curtis73

I'm just about tearing out my hair.

Here's the deal. My wife said her E300 wasn't right. I discovered that the fan had flexed a blade forward, grabbed the shroud, and put a hole in the aluminum part of the tank flange in the radiator. Grrr. So, I disassembled it all, put in a new fan, shroud, and repaired the radiator. I noticed that it was still contacting the shroud and radiator. In desperation, I disassembled again and rotated the rubber lower grommets 180 degrees which got me another 1/8". Then I reached under, grabbed the lower radiator support and bent the sheet metal forward about 1/2". So, now I thought it was OK and I only spent one day and $130 in parts.

But today the same !*&^$^& thing happened.

Is this a common problem? Is there a fix? I'm tired of tearing it apart and I can only patch the aluminum so many times. No matter how I assemble it I can't get enough space between the radiator and the fan.

lkchris

Sounds like you need new motor mounts.

curtis73

Thanks for the insight. That's something I hadn't considered, but wouldn't that affect motion radially along the crank axis? I would think that if its the motor mounts it would have to allow yawing of the engine to let the blades hit the shroud like that. I would understand if it were hitting the top of the shroud, but its hitting the passenger side at 3 o'clock. (or 9 o'clock if you're viewing it from the front)

tcesario

if the engine looks like it is close to the sway bar,almost touching then engine mounts are the cause ,

curtis73

Ok, had it all apart today, had the radiator patched, and re-assembled. I left the shroud out for now since it has been the interference part from square one. I checked the motor mounts. Definitely not the problem. They look brand new, the engine is nowhere near the sway bar, and repeatedly putting a load on the engine (in gear with my foot on the brake) I couldn't get the engine to move more than 1/4", and it was certainly not in a direction that would cause the passenger side of the fan to torque forward enough to contact the fan.

Instead, I came to a possible conclusion. I will assume that at some point it had a front end collision that tweaked things around. I repositioned the lower radiator support to give equidistant space at all points from the fan (about 3/4") and noticed that the intercooler wouldn't slide up in place because it hit the tow hook. If I moved the radiator enough to get the intercooler in place it was dangerously close to the fan. So, instead of compromise, I decided to get out the grinder and "modify" the tow hook so that the intercooler fits.

Overall, I am very confident in my work. My only concern is that without the shroud I may notice a little higher temps in town; something I will watch like a hawk, but for now I feel assured it will get us home.

I really kinda wish it was motor mounts; that's what everyone seems to think, but its just not.

tcesario

right on ,i hope it all works out