was actually a different part number.
I'm guessing it was 2 blades packed together in a box, rather than a large square box and them spot welded together

[jaekl]

All Minors in the States have two blades bolted together. My 275 installation has the canister on the timing chain cover, The typical Minor fan hits it, so I used a pair of shorter blades with just a slight reshaping of one blade to clear the canister. I thought the shorter ones were from a Sprite.

[svenedin]

All Minors in the States have two blades bolted together. My 275 installation has the canister on the timing chain cover, The typical Minor fan hits it, so I used a pair of shorter blades with just a slight reshaping of one blade to clear the canister. I thought the shorter ones were from a Sprite.

There is a type of timing chain cover breather canister with a "squashed" appearance that gives good fan blade clearance. I think it is sometimes called the "lay flat" type.

Stephen

[svenedin]

Berni,

I have measured my fan on my 1098cc and a spare fan I harvested from another 1098. They are both 12" long.
Stephen

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[geoberni]

Berni,

I have measured my fan on my 1098cc and a spare fan I harvested from another 1098. They are both 12" long.
Stephen
IMG_3466.jpeg

I must admit I've been having a niggling doubt ever since you mentioned your clearance experience.

I've been looking at lots of advertised fan blades for 'Morris Minors' and there are clearly 10" and 12" being offered, just by the proportion of width to length shown on the photos.
Even the illustrations from the parts book appear to show the truncated appearance of the 10" blade... as do the images on the ESM website.

But the question is, what was the original size out of the factory gate....
Perhaps, given his wealth of experience,

can shed light on this.....

Larger blade being prepped for yellow...

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[Bill_qaz]

Berni, do you think your 10" blade is possibly from a midget? less space under the bonnet, Everything online seems to say minor is 12" fan regardless of engine, two or four blade as you illustrated.

[philthehill]

I have no record of the post on the 22nd March 2026. So unsure how to reply to that posting !!!.
As regards the part number - BMC allocated a part number for the single blade as it was supplied singular.
The twin blades were issued/packaged under a different part number to differentiate from the singular blade.
Other than issuing multiple singular blades I am certain BMC decided to issue the two blades as one package/part number.

[geoberni]

Berni, do you think your 10" blade is possibly from a midget? less space under the bonnet, Everything online seems to say minor is 12" fan regardless of engine, two or four blade as you illustrated.

I've tried to work it out but even Google and AI gets itself very confused.
So many of the retailer illustrations appear the proportions of the 10".....
Next branch meeting I'm going to be under all the bonnets having a look

[geoberni]

I have no record of the post on the 22nd March 2026. So unsure how to reply to that posting !!!.
As regards the part number - BMC allocated a part number for the single blade as it was supplied singular.
The twin blades were issued/packaged under a different part number to differentiate from the singular blade.
Other than issuing multiple singular blades I am certain BMC decided to issue the two blades as one package/part number.

Sorry for confusion, I was just looking for a way to flag this discussion up to you.

In summary, the question is whether the single fan blade on the Minor Engine is 10" or 12".
Apparently my car has had a 10" blade on it since heaven knows when, but there's a good possibility that is incorrect.
But I found some contradictory information that the 12" blade was for the 1275 engine....
I figured you had so much knowledge on these engines you'd have the answer on the tip of your tongue, as the saying goes

[svenedin]

What I can say Berni is that my own 1098 in the car has a 12" blade and so do the 2x spare 1098 engines I have. That doesn't prove it but it would be rather odd if my 3x 1098 engines all had an unusual size of fan blade!

I wonder what length the metal fan blade is from a Mini? That would be a very bad move as a Mini fan blade is designed to push air rather than pull it!

Stephen

[geoberni]

What I can say Berni is that my own 1098 in the car has a 12" blade and so do the 2x spare 1098 engines I have. That doesn't prove it but it would be rather odd if my 3x 1098 engines all had an unusual size of fan blade!

Stephen

I agree, the odds are in favour of the 12" being correct. It's very frustrating that there is no definitive parts info out saying which vehicles had what fan size.

[philthehill]

The fan blades listed in the BMC parts list are:-

2A135.................Normal service. Single blade.

2A241.................Tropical service. Twin blades. The twin blades look identical to the single blade.
There is no blade length quoted for the above.

There are two lengths of fan blade available i.e. 10" and 12" both with 1.25" PCD fan blade mounting bolt centres.

There are both 10" and 12" S/H fan blades being advertised as fitting the Minor.

Currently I have not found any details as to which length of fan blade is fitted to a specific cc 'A' Series engine.
Therefore I would suggest that the 10" fan blade is the correct length for the 803cc, the 948cc and 1098cc 'A' Series engine. The 10" fan blade will give sufficient clearance between the outer edge of the blade and the top hose.
I would also suggest that the 12" fan is a option for the 1275cc 'A' Series engine as the block is taller so giving additional clearance. I say option because the 1275cc 'A' Series in line engines all appear to have a one piece multiblade plastic fan.
If I come across additional information I will post it on here.

[svenedin]

We need a fan blade length audit! Anybody going to the National with a tape measure?

Stephen

[geoberni]

The fan blades listed in the BMC parts list are:-

2A135.................Normal service. Single blade.

2A241.................Tropical service. Twin blades. The twin blades look identical to the single blade.
There is no blade length quoted for the above.

There are two lengths of fan blade available i.e. 10" and 12" both with 1.25" PCD fan blade mounting bolt centres.

There are both 10" and 12" S/H fan blades being advertised as fitting the Minor.

Currently I have not found any details as to which length of fan blade is fitted to a specific cc 'A' Series engine.
Therefore I would suggest that the 10" fan blade is the correct length for the 803cc, the 948cc and 1098cc 'A' Series engine. The 10" fan blade will give sufficient clearance between the outer edge of the blade and the top hose.
I would also suggest that the 12" fan is a option for the 1275cc 'A' Series engine as the block is taller so giving additional clearance. I say option because the 1275cc 'A' Series in line engines all appear to have a one piece multiblade plastic fan.
If I come across additional information I will post it on here.

Thanks for that info Phil, clearly the issue is greater that I thought.
The fact that Stephen has 3 of 1098 engines, all fitted with the 12" blade, seems a strange twist.
I'll ask a few people in our Branch what they cars have.