greg12m3

So I typed out my this whole long post about this mechanical fan delete/electric fan business only minutes ago but for whatever reason I closed the window....

Here are a few pictures and videos. The car maybe runs smoother but i really don't know yet as it was raining today and i was only able to cover 60 miles. I'm going to try to drive 2/300 miles tomorrow and i'll report back. Until then here are some pictures and videos. There at nite so it's not the best quality but i'll be making more tomorrow in the day light.

I'll type up more tomorrow as it's late now.

Here are the videos.

Start up with Electric fan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwe_xJvXaPg

Electric Fan setup - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTs0u...eature=channel

A short nite drive with the new electric fan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPTui...eature=channel


and pictures...

pinoyk20

what type of fan did u use? what parts do you neetd to do this set up? and did you notice any change on the cooling more importantly did you notice change in power since you free up some belt... tanks

zacka

thank you greg for the pictures
but i want to know what type of sensor do you use for starting up the fan ?

greg12m3

Ive driven about 150 miles so far today and the car is doing pretty much the same as it has been. I think I may need a bigger/high CFM fan as I took it through the city and with the ac on, was running right below the mark above the 80mark for the entire time but i used the economy button and was able to stabilize the temp in between them. Also at the lights the temp rose a bit quickly but didn't run hotter then it has before. Under "load" the temp stayed low and lower then it had been before. Overall I'm satisfied and am going to order a larger fan, probably one with at least 3000 CFM i'll post the fan I buy as I forget the one i already bought and installed, i remember the specs just not the name, sorry.

The fan i used was a 16inch 1600ish CFM fan which came with a temp switch kit but other kits could purchased which could include variable temp settings and stuff. My kit had a temp switch set to 190 F which was a little high but i also ran a toggle switch. The fan runs also now when the car is off until the temp is below 190 F. I ordered from www.summitracing.com.

The car feels much smoother and effortless but not faster. It feels like it has more grunt and is more ferocious low down. For example when you floor it at about 25-30 it chooses 2nd gear and now when I do this is feels like it pulls faster from the beginning. It feels kinda like when you put a light weight flywheel on a car versus the stock one. The gear change may feel a bit quicker but that may just be in my head or might just be a smoother gear.

Either way I'm happy with this setup and I hope it doesn't destroy my car. I'll let you know how the bigger fan goes. Here are two videos with the camera outside while I do a 1st gear pull.

Drive away 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB0V7...eature=channel

Drive away 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS_Hz_028OA

Fabio D

Greg Congrats on your mod! hope works fine in owr cars! please i need a favor! you can give me the part # by the small black sticker in the #3 picture of the headlamp adjuster? mine is gone i want to put them on again!

Thanks a lot bro

Fabio Daniel

pinoyk20

nice sound of the exhaust! and fast car eheheheh

greg12m3

So i have my new fan which is two inches smaller but twice as powerful and rated at 3,300cfm. But my car is running even hotter at the lights now. I learned how to turn on my aux fans and they greatly reduced the temps of my coolant. Typically my car is running below 200F but at the lights it could get up to 206F. Since i have learned to control the aux fans though I haven't seen any temps above 199F.

I am considering replacing the aux fans for a fan that will draw less amps as I read somewhere that they draw nearly 20amps. I'm considering using my old fan which produced 1,600cfm and only drew 7.9amps.

The car is running colder on the highway though and with the ac on only runs a few degress F warmer, today I didn't see above 193F with the ac on.

But I have a few questions.

Although my fan is smaller it is producing more cfm but still the car is running a bit hotter and takes longer while driving to cool down, does the size of the fan matter?
Does anyone know the cfm produced by the mechanical fan and by the aux fans? ( i seached on google and read about gm V8 people using 4-5000cfm electric fans, so would this apply to me maybe?)
When are the coolant temps too high or whats the hottest or engine should be getting without doing harm?
And what should the volts be when the car is off?

Thanks!

