Slimfan wont cool enough

[GST98BIG16G]

Hey guys i installed slim fan , and it does not cool the car enough. Its a push fan not like oem, so maybe thats the problem ? I should swith + and - and it will turn the other way and i may solve the problem? It works , turns on when certain temp is reached , but just does not cool down the car, i have to turn on my heater on high so i would not blow up. Help please , its getting warm oustide

 

[1gcrazy]

If your old stock fan worked then maybe you received a defective fan. Try throwing the old one back on. If it keeps it cool get another slim fan. If the old fan wont keep it cool you have an overheating problem. Check the Thermostat first and foremost.

 

[oldman]

Are you using it as push or pull? How many fans? What size? Mounted in front or behind the radiator? New thermostate, radiator cap?

 

[romeen]

Hey guys i installed slim fan , and it does not cool the car enough. Its a push fan not like oem, so maybe thats the problem ? I should swith + and - and it will turn the other way and i may solve the problem? It works , turns on when certain temp is reached , but just does not cool down the car, i have to turn on my heater on high so i would not blow up. Help please , its getting warm oustide

As you suspect, switch the wires so that it will be pulling air instead of pushing. When pushing it's directing hot air from the engine bay across the radiator instead of pulling cooler outside air. If the overheating started right after you swapped fans and you didn't change any other component of the cooling system then that is most likely the cause.

You can also consider changing to a 180* thermostat. Unless you live in a predominantly cold region I am not aware of any significant downside to this. But again, it may not be necessary if suggestion one fixes the problem.

 

[GVR4592]

Most slim fans are worthless, the only two fans I've ever had work as well as the oem fans are SPAL and Perma-Cool. I have a single 10" Perma-Cool fan on my car right now and it has no problem keeping the engine cool, even on 100 degree days.

 

[dave99gst]

You are not trying to "push" air into the radiator from the rear are you? I had a Cheep slowboy fan on my GST and it had no problem cooling the car with a fmic installed.
I also didnt have any a/c stuff.
Water weter may help you some also.

 

[endeffect0]

I had cooling problems on my other car a 91 RX7, the thing put out more heat than anything i have ever seen! it was a small nuclear reactor really, i switched over from my stock fan to this one http://www.ffwdconnection.com/spal.shtml and it made a huge diffrence.

 

[GST98BIG16G]

romeen is right , i changed nothing on my car before it satrted overheating. Im gonna go swith the wires and make it pull. That might be the problem, if not ill put the stock one back in. thanks , ill keep you updated

 

[alex99gst]

If you have a pusher fan mounted on the back of the radiator then I would say that is definitely your problem. Do what you said and switch the wires so that it pulls air instead and that should fix your problem.

 

[romeen]

Most slim fans are worthless, the only two fans I've ever had work as well as the oem fans are SPAL and Perma-Cool. I have a single 10" Perma-Cool fan on my car right now and it has no problem keeping the engine cool, even on 100 degree days.

I have the Flex-A-Lite fans. Doing the "Pepsi challenge" test with the stock fans left no doubt that they pull much harder than the oem's.

Now whether they are necessary or worth the money for a DD is debateable. But they are lighter and free up quite a bit of space. I can remove the turbo easily with the fans on.

 

[c4uldr0n]

pushing or pulling will both work fine, make sure that you have the fins on the fan pointing in the correct direction. If you have the motor rotating in the wrong direction compared to how it is moving air, the fan is doing little to nothing to circulate air.

 

[oldman]

pushing or pulling will both work fine, make sure that you have the fins on the fan pointing in the correct direction. If you have the motor rotating in the wrong direction compared to how it is moving air, the fan is doing little to nothing to circulate air.

Please explain how one would go about changing the orientation of the fins? A push fan must be mounted on the front side of the radiator which will require the removal of the AC condenser.

 

[romeen]

pushing or pulling will both work fine, make sure that you have the fins on the fan pointing in the correct direction. If you have the motor rotating in the wrong direction compared to how it is moving air, the fan is doing little to nothing to circulate air.

Not true. As I mentioned in post #4 it is better to be pulling air. Even on the hottest summer days the underhood temps are still going to be hotter than the "outside" air.

