Should I Remove The Factory Clutch Fan On My Gtr?

[NSNPWR]

technically maybe, but i would never try that, i have always noticed that when cold starting most viscous fans actually engage and you can hear them roar for maybe 30 seconds,

whats the main reason you want to get rid of the engine fan marko???

Yeah, thats right mate, most will engage briefly but then should disengage until temp gets right up.

I know mine is locked on permanently, no doubt, sounds terrible....been trying to drive it around everywhere around 1500rpm...lol.

Anyway....my new fan arrived today, $157 through Repco (not sure if thats trade as my mechanic ordered it), going to fit it tonight and report back.

[Marko R1]

Yeah, thats right mate, most will engage briefly but then should disengage until temp gets right up.

shouldn't the clutch fan only engage when the temp is up?

[NSNPWR]

For some reason they are known to engage on initial start up for a brief amount of time, they should then disengage until like you say the temp gets up, the thermal strip then expands and engages the clutch...

I can confirm 100% mine is still engaged at 4500ish rpm...

[NSNPWR]

Just thought i'd report back my progress....

After getting my new hub assembly from Repco and them being adamant that it was to suit Skyline RB26...suprise suprise, it didnt fit!!!! The GTR fan did not bolt up to this hub so I tried the RB30 fan on this new hub after modifying (read trimming) the RB30 fan, the fan fit but once I got it bolted up, it fouled on the crank pulley as the offset was all wrong (the snout was alot shorter than the original 26 hub)...

Anyway, my 16" thermo arrived the next day, this fan was advertised as flowing 2850cfm.

Heres what I did -

Determine position fan will sit.....

Drill holes in shroud and apply the zip ties! The fan is very light so Zip ties positioned at various locations around the shroud/fan hold it nice and secure.

Take your weather seal strips....

Apply some No more Gaps -

Now I know many will scoff at what ive done here but it looks neat enough sitting in the car, you cant really see any of it anyway.

A word of advice, you need to sit the fan in another 10mm further than I have as the only issue I had was with it sitting too close to and rubbing on the pulleys!

We wired it up today, its currently running off a switch with the Air-Con Aux fan (so one is pushing, one is pulling - today it easily cooled the car from 86c to 80c while stationary).

I will soon get it running off a proper sensor/switch so I dont have to keep watching the temp, although the car does not get hot when its moving anyway.

The biggest plus is, no more noisy locked on clutch fan, robbing HP and killing fuel economy and the thermo with wiring was only $99.90 delivered.

Edited March 6, 2010 by NSNPWR

[Marko R1]

very nice, does it hold the same temp as the clutch fan?

[MrWindsurf]

Hmmm I have been doing research on removing my clutch fan out of my 32gtr, I think its perma on aswel I hate that sound of an EA Falcodore.

[NSNPWR]

very nice, does it hold the same temp as the clutch fan?

Cheers mate, yeah, ive had no issue so far, it mananged to drop temps from 86 back down to 80 while stationary, pretty sure my air-con aux fan has been replaced at some point for a newer looking 12" fan...I dare say having that on the front pushing in sync will be helping somewhat.

[STATUS]

Cheers mate, yeah, ive had no issue so far, it mananged to drop temps from 86 back down to 80 while stationary, pretty sure my air-con aux fan has been replaced at some point for a newer looking 12" fan...I dare say having that on the front pushing in sync will be helping somewhat.

I would like to see if it still works under some load and decent heat soak, ie a track day.

[FineLine]

I would like to see if it still works under some load and decent heat soak, ie a track day.

X2. I had a couple of attempts at getting thermo fans to work, shrouded and unshrouded but as the above poster mentioned, prolonged high rpm use and heat soak saw me revert to the factory clutch fan pronto.

The factory fan blows a freakin tornado through your engine bay in comparison to any thermo I tried.

[Marko R1]

X2. I had a couple of attempts at getting thermo fans to work, shrouded and unshrouded but as the above poster mentioned, prolonged high rpm use and heat soak saw me revert to the factory clutch fan pronto.

