Electric fan

[MartinN]

Hi All, I'm sure I have seen some good write ups on removing the viscous fan & fitting an electric one, if the thread is around & someone can point me to it I would be gratful. I would like to do this on my 2.0Ltr. I would prefer to fit a fan in front of the rad, for a couple of reasons, more space mostly. There are some good looking kits in some classic car mags, with variable temp control to trim the right temp temp in. I'm not too fussed about using the loom so these look suitable. Anyone willing to share their experiance?

 

[GazHyde]

I can't look at the moment but will try and dig the info out tomorrow for you.

 

[Dino D]

Timely thread, I've just discovered my aux fan is not working (mine has aircon so already had the fan but is dead).
Hopefully it's just the fuse or capacitor but if not it's new fan time and I believe the BMW one is not cheap..

@MartinN I'm assuming your car has no aircon hence needing to add a fan? Or do you want to change the existing aircon fan for something beefier (not that it's needed apparently).

 

[hard top]

HTH.......

https://zroadster.org/threads/fan-delete.7136/

 

[MartinN]

Hi & thanks for all the advice. just to answer a couple of Q's. No Aircon on my Z, I dont need anything bigger but I use the car for sprints, so a hard 2 minutes or so then back to the paddock. I have a feeling that I could do with the fan running for a while when the engine is at tick over to lose a bit of heat. My old Z with the M44 did that after a run. Also some time down the line I might look at an electric water pump, for the same reason.

 

[Dino D]

Been digging around and it appears the fan as fitted to aircon cars is the biggest and effective.
You can do various things with how you would like it to run by running your own switch.

This is helpful guide for an e36 3 series on replacing the fan:
http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/aux_fan

ECP have the fan for £106 and state OEM quality:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=351123702620

GSF show a fan for £56 and list it as 'standard' quality but currently out of stock...
http://m.gsfcarparts.com/936bm0120

You might find this discussion by drifters with 328i's useful as they must get pretty hot:
http://www.driftworks.com/forum/technical/140055-e36-fan-delete-2.html

Where do you go sprinting?
Was just at Motorpsorts in the Park (Crystal Palace) and the sprinting there looked like great fun. This was a great sprint car to see and hear!

 

[Barry Gadd]

Hi Martin,
I thought about replacing my viscous fan and replacing with an electric one. In fact I bought an E36 fan but never got round to installing it.
I've bought another car now and wo'nt get round to using the electric fan.
I did offer the fan up to the rad and it fits the existing mounting in the same way as the existing cowl (on the engine side of the rad).
You can have it for £20
nb my car is the 1.9L M44 engine

 

[Ashbandicoot]

@Dino D Do you know what I would need to retrofit that ECP fan? I don't have A/C so I'm not sure what additional wiring/temp sensor I would need to install..

Ash

EDIT

Think I need fan (obviously lol), relay 61368373700 and switch 61318363677. I would probably opt for the switch for a 1.9 M44 as this has the lower temp settings. Does anybody know if the wiring will be in place to simply plug in the switch and fan?

 

[Dino D]

No idea Ash!

One thing I've noticed is these Zeds some to come wired with one loom that has all the connectors for all extras, hopefully (on the interior anyhow).

Otherwise I believe the wiring isn't too hard to do (on the drift works site they talk about doing it on the e36).

 

[swappy]

I inquired about an electric fan kit for my 2.0 litre Z3 a while ago with a company called Kenlowe they are well known for electric fans, I remembered them cause my dad used to fit them years ago when he was towing caravans. Anyway they have a website and do supply a kit complete with temp switch I think, someware in the region of +£200. Might be worth giving it a look.

 

[t-tony]

Kenlowe have to be one of the oldest " Cooling fan " modifiers that I know of. Years ago they supplied an extra cooling fan which you mounted and wired to a remote switch, and that relied on you being alert and keeping half an eye on your Temp gauge to switch the fan on before the engine overheated. This was in the days before electric fans were used. When I worked at a Chrysler/Simca garage in the late 70's this was a factory mod on Avengers and Sunbeams that we had to carry out at the Dealers. This was when manufacturers were first becoming aware of the power consumed by driving a mechanical cooling fan (let alone a viscous fan) and the benefits of using electric fans instead.

Tony.

 

[Ashbandicoot]

I have heard the the use of viscous in e36 and z3 being due to the bmw cooling engineer being long overdue retirement. Seeing as they were scrapped on each model after it sounds more believable albeit funny that BMW would sell cars with antique mechanics due to an ageing engineer lol

Ash

 

[Ashbandicoot]

No idea Ash!

One thing I've noticed is these Zeds some to come wired with one loom that has all the connectors for all extras, hopefully (on the interior anyhow).

Otherwise I believe the wiring isn't too hard to do (on the drift works site they talk about doing it on the e36).

I might just be a guinea pig here, i have noticed a number of connectors around the drivers side headlight with no purpose. I presume I just need the parts mentioned

Ash

 

[Dino D]

It's crazy isn't it and not even reliable. I've had 2 fans break and the viscous coupling die.
Luckily it didn't take out the radiator...
It would have been better to just fit 2 electric fans, one on the front (like aircon cars already have) and one in place of the viscous giving a back up if one failed or blew a fuse.

 

[t-tony]

I might just be a guinea pig here, i have noticed a number of connectors around the drivers side headlight with no purpose. I presume I just need the parts mentioned

Ash

If you can post some pictures of the connectors Ash I will compare with what's connected to fan switches etc. on my car. If that might help.

Tony.

 

[Dino D]

@Ashbandicoot
I'm busy looking for a replacement fan for mine and noticed that the fan I posted above for the e36 appears to be different (and possibly much more money) than what is on my 2.8 Z3

The Z3 fan:

The 328i fan:

They are different part numbers and I cannot make out if interchangeable.
The prices I've seen online so far for the Z3 unit are all in the US and over $300 yet the 328i one is £100...
Have contacted Sopers and will see what they say...

 

[Ashbandicoot]

I have one on order from Spurs fan will get around to making it work in the next couple of weeks.

Ash

 

[spurs fan in a coupe]

And much less than $300!

Wish I'd seen this thread first!

 

[Ashbandicoot]

Maybe 300 Ugandan dollars..

 

[Dino D]

I personally would be worried about going used on this part if I were removing the engine driven fan at the same time. It will be the only cooling fan and when (in my experience it's not if but when..) it fails then there is no backup...

The electric fan for the aircon is out front behind the kidneys and main air dam so picks up rain and muck etc so will die at some point I'm told. Even if it's from a low mileage car I can't imagine it's immune from deterioration over time by moisture/corrosion.
Can you test a used fan to be sure it's not close to dying?

I only noticed mine had gone because the aircon was not blowing cold when not moving. It hasd blown the 30amp fuse and since I replaced the fuse it works but not at the speed it should..
As I still have the viscous fan for now there is no effect on my engine cooling.
I'd only consider a salvage part if in conjunction with the viscous fan but it would need to be very cheap to allow for the possibility of replacing quite soon (and the labour cost/time/hassle).

Having had all the fans fail on this car now along with the usual cooling system weak points I'm thinking if I do remove the viscous unit to put a second electric one in (one engine side of the radiator).

What is it about BMW fans failing? I've never had issues before and I've had some super highmilage Hondas and even had a Renault Clio in Greece - everything broke on it but it never once had a cooling issue in 40+ heat and constant thrashing!