Just want to clarify something in regard to fitting a thermo fan..

What real benefits will I get if I put one on.. Will it actually help keep the water through the radiator cooler that the normal fan?? The fan I have on now is a 16 blade metal one...

I have already put on a heater core behind the grille and that has help drop the temp by around 10C whilst driving..

I have also read that fitting a thermo fan can add another 5 - 6HP to a small motor???

So is it worth the time and money to fit one??????

Umm the work at full efficiency at idle therefore it's like high speed cooling at idle. No they don't add HP fitting one will take a little bit of pwoer off of your car when it's on. The reason some poeple say it adds HP is that it is more efficient to run an electric fan than a mechanical one. You owuld have to remove your metal one to see those extra HP, and no it doesn't add Hp it merely jsut uses less. Put the theremo fan with auto switch on and leave the mechanical fan too. I actaully don't like those fans, and would recommend going to a later plastic one, but the difference it would make woiuld be minimal especially with a thermo fan on it too.

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

Why not fit the thermo fan and remove the mechanical fan altogether?
The thermo fan works when it is needed (idling at the lights in traffic) and unlike a mechanical fan does not sit there creating noise and wasting it's energy at high speed when the flow of the air over and through the car is more than enough. You need to be careful to fit the rubber strip between the guard and the radiator to make sure the air is sucked through the rad and not around it via this gap.
I have had this for 6 years so far on a warm 1330. It doesn't make up for a crap cooling system though, go through the rest of the cooling system first to find out why it's too warm.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Mick, all new motor, water pump, radiator, etc fitted only 1200k's ago. I am just trying to be ahead of the game so to speak while everything is still clean and new...

But if there doesn't seem to be any real bonus out of fitting a thermo, then I will just leave things as is...

I ran my hottie 1293 with a front-mount rad from an Alfasud for 2 years, and it only had a single 9" thermo fan. It certainly stops that bloody fan noise (which i loved) and the thermo runs at peak efficiency when needed. I had mine on a manual switch, and some days you wouldn't turn it on at all.

Get rid of the original fan, its pointless with a thermo there

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Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Choose two.

Was it Vizard that reckoned it was worth 2 ponies?

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

The reason I didn't recommend to remove the metal one is for looks really. A chromed metal fan looks awesome, and a painted plastic one looks cool too. I got a a thermo fan kit from a Jap Rover, thanks steve. But if I did it again to another I would jsut go Davies Craig kit for avialability at your local speed shop (or auto crap shop!). Good thing about the Rover one (Jap not UK, they are very different!) Is that it's mounted in a rectangular cowling and fits perfectly over the wheels well wall, it looks like it was meant to be there, i nthe case of Jap Rover's..it was. It's a small four blade thing and actaully Pulls more air through the radiator than the mechanical one at high rpm.

The idea of 2 hp...I don't agree with that. It would depend on the type of fan I'd think. I know electric water pumps save a bit also. I must say the plastic fan is a lot less noisy than the old morris metal one.

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

That reminds me as well, it's important to cowl the gaps around the fan if they don't exactly fit over the whole length and width of the grill under the guard. If you don't, a good portion of the air will flow around the fans and through instead of being sucked through the radiator.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Ok, bought a 9" thermo fan from Repco and have it wired up to a switch for manual use only.

I took the LS for a bit of a drive today plus a run around town and with the very humid conditions down here today, well so far, so good tho I did keep a very close eye on the temp guage at first but it never got over 85C without the fan on..

When the fan is on it certainly moved quite a lot of air through the radiator.

Did you cowl the gaps between the radiator and the fan?
what did you use and got any pics?

I'm thinking of putting one on mine

Razor, the fan fitted tight up against the radiator and is held on with plastic attachments supplied in the kit. I used the bottom cowling to bolt up the bottom and made up some aluminium straps to bolt the top of the rad to the body...

It is a nice fit between the fan and the inside guard grille. I will get some pic of it tomorrow...

I'd have to disagree there, Barney had a yellow plastic one, and at 6000 rpm or above it was a fair imitation of a Boeing 737..
Threw it away and fitted a proper 16 blade metal one, much quieter now.

The other prob with plastic ones is they fling blades off when they get old.
The Clubby white ones were worst for this.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Well, I now have a nice yellow plastic and a 16 blade metal fan sitting on the bench that may come in handy sooner or later...

Yeah, but clubbies are known having corners cut when they were made.
Only one they didn't do was the front end.

A few things there that contradict my experience.

I found the plastic multiblade fan works much better than the metal version (note that there are at least 4 different versions of the plastic fan (they have different blade widths)).

Minis (with side mounted radiators) will rapidly overheat without a fan (even when driven gently on the open road in coolish weather) so if you go for an electric fan only it will run ALL the time.

Most (all?) electric fans do not have a lot of space between the blades so if you use one in tandem with the normal fan you will reduce air flow. The mechanical fan will cause the electric one to freewheel but there will be an efficiency loss.

I would suggest the only reason to fit an electric fan is if you drive in Sydney style stop start traffic in hot weather. Then, it is an excellent idea. Maybe for an all out racer you might replace the mech fan with an electric version ..and an electric water pump as well.

Good luck, Ian