R32 GTS-T Clutch Fan Heads Up.

[Cubes]

I've done a little bit of looking in to clutch fans on the R32 after I found the VL Commodore N/A's fan was slightly smaller, blades slightly more aggressive, 7 blades vs the R32's 8 and the setup also had the fan blades sitting closer to the motor which only JUST clears the harmonic balancer.

The VL N/A Clutch fan and hub will bolt up and operate fine.

The aftermarket clutch hub to get is the one suited to the VL turbo & R31 Nissan Skyline. NOT the VL 3ltr N/A as it won't bolt up to your fan.

Davis Craig make it. Dayco make one to suit the N/A.

Shop around.

I've had prices range from $275 (Repco) to $140 (Sprint AutoParts).

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Any one with a little knowledge in to the field.

8 blade (less pitch) vs 7 blade (steeper pitch) would have on air flow/drag?

The VL N/A 7 blade that I currently have on the R32 now to get me by, makes a hell of a noise.

I assume its due to my bar & plate FMIC as I can constantly hear the fan engaging while cruising under 2700rpm. I hear it cycle in and out, it keeps cruise temps around 82-83degree's on a normal temp day & 84 on a hot day.

Hot traffic it will spike up to 90degree's and then as soon as the car accelerates the fan engages creating a lot of noise and dropping the temps to 84-85degree's really quick.

[grigor]

Been there as well. The VL fan seems much noiser than the Nissan and made no difference to engine temp.

[Cubes]

I've done a little research in to fan design.

Greater pitch = a greater movement of air.

Less blades = a greater movement of air.

I'll repeat..

The VL N/A fan has 7 blades and a steep pitch compared to the RB20DET's (Unsure if R33's run the same fan) 8 blade with a flatter blade pitch but is approximately 1cm larger in diamater (I will double check the measurement).

The VL N/A fan is as noisy as hell, the RB20DET's is still noisy just not as harsh.

My theory is..

The R32's ran aluminium radiators which are well known for their superior heat transfer ability. This = a higher efficiency radiator so Nissan designed a fan with more blades and a flatter pitch (for noise and fuel economy) to meet the airflow requirements of the car/motor combination. As obviously a higher efficient radiator won't require as much airflow to perform well.

The R31 & VLT run the same clutch hubs as the R32.

I am going to now find out how many blades a R31 & VLT fan has.

It will be interesting if they run 7 with the steeper pitched blade.

[natho]

The R31 & VLT run the same clutch hubs as the R32.

 

I am going to now find out how many blades a R31 & VLT fan has.

It will be interesting if they run 7 with the steeper pitched blade.

I've never come accross a VL with an 8 blade fan or the bigger clutch (like the R31/R32), and I've worked on a lot of them!

The holden manual doesnt make any mention of it either. AFAIK all VL's have the 7 blade (noisy!) fan.

Did a bit of looking around at u-pull it recently and almost all the rwd nissans there used the 8 blade fan with the same clutch as what i've seen in r31/r32's.

[Cubes]

Natho.

Every VL/VLT I have seen (inc. yours) runs a 7 blade.

I had a look around for factory thermo fans today.

It looks like the EL Falcon are near the exact same size as the R32 radiator and should bolt up with no problems. Second hand, I couldn't find any. They are $195 new.

I came across a U12 Nissan Pintara/Ford Corsair FWD twin thermofan & shroud that looks like it too will bolt up to the R32 radiator. I will have to double check its depth.

The design and pitch of the blades look very much like that of the VL 7blade fan. I wonder how noisy it will be.

I am seriously considering the move to a decent factory designed twin thermo setup.

Half arsed davis craig thermo's don't appear to work too well, well they didn't for me.

[natho]

i dont think there is anything "wrong" with the davies craig thermos, more that for it to work the thermos need to be held a little out from the radiator and in a shroud.

i had some AU ones on the VL for a while and it did heat up a bit (never over half which is around 90) but the radiator was blocked and i've never put them back on since i had it fixed; i just bought a new clutch and left it.

reason is that the AU thermos are so big they cover the whole radiator, not just the core, and it sticks out so much that the cooler piping im about to put on wouldnt fit (normally its between the ps pump pulley and the radiator tank with plenty of room).

i talked to someone who had EL thermos on their R31 (which looks to me like same radiator as R32?) and they said they worked great. i think its worth a shot.

[Cubes]

There is a noticable design difference between the fan blade design of all the factory designed thermo fans vs the davis craig thermo's.

The davis thermo's (unsure about the bigger 15"+) appear to have a flat piece of plastic mounted at an angle as the blade. Factory designed thermo's have larger blade, less of them and are designed very similiar to that of the traditional crank driven fan.

But you are right. Fans don't work unless they are setup using a shroud.

When I pulled my 2 x 12" davis thermo's off my radiator it worked out to be something like only 33% surface area where air was being sucked through.

The R32 is fairly limited to thermo's as there is very limited room between the radiator core and the a/c compressor & its pipes.

The R31 rad is slightly taller than the r32 rad. but apparently fits no problems.

[natho]

you're right, never really thought about that.

for those who havent ever seen what we're on about i've attached a pic of au thermos and a pic of your standard aftermarket thermo.

[Cubes]

Maybe it comes down to the designed purpose of the fan?

Davis fans are designed and sold as push type, the blades can be flipped, maybe its not an optimal design for pulling?

[BHDave]

The davies craig instructions state swaping the polarity on the fan engine and swapping the blades over make it a pull type. Worked for me.

[Oosh]

The R31 rad is slightly taller than the r32 rad. but apparently fits no problems.

Does anyone know this for certain?

And did you ever find out if the EL thermo's setup infact bolts up no worries?

[gts4diehard]

hi, the fans on the r32 and r31 are quite different, well on my cars they are. the one on the 31 has straight blades where the 32's are curved ones- not sure on number of blades. i bought a new plastic fan for my r31 about 3 yrs ago and I thinks itwas about $40-50 from nissan.

[noone]

Does anyone know if the above is true for r32 GTR's particularly the parts regarding the viscous fan as that seems to be the killer Nissan want nearly $500 for the viscous clutch surely a Vl is similar/sameish usable

has anyone tried bolting a 32 fan to a vl viscous clutch or vise versa?

[mr_rbman]

mmmmmmmmmmm, my vl fan doesn't make much noise at all, must have got lucky!

[worwor2]

Sorry for butting in,the clutch on the fan in my r32gts25 (rb25de) has just gone. Being the first version of the rb25de i was wondering if there will be any differences or problems with fitting a clutch..? But by what i have read it seems a vl one should be sweet,but if anyone could shed some light that would be great..

Thanks.

Edited June 4, 2007 by worwor2

[Simon-S14]

R31 radiator will NOT fit into a 32... i tried and its far too tall. Ive got an RB25 rad in there now and i still had to do some mods to make the bonnet shut!