Additionally, if your fan is pushing air then it is having to fight against the oncoming air that a forward moving car is moving through. At higher freeway speeds it will negate the effect of the fan. Try putting your cupped hand out the window at 70mph. Then compare that to the air flow created by the working fans and you will get an idea of what the fans would be fighting against.

Reversing the polarity of the fan to change the direction of rotation will only change the direction of airflow as the opposite sides of the fan blades are mirror images of themselves.

 

[c4uldr0n]

Please explain how one would go about changing the orientation of the fins? A push fan must be mounted on the front side of the radiator which will require the removal of the AC condenser.

Depending on the fan, the blades/fins can be taken out and reversed. The blades/fins only work when rotating the way the were designed, so the + and - should never be changed, only the orientation of the blades/fins on the fan.

If the stock fan worked fine, I would leave it in a pull through scenario like the stock fan configuration.

I'd be curious to know for if the fan was moving the air in the correct direction, maybe not creating enough "pull" of air, causing the overheating.

 

[c4uldr0n]

Not true. As I mentioned in post #4 it is better to be pulling air. Even on the hottest summer days the underhood temps are still going to be hotter than the "outside" air.

Additionally, if your fan is pushing air then it is having to fight against the oncoming air that a forward moving car is moving through. At higher freeway speeds it will negate the effect of the fan. Try putting your cupped hand out the window at 70mph. Then compare that to the air flow created by the working fans and you will get an idea of what the fans would be fighting against.

Reversing the polarity of the fan to change the direction of rotation will only change the direction of airflow as the opposite sides of the fan blades are mirror images of themselves.

I never recommended "pushing", not unless you have the fan on the front side of the radiator which would create a lot of extra work as said by oldman

 

[oldman]

I never recommended "pushing"

pushing or pulling will both work fine

Seems to me like you were. Perhaps you should include mounting location next time to avoid confusion.

Depending on the fan, the blades/fins can be taken out and reversed. The blades/fins only work when rotating the way the were designed, so the + and - should never be changed, only the orientation of the blades/fins on the fan.

Most aftermarket push/pull fans I have seen are controlled by reversing the polarity, not by changing the orientation of the blades. If there were fans out there that operates the way you described, I would personally consider it a bad design, it's much easier to just change the polarity of the wires.

 

[c4uldr0n]

smarty pants... I said they will both work fine, just didn't recommend it!

it may be a bad design for "ease", but I really enjoy my slimlines as they move a lot of air. Install them how you need them the first time and no need to alter later

 

[oldman]

smarty pants...I said they will both work fine

Not at all, you can easily see how someone (myself and romeen included) can mis-understand your original post as "it's ok to mount a push fan on the engine side of the radiator" which does not work fine as GST98BIG16G had just found out.

it may be a bad design for "ease", but I really enjoy my slimlines as they move a lot of air. Install them how you need them the first time and no need to alter later

I don't know which slim fan you have but a push/pull fan should be bi-directional and the blades should be a mirror image like romeen said.

 

[c4uldr0n]

maybe it would be best to find out the exact fan, mounting position and +/- hook-ups instead of arguing about what is right and what is wrong.

 

[Defiant]

You... you weren't using the fan to keep air from flowing through the radiator, were you? Please, please tell me this wasn't going on.

 

[oldman]

You... you weren't using the fan to keep air from flowing through the radiator, were you? Please, please tell me this wasn't going on.

I suspect that is exactly what went on.

 

[99gst_racer]

I suspect that is exactly what went on.

I concur.


A front-mounted puller fan would definitely discourage cooling.

 

[GST98BIG16G]

inside of the engine and puller not fm.

 

[romeen]

inside of the engine and puller not fm.

Does that mean that you changed the polarity so that it is pulling air from outside now? If so did it resolve the overheating?

 

[99gst_racer]

inside of the engine and puller not fm.

You gotta help us out here. The more info you supply, the better equipped we are to help. First you said it was a pusher, now you claim puller. Which is it?


If it's a puller fan, and mounted on the inside of radiator, when is it overheating? At cruising speeds, or only while sitting still?