The factory fan blows a freakin tornado through your engine bay in comparison to any thermo I tried.

exactly my thoughts/concerns

[NSNPWR]

I would like to see if it still works under some load and decent heat soak, ie a track day.

Yeah, this could be true but personally I have no intention of tracking the car...I guess the fact it can move enough air to cool the car while stationary may be an indication as to whether it can keep it cool while in motion copping a hiding and a good enough indication that it will stay cool enough in stop start traffic....as we've discussed, the stock fan supposedly disengages after 3000rpm or so anyway??? So youre really relying on the air blowing through the radiator from the momentum of the car?

Edited March 15, 2010 by NSNPWR

[dano4127]

Just thought i'd report back my progress....

After getting my new hub assembly from Repco and them being adamant that it was to suit Skyline RB26...suprise suprise, it didnt fit!!!! The GTR fan did not bolt up to this hub so I tried the RB30 fan on this new hub after modifying (read trimming) the RB30 fan, the fan fit but once I got it bolted up, it fouled on the crank pulley as the offset was all wrong (the snout was alot shorter than the original 26 hub)...

Anyway, my 16" thermo arrived the next day, this fan was advertised as flowing 2850cfm.

Heres what I did -

Determine position fan will sit.....

Drill holes in shroud and apply the zip ties! The fan is very light so Zip ties positioned at various locations around the shroud/fan hold it nice and secure.

Take your weather seal strips....

Apply some No more Gaps -

Now I know many will scoff at what ive done here but it looks neat enough sitting in the car, you cant really see any of it anyway.

A word of advice, you need to sit the fan in another 10mm further than I have as the only issue I had was with it sitting too close to and rubbing on the pulleys!

We wired it up today, its currently running off a switch with the Air-Con Aux fan (so one is pushing, one is pulling - today it easily cooled the car from 86c to 80c while stationary).

I will soon get it running off a proper sensor/switch so I dont have to keep watching the temp, although the car does not get hot when its moving anyway.

The biggest plus is, no more noisy locked on clutch fan, robbing HP and killing fuel economy and the thermo with wiring was only $99.90 delivered.

Nice handy work there! Keen to know how it goes after some spirited driving

X2. I had a couple of attempts at getting thermo fans to work, shrouded and unshrouded but as the above poster mentioned, prolonged high rpm use and heat soak saw me revert to the factory clutch fan pronto.

The factory fan blows a freakin tornado through your engine bay in comparison to any thermo I tried.

does the clutch fan disengage above 3Krpm???

Edited March 15, 2010 by dano4127

[NSNPWR]

Cheers mate, I have taken it for a good punt through Gorge Rd etc and it stayed cool as...was a cool night admittedly but again, I have no intention of tracking it or thrashing it for that matter when its 40 degrees....so for what I want, this works a treat...so far...and yes, from all the reading I did, the Clutch Fan is designed to disengage around 2500-3000rpm...

I think theres a pretty clear trend developing in this thread re sticky R32 GTR Clutch fans.

I should also add, my car runs one of them air diversion panels which sits above the radiator support panel/between the headlights...if youre not using one, get one, they make sense, have seen them on Ebay for $60 delivered...

[STATUS]

Cheers mate, I have taken it for a good punt through Gorge Rd etc and it stayed cool as...was a cool night admittedly but again, I have no intention of tracking it or thrashing it for that matter when its 40 degrees....so for what I want, this works a treat...so far...and yes, from all the reading I did, the Clutch Fan is designed to disengage around 2500-3000rpm...

I think theres a pretty clear trend developing in this thread re sticky R32 GTR Clutch fans.

I should also add, my car runs one of them air diversion panels which sits above the radiator support panel/between the headlights...if youre not using one, get one, they make sense, have seen them on Ebay for $60 delivered...

