* electric fan install

I finished my electric fan install over the weekend. The old viscous fan was sticking on, which made the engine run cool - which caused a high idle - which would have failed the NCT last month as an emissions test would have been impossible. So for the past few weeks I have been driving around with no fan at all. Not a major problem as I rarely see traffic but there was still some uncomfortable moments sitting in a hot car in the hot sun, with the heater on full watching that digital temp gauge climbing..! Also, the engine felt a good bit more responsive with out that fan constantly dragging on it. So an ugly viscous was not going back in.



I picked up a nice SPAL 280mm curved blade low profile suction fan. The curved blades make this fan very quiet in operation, a nice touch for my road car. I found a very good universal fan mount kit on ebay, they are like circular cable ties in effect and just pass through the rad fins, it mounts in seconds and is rock solid. The OEM cowling was also removed for a neater engine bay. There was actually space for a bigger version or even two of these fans but this light unit is more than enough, it can easily drop 10C off the running temp in about 3 minutes so I don't expect it to be on a lot.


I have taken advantage of the built in fan controller in the sPa temp gauge, but to do this I had to wire in a new relay with protective diode as the gauge can only run 100mA max on its external channel. I also have a 3-way toggle switch set up so the fan can come on automatically when the gauge sees the temperature I have preset, stay off, or I can manually turn it on to keep it extra cool. My carbon centre panel is starting to look almost professional now!



Everything went in very neatly, and all the wires are hidden in the OEM harness, the relay is mounted in an almost factory position with the fuses behind the battery, and the control wire runs under the wing and in through the bulkhead.

Now, no more tea from my 4age hopefully!