The 'E' Type Forum

Hello,

I need some advice for the cooling system of my S1 4.2. I changed all hoses, i cleaned the radiator and changed the water pump. The car works well, when i drive the temperature is about 70?C but the problem is the hot weather combined with traffic jams.


I have a strange mounting : the original fan with two blades and a sort of kenlowe (Davies Craig austrialian fan) in front of the radiator. The two fans blow in opposite direction and i suppose that is the reason of the unefficiency in traffic jam.

What do you think about it ?

A coolcat Fan is an extractor or it blows in the direction of the radiator ? could it be a good solution ? or just a kenlowe


I'm a little bit lost, thanks and sorry for my english level.

Pierre

A picture of the additional fan :

I would get rid of both fans and fit a koolcat . The fan original fan should suck. Buy the uprated otter switch at the same time from Mike as the fan. You might also want to flush the block with some chemical cleaners.

Agree with Angus - get rid of that stupid additional fan because even if it is blowing the correct way it will disrupt the air flow, especially when it is not turning. Easiest fix is to fit a Coolcat fan which literally bolts onto the existing mount and retains the radiator cowl. A Kenlowe needs to be attached to the radiator with ties and very possible needs the original fan motor mount to be sawn off. You also have to get rid of the original cowl. Having said that the Kenlowe works well and has a variable thermostat.

Ok thanks for your answers. So i will get rid off these two fans. So the original fan draw air flow that's right ? and i supose that the coolcat fan do the same thing but it is more efficient !

@Heuer : i don't understand why the original fan motor has to be sawn off? The Kenlowe fan must be placed in front of the radiator and it blows in the direction of the engine ?

Sorry for these stupid questions but i want to understand, thanks.


Pierre

As far as I'm aware the Kenlowe fan sucks so to get it in the space at the rear of the radiator sometimes the original fan mount has to be removed.
I'd also go for the Coolcat and uprated otter switch from Mike, in fact I did! Been fitted 8 years now and not a problem with cooling.

Dave

ll fan motors draw air through the radiator from the front to the back. Coolcat fan is a direct replacement for the original but more powerful and has more fan blades. Kenlowe works by being attached directly to the radiator so is able to draw in air more efficiently. The size of the fan means (on my car at least) the original motor mount needs to be removed to allow it to fit. Not a problem as the Kenlowe is super efficient but it does mean you can't go back to standard. Your car may be different - mine was fitted in a Hotel car park in France!

Ok i have just understood ! there are two types of kenlowe :

-sucker : which is placed just behind the radiator and draw the air through the radiator as you explained David

http://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct. ... de=080.250

-blower : which is placed in front of the radiator and blow through it !

http://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct. ... de=080.153#

Does anyone know of a UK supplier of Coolkat rad fan upgrade?
Chris

Series 1 Spares and Restorations - Ken Verity. http://www.northernetypecentre.co.uk/

Pierre,
In the meantime, just to test, you can invert the wiring for the fan that has been added on your car to make it blow through the radiator towards the engine instead of sucking. That should already give a much improved cooling.

Depends Ralph. Series wound motors (such as the original fan motor, or modern gear reduction starters etc.) turn the same way whichever way you connect them. Permanent magnet motors reverse according to polarity. Non-series wound are the same but I'm not sure which type the Kenlowe is.

Ok thanks Ralph but my additional fan turns in the right way, it blows through the radiator.

There was an additional fan on the FHC I bought recently, mounted exactly as your is My experience was it reduced cooling at speed because the fan was not operational but was, in effect, blanking off part of the air flow. It did operate in slow moving or stationary traffic but seemed to have little impact because it was not close enough to the radiator matrix. On the other hand it did put the charging system under huge strain and the dynamo could not keep up at idle. Putting an additional fan there is simply poor practice from someone who has little clue to how the E-Type cooling system works. If it had been at all sensible Jaguar would have used it on the S2 but they came up with a proper engineering solution involving twin fans!

I'm being redundant here, since all of the other comments are valid, but I'll chime in anyway. The most efficient cooling fans are those that have their blades in plane with the radiator shroud, and a diameter that is very close to that of the shroud. The idea is to create a pressure drop behind the radiator. The factory fan, while a little weak in the airflow department does this, as does the more powerful Coolcat fan.

Bolting fans in front of the radiator (usually to the stone guard) is inefficient and only passes air through an area equal to the fan's diameter. And, as David and others have mentioned, a windmilling fan retards airflow, so when the fan is not running the radiator becomes less efficient. When I bought my '66 FHC, the previous owner had fans strapped to both sides of the radiator core, and the car ran hot. I tossed both of these over the hedge, gave the cooling system a really good flushing, and with the Coolcat installed the car always ran just over 70C--even in summer traffic.

I went to my local scrap yard and found a modern multi bladed fan with all the fan tips joined. About 14" diameter so it just fits in the back edge of the fibre glass cowl. Although a round motor I fitted it on the centre line of the radiator cowl just underneath the existing motor bracket. Wired up through a relay as per the earlier cars. I have no overheating problems what so ever, it switches in and out as it should and you cant see it. Cost me about ?10 and a couple of hours to fit.

Are you sure that you have the right thermostate? Most (all?) Jaguar Engines need a themostate th?hat has a sleeve that Cuts of the bypass channel. If you have a traditional theromostate without the sleeve 50% of the coolant will take a short cut via the bypass and NOT through the radiator to be cooled of.

Kalle Borg wrote:Are you sure that you have the right thermostate? Most (all?) Jaguar Engines need a themostate th?hat has a sleeve that Cuts of the bypass channel. If you have a traditional theromostate without the sleeve 50% of the coolant will take a short cut via the bypass and NOT through the radiator to be cooled of.

True only for S1 cars, 4.2 and 3.8.