mounting brackets for spal fans in stock location

Aftermarket fans are typically mounted behind the radiator as suckers, or less commonly in front as pushers. None of the aftermarket cooling fans will come close to mounting in the stock location.

The one exception to the above statement would be the time tested jaguar-sourced Meriah fans sold by Hall Pantera, that actually do mount in the OEM motor brackets.

Larry

Didn’t realize the Mariah fans were sourced from Jaguars…. Thanks for the interesting tix-bit of information!

thanks i will now mount the fan on opposite side, is there a kit i buy to move the rad forward a bit- can this be done myself?

@stevejohnson posted:

thanks i will now mount the fan on opposite side, is there a kit i buy to move the rad forward a bit- can this be done myself?

Just make sure you have purchased sucker fans to mount behind the radiator. It's fairly easy to make a couple tabs for the upper mount to lay the radiator forward.

I installed this 16"and 3000 CFM fan (95 €) behind the radiator without modifying its position. I made 4 supports in stainless steel sheet to fix it.

We don’t know what fan you are attempting to mount, but using fabricated brackets as shown above is an excellent approach.

One method to definitely avoid is the approach that uses plastic anchors pushed through the radiator fins. It is quick, and simple, but over the course of time the anchors can vibrate just enough to slowly grind through a radiator tube or two. ☹️

As Julian mentioned above, you want to make sure your fans are sucker fans. I am concerned because at first you wanted to mount them in front of the radiator which tells me they were pusher fans. They should not be installed behind the radiator.

Larry

Rene4406,

that looks great. Can you please let us know the source and part number for the fan you installed ?

Thank you and best regards,

Robert

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/145006376848

But it is Chinese material sold by many sellers on Ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.htm...%22+fan&_sacat=0

One popular option, especially with aftermarket radiators (but no reason it can't be used on a stock radiator) are the Flex-a-lite or Maradyne dual shrouded fans. It's easy to make a bracket that folds over the top and bottom of the radiator to mount to the shroud.

FYI fans should stand off the radiator by  1" from the radiator to fan blade edge for maximum efficiency.

Some cooling stuff. A fact of life re electric fans is feeding it at least 12.0 volts of DC electricity. When I was messing with fans some decades ago, I found that Flexilite dual-sucker shrouded fans pulled more than enough air thru a Pantera radiator, at 12V. At 11 volts, the air volume was about 20% less and it gets even worse at 10.5 V. The loss in airflow is NOT proportional to voltage with fans. You need an anemometer to accurately measure air flow. Comes in handy for A/C work, too.

There are about 10 FEET of spare wiring bundled into a factory tape-wrapped package under the front hood-hinge crossbrace, and many extra connections. All that extra wire & connections results in a voltage drop from battery to the fans and a disproportionately large drop in air flow. OEM fan relays are often installed upside-down so the wires are conveniently exposed for service. Unfortunately, that position puts the crimp lip upward, which collects rainwater that then gets inside the relay housings, where it corrodes everything it touches and you lose a fan "for no reason". Proper position for both is with the wires DOWNWARD.

Another fact: curved-blade fans are for quieter operation, not necessarily to deliver more airflow than same size straight-blade fans. It depends on more than just blade design. Stock Pantera 4-blade fans in pusher mode and with 12.0V supplied (to the Jaguar windshield wiper motors) pushes about 300 cfm each at best. Optional 5-blade fans from a Ford Cortina push about 350 cfm each and both only affect maybe 60% of a rad's front surface in pusher mode.

A sucker shroud applies airflow over about 98% of the core surface, and their big rear-mount fans suck about 6X the airflow thru any radiator. I fabricated a 2" deep stand-off between a Fluidyne rad and a Flexilite dual fan shroud. This is so air from the corners of the shroud don't have to make a right-angle turn to exit. My strap-aluminum stand-off also covers 100% of the rad core, using Flexilite's soft rubber strip on the stand-off against the delicate aluminum rad core. There's plenty of room either in straight-up or more convenient-for-service lay-down position, even with my front-mount A/C condenser.

Try jumper-wiring your fans directly to the battery. On most Panteras the fans will instantly increase speed if direct wired, which means much more air flow thru any radiator. Note this is only for a test- do NOT leave the direct-wire jumpers on very long! You need fuses or circuit breakers in there for protection from shorts and electrical fires! Lots of amperage involved.