Does This Slimline Electric Fan Make My Radiator Look Fat?
 

Greetings All,

I was hoping to get some feedback from the brain trust here at peachy parts. For a variety of reasons, I've chosen to replace the clutch fan on my 1973 280 (W114 body and m110 engine) with a 16 inch slim line electric cooling fan, adjustable electronic thermostat and radiator "push in probe" temperature sensor.

I know that this is a somewhat common swap, but my question relates to the fan shroud. Should I keep it or pitch it out (OK, actually put it in a box with other take off parts), as it doesn't look like it's going to do much as there's so much space between it and the new cooling fan.

I've also decided to replace the Ac fan with a 14 inch slim line unit as the old one was making all kinds of noise and there were telltale signs of it digging into the cooling fins on the condenser

I've attached a few pics and would greatly appreciate anyone's thoughts on this matter. Thx.

In my experience there is no discernible difference in cooling performance on M110-equipped 114's with or without the radiator shroud. Once the car is moving at 30 mph or better the air ram effect provides most of the cooling, which is why the standard fan clutch stops the blades from windmilling counterproductively above 2500 rpm or so.

The standard supplementary fan draws about one horsepower or 750 watts when it cycles on--close to the full output of the 55-amp alternator--which itself pulls about three shaft hp to produce the alternating current--which is further reduced somewhat when converted to DC.

I'd make sure the fan controls and sensors mimic the stock setup pretty closely--maintaining coolant temperature at a steady 190 degrees F summer and winter. I've used manually controlled supplementary fans on several of my M110's--and I've been surprised at how difficult it is to improve upon the dumb, stock configuration for both cooling and air conditioning performance


Tim Kraakevik
kraakevik@voyager.net

Seeing as your replacement fan already has a shroud I'd fit it without the original Mercedes one.

Guys,

Thanks for your input. I think I'm going to forgo the use of a shroud, mount the fan to the radiator, bolt the whole thing in place and call it good.

Appreciate the insight and will post some pics of the completed install in another thread in a few days that also details my alternator replacement with a one wire 125 amp unit that I'm finishing up right now as part of the same work.

Thanks again

I wanted to thank those contributing to this thread as I have also wondered about the merits of electric cooling fans. The idea that it takes more engine power to operate the electric fan than the mechanical fan is interesting and makes sense.

In certain climates / conditions a continuously running fan isn't helping - where I live there is such a thing as too much cooling! It is best to have enough cooling just when you need it. This depends on your expected use - if you are towing for example you'll probably need a greater cooling ability.