Hmm,

 

Been thinking about this one, took the oldie off and havnt replaced it. Didn't really worry me, i've got the underside covered in all the plastic trin so nothing should get underneath to hit it, nor on top cause the bonnet will be shut.

 

Also a bit dangerous on startup, but if any one is silly enough to have their hands in the fan when a car is starting then thats a bit silly anyway.

 

My main concern is that the fan is sat infront of the rad, and the shroud directs the air straight onto the rad, where as at the mo, its sat infront of the rad, but not being directed very well. I'm thinking this shouldnt make much of a diff, as when im moving it should probably help expel the heat of the rad anyways, but what about the air from the viscous not being concentrated on the rad anymore?

 

Good / bad idea?

 

The whole fan shroud thing is a pain in the ass and just gets in the way anyways so im not in favour of putting it back in a hurry.

 

Thoughts

p.s you can kind of see what i mean here, no shroud;

 

 

and I meant above the air not being concentrated in one place as much on the rad as it was before, of course a lot of the air will still be getting on it or does the rad fan suck the air through the rad? I wouldnt have thought so surely? its too far away it would be mounted on top of it to do that???

I think it will cock up the airflow and hence cooling, I really do!

The easy way is to take it for a spin and see if it raises the temp. if it does. put it on

I would keep it on, it may be better while your moving, but the fan doesnt do much when moving anyway, when your stopped it will almost certainly lead to much worse airflow through the rad.

Just my 2p ;)

Really it's only the older cars that uses viscous fans as newer ones are all electric, radiators havn't changed over the years though, SO when driving a more modern car is there a fan going at all ? no it only comes on when it reaches a certain temp to prevent over heating, on a car with viscous fan it is going all the time and the temp if it rises too much activates the electric sub fan, so what is the difference, to me theres none, only when stopped does a viscous fan help a little and if it isn't enough the sub fan comes on to cool things down. So onto the shroud, why is it really there, does it actually direct the blown air from the viscous to the rad or not, well theres a lot of opinions on this, i do know that SE for at least 10 years have often removed the fan shrouds, they did on my previous cars and when i bought the Zed nearly 5 years ago it was an old SE customers car and had no shroud and never has to this day, so no problems for me in all these years or the previous owner, lastly though, should you decide to fit an elctric fan in place of the viscous one, you never use the shroud, so is there any difference ? obviously not.

Many garages i have spoken to have said the MAIN reason we have shrouds like many other older cars, is safety ! to stop half wits putting there hands down that area when the engine is running :p

What would help prove this theory even better is someone who has a decent aftermarket temp gauge fitted makes some records of temps whilst driving and stopped for a few days, then remove the shroud and do the same, see if any difference and if so is it mimimal or major, then i think you will have pretty much the correct answer.

smithy

Spot on answer mate, I guess i'll leave it for now, but carry it to billing in the boot with a screwdriver lol!

 

Cheers