James Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 So I was all ready to buy a Pacet - to them find out they've been bought by Kenlowe. So can anyone recommend a decent electric fan for my Spitfire? I'm always conscious that this is quite an important item as failure means overheating. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SP Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I used a Spal 11 inch sucker on my 2.5 Vitesse with an alloy rad.Nice and thin and works well with an in line thermo switch in the hose. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I've got some Italian thing that came from my local radiator centre. It was skinny enough to fit the Vitesse and very reasonably priced. I expected it to last 13 months, but it must have been on 9 or 10 years now. Not sure I can identify a brand...... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6_sleeper Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 take a tape measure to the local scrappy something of a decent make will be of a decent quality and a lot cheaper than the kenlowe option, some sort of honda or such like item. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zetecspit Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Spal are OE quality (used by merc, or at least my Dads old merc had them fitted from the factory) Had a bosch one from a R5 GT turbo on my vitesse for all the time I used it, very good and came mounted on a wire frame that I bent to fit the vitesse rad. French cars seem to have decent fans, no idea why..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphlux Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I always use Spal, good quality and wide choice of thin fans : http://www.spalautomotive.com/eng/products/axial_12.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kusanagi Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I have found that the revotec fans give a good flow for the size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP2.5 Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Dear all, I use a Spal that fits like a glove behind the radiator of my 2.5PI. It accually almost cover the whole of the radiator core. Same fan is used on the Berlinetta Boxer in a pair. Talking of fans, could the horrid original fan as it is mounted directly on the crank cause some of the thrust bearing concern? Aircraft engines have really sturdy thrust bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esxefi Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Dear all, I use a Spal that fits like a glove behind the radiator of my 2.5PI. It accually almost cover the whole of the radiator core. Same fan is used on the Berlinetta Boxer in a pair. Talking of fans, could the horrid original fan as it is mounted directly on the crank cause some of the thrust bearing concern? Aircraft engines have really sturdy thrust bearings. well that is a thought. I think it has been mentioned before?? I can see the logic of the reverse thrust from the fan acting upon the thrust bearing but surely it must be minimal when you compare the almost constant load friction to that of a big end bearing shell for example. there is a 'slight' difference in the amount of air shifted in an aircraft prop to that of an engine cooling fan,the former is the primary form of propulsion whereas the latter is to dissipate heat from the cooling system by a proxy means of the same but there is an interrelation from a physics point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5piman Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Hello James, I've had very good service with the Kenlowe fan fitted to my car, albeit that in normal circumstances it rarely switches in. I'm no aerodynamacist but their blades look as though some thought has gone into the design. They may seem expensive but you also get a good 30A thermostat as part of the package. Alec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP2.5 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Hello fast driver, Still, compared to other small six cylinder engines that almost never fail their thrust bearings the only major difference is the crank mounted fan on the Triumph engine. If you put an asortment of the thrust bearings on a table and ask, point out the ones that will fail, it will be a guessing game. As long as the engine is running it will pull the crank, assume that the horrid original fan absorbs 3 HP at 5000 rpm, is that a minimal force? A full grown man with a bar behind the damper could hardly copy that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Don't believe the fan has any effect on the thrust washers. Design is marginal - supporting area is too small for the load. Need to be a full circle really. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP2.5 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 If the design is marginal, then we would not like to have any sort of axial load or? MB 220/230 never - not that I know of - fails thrust bearings, no fan on the crank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triumph-V8 Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 A aircraft puts the full engine load it has on the fan to push forward. That can easily achieve 100 HP on a small Cessna. We deal with fans that take below 6 HP on full load So the major problem of our cars putting axial load on is the clutch pedal. What always should be paid attention on is the imbalance of the fan especially because it is often far on the front of the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5piman Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Hello Nick, there is another Britsh six cylinder engine that uses the same thrust washer arrangement, albeit on the centre main rather than the rear, this is the Jaguar XK engine. I am not aware of any problems with XK engines due to thrust washers despite just having half circle bearings. Alec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 Thanks all. In the end I went for one sold by Revotec — seems to work well so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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