I still think the car feels more effortless, not faster really but smoother and a bit stronger at lower rpms, I also appreciate the fan cooling the car after it's parked.

greg12m3

black sticker? Is it on the wheel for the adjusment?

saintz

Have you changed your coolant recently? A change to new fluid and Redline Water Wetter might help a lot. If you live somewhere it doesn't freeze often, you can also run a higher water to coolant ratio. These things will help you dissipate heat better in conjunction with any changes you make to the fans.

The engine wants to stay in the 80C to 90C range (the thermostat opens at 80C and it kicks on the electric fans at 90C). That's not to say going over that is necessarily that bad. I think so long as you aren't hitting the "red" (I think that's 120C, off the top of my head) you're probably not doing any damage. But my goal would be to keep temps under 100C, preferably under 90C when moving, and I think you're fine.

greg12m3

Thanks you saintz, I have changed my coolant and added quite a bit of "engine ice" which is suppose to be the same as the redline stuff, but i think i'm going to buy that as well.

My engine never runs hotter then about 96/97C and only when sitting at lights or in a fast food drive through. I have learned to manually turn my aux fans on as I never hear them turn on and now with them on the car runs perfect. When i'm moving with all fans off the car never goes above 90C for sure and on the highway I can have the ac blasting with the electric fan kicking in ever so often.

I'm going to just keep driving this weekend and continue to monitor the temps and volts. My volts with the aux and electric fans never dip below 13.3 and with only the electric fan jump between 13.3 and 13.5, normally with no fans it runs 13.5 and rarely 13.6.

I read about chevy V8s and such and read they use 4-5,000cfm fans. So after about a week if I'm not satisfied I plan on purchasing a fan in that range or a dual fans.

saintz

Sounds like your temps are in line.

Max Hughes

What a coincidence lol I am doing this along with a few other things this weeked:

3300CFM Zirgo S-blade fan:

AMS Performance

Hello Everyone,

A few pointers. It is much better to go with a larger 16" blade fan because it covers a much larger surface area of the radiator. The proper way to do this is run some sort of a shroud covering the whole back side of the radiator then attaching the fan to that rear shroud to help suck in air from the entire radiator (this will take up a bit of the clearance front to back (between the fan & the OEM fan nut) but it will drastically improve cooling. 16" curved blade fan with a shroud would equal roughly the same power as the stock unit.

Furthermore, S-curved blades are MUCH quieter than the straight blade fans but you sacrifice roughly 15-20% CFM in doing so, however you can barely hear them so it is more optimal to go that route.

In addition, however you chose to wire it, be sure you wire it into switch power to ensure the fans shut off when the car turns off otherwise this could seriously drain battery over time. You might be able to get away with it on an OEM battery @ 100%, but any aftermarket battery would probably suffer (especially lightweight ones).

Greg, stock thermostat on the V8s is 87C (just below 190F) so 190 although isn't as low as the 180, it is right where thermostat opens, however 180F harness may help get a "head start" on cooling which would prove to be helpful in at least slowly down the rising heat at traffic lights.

The Aux condensor fans are designed to kick in at 98C for safety reasons and will progressively get faster & faster until they go full force above 100C (past the natural boiling point of pure water, but not coolant). If you are properly cooling your car the condenser fans should never kick in unless AC is on (this is normal).

The reason most people have problems with electric cooling fans is not the fan itself, its the shroud. People using 3000+CFM are using a way too many amps (total waste). Even the stock fan doesn't cover 100% of the radiator (a portion of it is left open on the back side to let air flow through while car is in motion & etc).

And even better route is do go with a dual 11-12" fan setup (pictured below). The 11-12" fans are extremely thin and curved blade so they will be quiet, yet they cover a much larger surface area. Furthermore, they only use 7amps each (14 amps total) and they take up much less space depth-wise. Since they come with a shroud as well they seem to be a much more cost effective route and many of the kits on ebay even come with the wiring harness included. They may not be specifically designed for our setup but they can easily be retrofitted as long as you get one with the same general radiator dimensions designed for our cars.

You can also run a single fan with shroud setup if you want to save money. A 14"-16" curved blade with shroud would significantly improve the cooling results.

