Kenlowe Fan

Mr R/D they say for the next week or so total price for 13" heavy duty fan with the probe which pushes into the rad is £160, normally just under £200. So that's why I want to move on it sooner than later
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Bit rich for me unfortunately... I'll have to engineer a solution more suited to my budget i think ;)

Rich
 
I am sure I paid around £20.00 for mine off a local company who advertise on ebay. (Race spec something or other)

And £30 for the controller again from ebay

Richard
 
I'm going to start with the new revotec controller i think and investigate what fan is actually in front of the rad to start with. It's pretty noisy from memory but maybe do me for a bit until i spot something at the right price... (Ponders how big the rover 400's fan is...)

Rich
 
I find in my trade as others say " you get what you pay for" I only want to do this once so think its worth paying the bit extra
 
I fitted a Spal electric fan to my Land Rover a few years ago and it's standing up to abuse very well. Cost was about £40 for a unit that I'm convinced is more robust than a Kenlowe, but is bulkier. It's my impression that the cost of the Kenlowe goes into making it so compact rather than improved reliability.
Perhaps another solution would be a belt driven fan with the motor to one side?
 
I would say for reliability you're best off with an OEM fan from another car, they're generally very robust and reliable, and cheap from a breakers. Trick is finding one that will fit where you want it. Most OEM fans pull through the rad, whether this is an option once you've removed the engine fan I don't know.
 
I'm with Rich ( webmaster) on this one if I was looking to fit a electric cooling fan, there's plenty of good working fans out there. So far I have not had any cooling issues even when in very heavy London traffic apart from a little split in my old top radiator hose last year on arrival to the Uxbridge show luckerly it was close to the clip so just cut that bit of and reattached the hose and a nice man from Manchester :D gave me some ready mixed stickers (thanks again Mick) needles to say replaced top hose and no trouble since... Hope these words aren't going to be famous.. :roll:
 
I'm pretty much the same Guy, no overheat issues, but I'm thinking extra up and fuel economy. If I get even 8% on my trips to London and back the fan pays for itself in a couple of years. Then their is Beamish and Mrs Happy Days has a mate just outside Glasgow she likes to pop up to see a couple of times a year
 
Mick, here's a couple of pictures of the cut out I made to clear the Kenlowe fan motor housing.

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And in place with the fan fitted.

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I made it a bit larger than it needed to be so that it lined up with the oblong cut outs that are already on the top edge of the front valance.

The fan I fitted is the two speed 13" HD version (about 265W from memory) and it seems happy to hold the engine at 85ºC in traffic in the summer on a standard radiator. It comes on after about 2 or 3 minutes of idling - usually just as the lights change - and on hot days the low speed only lasts for 30 seconds or so before full power is needed. The best solution would probably be this motor with the 16" fan blades.

Kenlowe seem paranoid about fitting this fan on power steering cars but it's because they didn't realise that the hose along the bottom edge of the radiator can be moved out of the way.

I was tempted by the cheaper fans, but only the Kenlowe one comes guaranteed to work. Scrap yard fans all seemed to be pullers and far too thick to fit between the water pump and radiator.
 
Thanks Paul , Dave pointed me to your post earlier , when you made your cut out did you lose 2 of the slots for the grill to sit in
 
When I finally get around to fitting an electric fan to my P6 it'll be for a different main reason than overheating issues - the noise it generates :? Uprated cooling will be a bonus!

My tuppence-worth on OEM pusher fans is that I've seen several models of BMW with them in breaker yards. While panelbeating my 325TDS I uncovered quite an over-sized one, serving three rads and an intercooler.
 

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happy days said:
when you made your cut out did you lose 2 of the slots for the grill to sit in
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No, the slot that you can see at the side of the cut out is for the the grill tabs. Once the grill is in place you can't see the cut out.
 
Just examined pae's kenlowe properly. Looks like a 13 inch fan but no cut out to fit... Just fits in! So are newer keblowes different to the older models? Also took the fan and cowling off the 400 just in case. Looks like it might just fit as its smaller fan with bigger motor and a cowl to spread the effect so I need to offer it up more carefully when the weather is more Clement....

Rich.
 
That implies it may well be a lower wattage motor, Rich. Anything to indicate on the labelling? So it could be that it was added as a "get out of jail card" mod rather than being intended to completely suppllant the mechanical fan. I'm a bit shifty about fan cowls. I suspect they may limit the flow of air when the fan is not running. I could just be over cautious though.

Chris
 
My money is on an auxiliary fan as you suggest. The front of the motor has been painted over in burnt grey so difficult to see what it really is without having the Rad out. I'm going to take the approach of getting the existing fan working with a new controller first I think. I have the 400 fan stashed for future experimentation and can always go trawl a scrapyard I guess.
 
I find in my trade as others say " you get what you pay for" I only want to do this once so think its worth paying the bit extra
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I know you're getting a cheap deal for a Kenlowe fan, but still worth looking around

http://www.quillertriumph.co.uk/Quiller/Parts/accessories/coolingfans.htm provides a kenlowesque solution for less than £100 ( fan and controller).

http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/category/Electrical/Cooling_Fans,b.html
again around £100.

Not saying you're wrong but £60 is a lot extra for a name... (even if it does run a little bit quieter!)
 
chrisyork said:
I'm a bit shifty about fan cowls. I suspect they may limit the flow of air when the fan is not running. I could just be over cautious though.

Chris
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Yes, but, when there is no cowl the fan needs to be very close to the rad otherwise you get a lot
of air wash of the air going across the rad rather than through it. The cowl does marshal all the
air to the whole rad. It may limit normal cooling but it utilises all the air when operating.

Colin
 
After looking into this , decided at the moment to leave it. Im having no overheat issues, fuel saving is neglible, i like the idea of the originality being kept (at least the bits that can be seen) so its on the back burner. cheers for everyones input Mick
 
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