Disassembling viscous fan

[MattF]

cough.....Astra GTE.....cough.

Was expecting you to say off something butch or racey, but .............,
how could you!

[MattF]

well i have gone from a doggy fan, blocked rad(mud) ineficent oil cooler, aircon rad and fans stopping air from below and 4 spot lamps infront of rad to clean rad, no aircon no spots and a kenlowe fan and cooler

Not much then. I keep toying with the idea of removing the aircon.
If only just to get rid of those poxy fans underneath. You can't reach
anything from below without getting your hand trapped on those.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Was expecting you to say off something butch or racey, but .............,
how could you!

I know, the only time a vauxhall has been of any use.

[MattF]

I like the idea of the silicon.

With the silicone though, (considered that idea), surely the silicone
would literally shear after a while, allowing movement in the mech
again. When you consider the amount of wind resistance the blades
are up against, surely it's only a matter of time before it gets broken
up internally?

[MattF]

I know, the only time a vauxhall has been of any use.

Do you have any closeups of your bonnet? Can only ever remember
seeing sideon pics of your girl. Just out of interest, did you have much
of a job spraying your a-bar black, or is chrome easily enough sprayed
over?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Do you have any closeups of your bonnet? Can only ever remember
seeing sideon pics of your girl. Just out of interest, did you have much
of a job spraying your a-bar black, or is chrome easily enough sprayed
over?

You need to really roughen the surface to get the paint to stick to the A-bar, I used chip resistant (load of c rap!) spray paint, should have used Hammerite satin black.
Anyway the "chip resistant" paint er chipped and the bar was looking tatty so I've removed it now and gone for the naked front!
This is the only pic I have at the moment of the vents. One is directly above the turbo, the hottest part of the engine, and the other one 'mirrors' it

[MattF]

You need to really roughen the surface to get the paint to stick to the A-bar, I used chip resistant (load of c rap!) spray paint, should have used Hammerite satin black.
Anyway the "chip resistant" paint er chipped and the bar was looking tatty so I've removed it now and gone for the naked front!

Nice. I've got a big T.H crusher on the front of mine, only problem
being that I aint no fan of chrome. Been thinking of how to alter its
appearance. Know what you mean about specialised paints. Can't
usually beat good old Hammerite.

This is the only pic I have at the moment of the vents. One is directly above the turbo, the hottest part of the engine, and the other one 'mirrors' it

They do look quite discreet. Better than those large things like you
tend to see on some 4x4's. Must admit, I'm getting more tempted.

[DaveD]

With the silicone though, (considered that idea), surely the silicone
would literally shear after a while, allowing movement in the mech
again. When you consider the amount of wind resistance the blades
are up against, surely it's only a matter of time before it gets broken
up internally?

You would think so....Tony has been keeping a Vfan for me for over a year, I just never seem to find the time to pick it up(could be cos I'm a lazy buggar)
I read a post, by Matt I think, that suggested locking it up with pva I filled it with silicon because I had it on hand and didnt see it as too much of a jump from silicon oil. i do a minimum of 500 miles a week in mine,usually a lot more than that with family visits to N Wales and Newcastle every couple of months and it seems to hold up well. Mostly Mway driving at slightly(cough) over 69.99mph. I will collect the fan from T and change the silicon oil(which I got from Toyota nearly a year ago) and stop the whooshing from frightening kids and other small furry animals honest.

[MattF]

You would think so....Tony has been keeping a Vfan for me for over a year, I just never seem to find the time to pick it up(could be cos I'm a lazy buggar)
I read a post, by Matt I think, that suggested locking it up with pva I filled it with silicon because I had it on hand and didnt see it as too much of a jump from silicon oil. i do a minimum of 500 miles a week in mine,usually a lot more than that with family visits to N Wales and Newcastle every couple of months and it seems to hold up well. Mostly Mway driving at slightly(cough) over 69.99mph.

I'm surprised it lasts that well. I considered various adhesives
before I drilled and bolted, but each one I could think of had
pitfalls.

Silicone: Good on rough surfaces and against pull type force,
but not usually very resistant to twisting.

Epoxy resin: Strong stuff when cured, but pathetic at sticking
to smooth surfaces. Also, once subjected to a bit of repeated
pressure, brittles and cracks.

Not used PVA before, so unsure what that's like.

I will collect the fan from T and change the silicon oil(which I got from Toyota nearly a year ago) and stop the whooshing from frightening kids and other small furry animals honest.

Good way of keeping the blighters away from your beast,
though. With you being a 3L man, cooling will be less of
a priority, I suppose.

[DaveD]

Good way of keeping the blighters away from your beast,
though. With you being a 3L man, cooling will be less of
a priority, I suppose.

Long boring story .....after my rad went on a trip to Wales I had poor starting and used about a litre of water on 40mile trips I did the starter contactsglow plugs, fuses, burped the coolant etc all on the advice of "expert mechanics" had T check it over and he reckoned same as me CHG tho everybody told me "no thats fine" T didnt have a compression tester so put it into Frogs Island and it was CHG.... you live and learn....Vfan was one of the things I tried (cleaned and changed oil I bought from model shop) was going to change it for one Tony had and even got the proper silicon oil from dealers.

praps the silicon gives the right amount of "drag", dunno but it seems to be working fine.....and I'm of the .....change fluids and if it ain't broke.......leave the buggar alone variety.

[BUSHWHACKER]

O.K. here's what I done......removed fan assembly, dismantled the viscous coupling, dicarded the front and middle sections, removed the fan and flippped it over, the using the existing threaded holes bolted the fan back onto the rear half of the viscous part using m8 allen bolts and put a dab of gripfil on the ends of the threads so the bolts won't work loose.




Sorry, I forgot this is the Mk2 version of my fan locking

[Taliesins]

You theoretically have a greater imbalance potential with
three bolts rather than two. I'm just curious now he's put
the sh*ts up me.

Apparantly the viscous fan itself is not suitable to be rotating at full speed all the time and can shatter due to the stress it is put through on direct drive. Although I realise some so far have not yet had a problem.
Also as far as cooling goes the fan is only needed at tickover and low speeds.
I did read all this on the forum somewhere.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Apparantly the viscous fan itself is not suitable to be rotating at full speed all the time and can shatter due to the stress it is put through on direct drive. Although I realise some so far have not yet had a problem.
Also as far as cooling goes the fan is only needed at tickover and low speeds.
I did read all this on the forum somewhere.

Yep, I read that too, but it doesn't make any sense to me. Saying that at sustained high speed cruising the fan may shatter due to centrifugal force!!!! I don't think so. When the engine is hot the fan is theoretically locked anyway. A locked fan won't be rotating at full speed all the time, just whatever the engine revs are.

[Taliesins]

Yep, I read that too, but it doesn't make any sense to me. Saying that at sustained high speed cruising the fan may shatter due to centrifugal force!!!! I don't think so. When the engine is hot the fan is theoretically locked anyway. A locked fan won't be rotating at full speed all the time, just whatever the engine revs are.

I can see your logic but in theory (apparantly) the fan is in the line of the airflow which at speed is cooler than the engine therefore the fan (viscous) is actually cool and does not operate at full speed as the coupling is slipping supposedly it locks at low speeds when the fan itself is not being cooled by the airstream

[MattF]

I can see your logic but in theory (apparantly) the fan is in the line of the airflow which at speed is cooler than the engine therefore the fan (viscous) is actually cool and does not operate at full speed as the coupling is slipping supposedly it locks at low speeds when the fan itself is not being cooled by the airstream

If that's true, though, it's not going to be working when most of
the surfs seem to suffer worst. At high speed.