(BTW... for those of you who haven't seen the SL65 Black series in person, AMG put a 26" electric fan on it with one hell of a radiator shroud, so AMG is now doing this as well on their extreme models, granted with much larger fans & shrouds).

P.S. If any one wants the 14" Spal curved blade fan w/ 185F wiring harness new in box ($190+ msrp), have one in stock for only $130 shipped.

Here are some generic examples (these may not necessarily be exact fits, just for visual demonstration purposes):



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Z4006...Q5fAccessories

You get the idea...
~AMS~

AMS Performance

Btw... for those interested. Got the pic of the SL65 BS w/ the electric fan (kinda hard to see but you can see they angled the 26" fan to fit it and used a large shroud to completely seal it off). hope that helps, enjoy the eye candy

Max Hughes

97+ E and C class sedans have the least engine to radiator room of any other US Mercedes model. Running a shroud is nearly impossible on the I6 versions and V8 versions barely have any more room. After that you start hitting the pullies. Running a enclosed 3300cfm fan is a necessity on my car with the turbo and second radiator for the intercooler. Any other Mercedes and running shourded electric fan is very doable and looks good like the SL65's.

EDIT: The best way on cars like these to run a shroud with a big fan is to notch out the plastic ring except for where the fan mounts and put an aluminum shroud around it, level with the rear plastic cover. That's how I do tight space installs.

AMS Performance

Max, with the fan you are running that is correct, but not with the dual 11" fan setup (which is why I mentioned it) Those fans are incredibly thin and the motor does not stick out the back at all so you can easily run one of those shrouds no problem on the V8s (and even the 6's possibly). The 11" fans are less than half the thickness if not less and are all curved blade so they are much quieter and barely use any power.

The V8's have plenty of room once you take out the mechanical fan, especially with dual fan setup where neither fan will get anywhere close to stock fan nut. The 14-16" fans take up a lot more depth, you can still run them but again, fitment can be an issue one some models. Having tried multiple different setups, the dual 11-12" fan setup makes the most sense as long as you use shroud.

below you can clearly see the differences in the motor. The 11-12" are almost half as thick thereby allowing for a shroud. Dual 12" setup would be best.

11" fan (2" depth):


12" fan (2" depth)"


16" fan (3.4" depth)"


~AMS~

zacka

I have 2 questions
I´ve ordered a 16" (2100CFM) fan, can i use the OEM shroud and just mount the new fan in the inside ?

Where can i wire it into switch power so it ´s turn off when i turn off the car ?

..//zacharia

greg12m3

thanks for the responses but a deer last nite totalled my car.

saintz

Hope you're ok. Time for a W211 E55?

Max Hughes

Yep just be extremely careful and don't break it. Brittle is an understatement, they snap with the littlest distortion.

greg12m3

I'm ok, thanks. I don't think i will buy another amg for a while, too much maintenance.

I really want to buy a z3m or an e36 m3, i had two m3s before and really loved them both so I think before they all get too old I might as well find another.

AMS Performance

Glad to hear you are ok! could have been much worse.

You are complaining about AMG maintenance compared to an E36 M3?! lol . They aren't exactly super reliable either. I agree they are amazing cars, and practically cost nothing, but finding one that hasn't been molested and that is in good condition is not easy.

~AMS~

greg12m3

My past m3s weren't too bad on maintenance and my last m3 lasted till 215k! until the guy I was selling it too totaled it in the middle of the sale sorta.

I just found an E55 with 70k for 17k and am considering it because as I'm looking at other cars I really just wish that deer didn't hit me.

Weird how I've been looking at other cars for sale for the past few months and now when i actually have to buy one I don't want to...

armaniE55

Ouch! Sorry to hear the bad news.. How fast were you going? Any pics of the accident?

Also can anyone explain the benefits of going with the Electric Mod compared to the OEM fan? Curious...

Difference/Benefits

Armani

AMS Performance

You can always get the W208 CLk55, same drivetrain in 300lb lighter car, that way you don't have to get the exact same car. It is definitely quicker than the E55.