Not true It is a thermostatically controlled device that when operating normally will vary the fan speed independently of the engine speed. if the radiator is red hot it will still be fully engaged irrespective of rpm. It is the reason thermos are generally inefffective for Hard driving sessions as they are fixed speed and cannot pull enough air through the radiator at high rpm high load instances... our race car is a prime example we went back to a clutc fan as we found the $700 thermo setup we had could not match the std $100 clutch fan for cooling.... hence the clutch fan is back on and we can thrash it as hard as we like with no overheating.

key points about Thermal Fan Clutches;

• Controls fans speed based on temperature
  
• When at high speed, the Thermal Fan Clutch can provide high speed operation provides maximum cooling with it may be needed. When engine speed is low, the fan may be disengaged if not needed, providing fuel savings and noise reduction. Again, tied to temperature rather than shaft speed.
  
• Thermal fan clutches have a greater life expectancy than a non-thermal clutch
  
• Thermal fan clutches are briefly engaged at cold start-up
  
• Thermal Fan Clutches engage at about 170° radiator air temperature, which translates to about 30° lower than the actual coolant temperature.
  

[Marko R1]

Not true It is a thermostatically controlled device that when operating normally will vary the fan speed independently of the engine speed. if the radiator is red hot it will still be fully engaged irrespective of rpm. It is the reason thermos are generally inefffective for Hard driving sessions as they are fixed speed and cannot pull enough air through the radiator at high rpm high load instances... our race car is a prime example we went back to a clutc fan as we found the $700 thermo setup we had could not match the std $100 clutch fan for cooling.... hence the clutch fan is back on and we can thrash it as hard as we like with no overheating.

key points about Thermal Fan Clutches;

• Controls fans speed based on temperature
  
• When at high speed, the Thermal Fan Clutch can provide high speed operation provides maximum cooling with it may be needed. When engine speed is low, the fan may be disengaged if not needed, providing fuel savings and noise reduction. Again, tied to temperature rather than shaft speed.
  
• Thermal fan clutches have a greater life expectancy than a non-thermal clutch
  
• Thermal fan clutches are briefly engaged at cold start-up
  
• Thermal Fan Clutches engage at about 170° radiator air temperature, which translates to about 30° lower than the actual coolant temperature.
  

Great post, thanks for the info...it makes perfect sense to me that the clutch fan runs off engine temp.

[NSNPWR]

Atleast buy yourself a new one then mate....

[Bond]

In case anyone wants to know if you suspect your clutch fan is not up to scratch you can service these. I have done this to my 33 and to my Patrol (same unit).

Go to Toyota and buy 2 tubes of silicon oil (i dont think nissan sell it) around $10.

Pull hub off and carefully drill 2 holes (not as easy with one hole) in a meaty section of the hub but stop as soon as you get into the hollow inside.

Fill up cavity with silicon oil. The second hole allows air inside to come out.

Seal up holes with grub screw or normal screw with some thread tape.

Put it back together and you will have a fan that works and will not be stuck on like most ppl beleive.

If its sucking a lot of air then its working.....I would rather rob a few HP but know that it wont overheat!!!

[Marko R1]

Atleast buy yourself a new one then mate....

come to think of it, i only really hear my fan on start up & not when im driving the car

im happy to keep the fan on there for now

[MrStabby]

Status - i thought conventional wisdom was that any sort of fan does SFA at speed, as the air pressure generated at the front of the car pushes much more air through the radiator than the fan, and therefore you might as well just turn the fan off at high speed. Sounds like that is not the case from your experience. Could the thermo shrouding have been restricting airflow?

[NSNPWR]

In case anyone wants to know if you suspect your clutch fan is not up to scratch you can service these. I have done this to my 33 and to my Patrol (same unit).

Go to Toyota and buy 2 tubes of silicon oil (i dont think nissan sell it) around $10.

Pull hub off and carefully drill 2 holes (not as easy with one hole) in a meaty section of the hub but stop as soon as you get into the hollow inside.

Fill up cavity with silicon oil. The second hole allows air inside to come out.

Seal up holes with grub screw or normal screw with some thread tape.

Put it back together and you will have a fan that works and will not be stuck on like most ppl beleive.

If its sucking a lot of air then its working.....I would rather rob a few HP but know that it wont overheat!!!

You need to let the old Fluid drain out...no reason if its a sealed unti that it should have leaked or be low...regardless, mine was stuck on, the fix youve posted is for when they arent engaging properly, as in you can stop them with your hand.