advice on converting from mechanical to electrical fan

[Arith2]

Think of a shroud as a restriction. It creates high pressure on one side and lower pressure on the other. Then it directs that high pressure air into the engine bay with a purpose. The back of the engine bay will probably overheat slightly without a shroud.

[eacmen]

The shroud was removed. You think that’s all it would take to solve the issue?

shroud does more than people give it credit for. especially when the car isnt moving.

[evanr614]

Does it have the fan shroud or no? Without the shroud, air leak around instead of pulling from front of AC condenser.

The shroud was removed. You think that’s all it would take to solve the issue?

[sapote]

Bumping this for some input/help. Running a Spal 2049 with N15 mounts using the stock controller. Water temps sill sometimes creep when stopped and the AC is on. Temps will go down immediately when the AC is turned off.

Does it have the fan shroud or no? Without the shroud, air leak around instead of pulling from front of AC condenser.

[evanr614]

Bumping this for some input/help. Running a Spal 2049 with N15 mounts using the stock controller. Water temps sill sometimes creep when stopped and the AC is on. Temps will go down immediately when the AC is turned off. Temps are great when cruising. As my second summer with this setup approaches in Florida I want to sort it out. Would a coder be able to adjust the fan settings? I believe maybe it is just not running enough. Another option was to upgrade to a CSF radiator. Thanks!

[Zekarus]

i'm running the n15 bracket with the spal 2049 fan. aux fan removed. clutch fan removed obviously. front plastic ducts in place. all ducts on the engine side removed. new thermostat, old radiator that i cleaned. cruising the last days at around 33°C/90°F and driving on the nordschleife the water temps didn't go past the center witch is around 85°C/185°F if remember right and oil temp didn't pass around 105°C/220°C. all together the car runs a bit cooler water temps. but i need a real track day to make a real review.

[zing]

nice setup, what mounts are those for mounting the fan to the radiator?

he's running the N15 design mount

[S14]

Exactly...😎

Spal Fans: 20 mmH2O (See Post #21)
Hence the reason I went with the Spal 2082 with the Aux Fan still in place.

2049: 389 cfm at 20.6 amps
2021: 702 cfm at 19.5 amps
2082: 991 cfm at 24 amps

nice setup, what mounts are those for mounting the fan to the radiator?

[eacmen]

I forget which model spal we mounted but it was thick and had to be mounted offset. We didn't use a shroud ( which i dong recommend) and used those ziptie things through the rad (also don't recommend). But it should be possible.

The rubber gasket thing is a decent compromise if you can't get it to fit with a shroud.

https://www.holley.com/products/cooling/fan_mounting_brackets/parts/30130074

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Cooling/Fans/Electric-Fan-Quick-Mount-Kit.html

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[bigjae46]

bigjae- that fan is 3.5" wide! ... that's going to be a challenge fitting... just move the engine back a few inches...

It’s a beotch. I have a CSF rad so not sure if that’s thicker than OE. But I cut off the threads in the water pump which allows it to barely fit. I offset the fan towards the pass side to allow easy
removal of the belt.

You can get the others to fit, just need to remove the oil cooler and slide it in from the bottom. I did that on my s/c’d 330...total PIA.


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[Rich022]

bigjae- that fan is 3.5" wide! ... that's going to be a challenge fitting... just move the engine back a few inches...

[WOLFN8TR]

30102803HO is the most powerful sealed motor fan

So how do you propose on mounting this sucker, it’s 4.41” thick! I barely have enough room for the Spal 2082.

https://www.a1electric.com/catalog/cat_spal.htm

2803
4.41" Wide 1953 45 Amps

2082
3.74" Wide 1918 24 Amps

Spal 30102803 16 inch High Output Fan with long life motor. This heavy duty fan was designed to have the power to pull air through a 4 row radiator and air conditioning condenser! This is the most powerful Spal fan that we sell! Don't let the specs fool you, the heavy duty motor and specially designed blades on this fan allow it to pull air through a 4 row radiator and AC condenser without dropping a beat. Most fans are designed and rated for optimum performance when used with single and dual row radiators without air conditioning. If you are looking for a high performance 16 inch fan and don't need the horsepower that this fan has, look at the 30102082. It is a great fan for 3 row radiators.

[silaciM3]

FYI...for those that don't care about noise, I just installed a 30102120. It is loud as hell but its also the highest output fan that SPAL sells. The motor is pretty big so its gonna be a challenge to make it fit. Not sure which model SPAL fan I had before but this fan moves WAY more air.

30102803HO is the most powerful sealed motor fan

[WOLFN8TR]

For comparison:
Spal 30102049 pulls 19 amps.
High flow Mishimoto 16" pulls 18 amps.
Skinny Mishimoto 16" pulls only 10 amps (*snicker*)

Exactly...😎

Spal Fans: 20 mmH2O (See Post #21)
Hence the reason I went with the Spal 2082 with the Aux Fan still in place.

2049: 389 cfm at 20.6 amps
2021: 702 cfm at 19.5 amps
2082: 991 cfm at 24 amps

[elbert]

I'm just going off what you said. You said it was enough, and I'm giving you a data point that it is not in some areas of the country. My testing is this: removed the fan clutch and the car overheated while at a steady state of 70mph on the freeway. Put the fan clutch back in and it stopped overheating.

I don't wholey disagree with your second statement. some E46 non M3 cars came with just an electric puller fan, and the Z4 M came with a pretty big electric puller fan, so it can be done. But, depending on the location, running just the Aux fan could be bad for the motor. I switched to a mishimoto fan and it was also not sufficient. I've since reverted back to both stock fans and my overheating has almost completely subsided.

When looking at a fan's cooling ability, amp draw is a better (more objective) metric than CFM.
The Z4M fan pulls 50 amps (600W).
Not sure what our aux fan is rated, but it does use a 50 amp fuse, so it's probably not too far off.

For comparison:
Spal 30102049 pulls 19 amps.
High flow Mishimoto 16" pulls 18 amps.
Skinny Mishimoto 16" pulls only 10 amps (*snicker*)