I busted my fan so tried some electric fans
In our recent trip we had a little misfortune resulting in a broken fan and radiator. To get us out of trouble I fitted and old Holden radiator and two thermo fans. Once the replacement Landcruiser radiator was in I kept the thermos to see how well they worked.
A little detail, my FJ55 had no room in front of the radiator, so I chose fans that sat behind the radiator in the engine bay. I was amazed how much air they sucked, however there was a section in the middle not covered due to the water pump being so close to the radiator.
The thermos did an acceptable job at idle in 30oC ambient conditions (winter in Kalgoorlie) but sounded like rockets. I wired them up using a relay, then latter fitted a switch to manually shut one off when one the road (I really intended to put on a thermostat, but wanted to check the theory before shelling out the dollars).
We where on the home ward leg of a 4 week trip travelling 8-9hrs/day in bleak conditions. The problem started when we hit the open road loaded with the family and towing our camper van, the temperature rose from its normal half to an annoying three quarters. I was surprised this happened at speed even with both fans turning as I understood the sheer volume of air passing through the engine bay at 100km/hr was more than sufficient to completely replace the function of an engine fan, not to mention the less drag on the engine from removing the standard fixed fan in the old 55.
Well we had a guts full of it so bought a replacement fan from a wreckers. In total we bought two, one identical to the original (eight blade fixed fan), and another slightly smaller five blade fan which seemed to leave more room between the fan and radiator. I fitted the small fan and replaced the radiator shroud. Perfect!!! Sat on half ever since no matter how hot the weather or what I tow or what speed we go!
In short the fixed fan in my FJ55 does cool even at speed! Mine came standard with a fixed fan, and I notice some of the older ones had 4blade metal fans, anyone have a clutched fan?
In our recent trip we had a little misfortune resulting in a broken fan and radiator. To get us out of trouble I fitted and old Holden radiator and two thermo fans. Once the replacement Landcruiser radiator was in I kept the thermos to see how well they worked.
A little detail, my FJ55 had no room in front of the radiator, so I chose fans that sat behind the radiator in the engine bay. I was amazed how much air they sucked, however there was a section in the middle not covered due to the water pump being so close to the radiator.
The thermos did an acceptable job at idle in 30oC ambient conditions (winter in Kalgoorlie) but sounded like rockets. I wired them up using a relay, then latter fitted a switch to manually shut one off when one the road (I really intended to put on a thermostat, but wanted to check the theory before shelling out the dollars).
We where on the home ward leg of a 4 week trip travelling 8-9hrs/day in bleak conditions. The problem started when we hit the open road loaded with the family and towing our camper van, the temperature rose from its normal half to an annoying three quarters. I was surprised this happened at speed even with both fans turning as I understood the sheer volume of air passing through the engine bay at 100km/hr was more than sufficient to completely replace the function of an engine fan, not to mention the less drag on the engine from removing the standard fixed fan in the old 55.
Well we had a guts full of it so bought a replacement fan from a wreckers. In total we bought two, one identical to the original (eight blade fixed fan), and another slightly smaller five blade fan which seemed to leave more room between the fan and radiator. I fitted the small fan and replaced the radiator shroud. Perfect!!! Sat on half ever since no matter how hot the weather or what I tow or what speed we go!
In short the fixed fan in my FJ55 does cool even at speed! Mine came standard with a fixed fan, and I notice some of the older ones had 4blade metal fans, anyone have a clutched fan?
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