What do you need?

What flowrate?

What brands?

How much can I expect to spend?

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What do you need?
A: A thermo fan, not an electric water pump

What flowrate?
A: An independant test on the only Australian manufacturer was hardly glowing.
http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/article.html?&A=0569
The recommendation was to stick with the OEM pump

What brands?
A: Davies Craig has the major share of the market (see above)

How much can I expect to spend?
A: For the $200 you would spend on the pump + $100 for the controller you could buy a new thermo fan and a new heavy duty radiator, giving you far better cooling & reliability, with a greater increase in power (due to the parasitic loss of the mechanical fan).

Unless you are planning on a boot mounted radiator, just get a small thermo fan with shroud ex-Pulsar, Swift, etc, for $15 - $25. Mount it under the guard neatly out of the way. Bonus is you can lose the radiator shroud - it really makes the engine bay neater & far easier to work with.

Put your money toward a full can of grey paint

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Too many cars, and too little time.

hehe.. the thermal fan was the next question...

but similar questions apply...

What do i get..

Where do i get it.

Thermal switch, top rad hose bit.

Where do i get that ^^ lot...

And what's the sting?

paint schmaint.... go stick ya scooby engine in...






ouch

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Two points:

1. Don't write off electric pump without all the details of the application ( I accept that the response above may already know the application etc). They are the only way to combat heat soak, very important in a high output motor. They also do a far more consistant job of circulating water (well, a good one will). Faster warm up too.

2. Rather than a slight on Craig Davies pump, I would take the above article as an admission by the writer that they couldn't support their own testing methods or findings. If somebody tests, then won't publish, there's no way I would ever take that (on it's own) as a negative against the product.

That article was dated 2000. I think that DC have revised their product range to make it far more reliable than it was back then.

A good friend of mine has one on his water to air intercooler set-up. It is the small capacity model but it works really well.

Another friend of mine sells a controller that will drive a D.C. water pump (or other EWP) in proportion to the speed required (25% to 100% speed according to demand) as well as controlling two thermo fans (one for rad and one for A/C) and also an intercooler water sprayer according to demand. Obviously this is an expensive controller ($600) and is more suited to your Skyline GTR than the humble mini. Guys with a 4EFTE may be interested though.

The issue with both the standard water pump and fan is that they are run by the engine, so when it is idling neither is doing much. This is particulalry problematic when you pull up at the lights after a fast run and there is no longer any air being forced through the radiator. With the thermatic fan you can keep a healthy flow of air going even when stationary.

I've got an EWP on my little Bolwell (875cc Imp engine) which had disastrous cooling issues as there was very little natural air flow through the rear mounted radiator. By the time I had replaced the rear radiator with an aluminium one, added the thermo fan, EWP and a little heater core in the nose it was finally under control. With the EWP I was able to get the coolant circulating at a constant rate so that it was actually moving threough the radiator. Another benefit is that at competiton events I was able to turn off the motor but still have the fan and pump running so that it would cool down faster. Very useful at Rob Roy in early February.

Just a point with the radiator shroud, you will still need one with a thermo fan otherwise the air will just flow around the sides of the radiator instead of being forced through it.

You need the thermo fan and shroud off the donor car,
then dispense with the standard mini shroud. Most thermo fans are suck through, not blow through.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

You won't need the mechanical fan shroud but you should try to seal the gap between the radiator and inner guard as much as possible. This encouranges air coming in through the grille to go out through the rad, not around it. Obviously, lots of the air goes under the car because the bottom of the engine bay isn't sealed.

Note that the electric fan is for low speed and idling. Once the car is up to speed, the forced air flow from moving is more than the fan could do with its little motor.

Also, choose an electric fan with a small diameter motor. Some have short fan blades and a big arese motor in the middle. The motor will just block a large part of the rad if the fan is close coupled.

M

Cush go to heatcraft, they're down on Sir Donald Bradman Drive just after bunnings and are pretty good. I bought a fan and some other things from them last year, if you want I can give you part nos and prices.

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If all you want is a thermo fan to help the existing system (with Mech fan still attached) then go talk to Brickworx, their thermo fans and switchs from Rover mini's fit nice and snug on the inside wheel well (as above) but with a cowling to suit the mini.

If you want to go electric only, then this is not a good idea due to it not being a large and powerful fan I'd say, it was ony, intended as an additional fan, but hey go talk to Steve. (Although when turned on, at idle it throws out a very large amoun of air, like massively more than the mechanical at idle, it's quite good for it's job!)

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

just thought I would add my two cents here,

as has been mentioned earlier, it is at idle that the mechanical fan lets the team down, not a high revs or at high speed. In my mates race motor he runs an electric fan on a simple on/off switch. On the track it is off, as there is plenty of air moving through the engine bay at high speed (especially as the easiest way out of the engine bay is through the radiator - hence why bonnet scoops can be a disaster). When he comes in he flicks the switch and that takes care of it, no problem. The radiator is standard, but in good nick and there is a heater matrix plumbed in at the front.

For a road car obvisouly a thermo switch is a must on the fan, but as far as capacity at idle, the electric fan of 10" is fine. Seal up the gap between rad and body for better flow through radiator if you are concerned.

As far as electric pumps go, they are really only beneficial on a race car when the heat is so extreme it will boil once switched off. The Super Mini Challenge guys in NZ all use the one talked about and have no drama.

Just remember no amount of fancy fans and pumps will sort a lack of cooling area. If in good nick, a std set up is pretty good for up to the most raciest of setups. My race motor runs a std 1275 set up (radiator pump and fan), no problems at all.

Chris

With the removal of the radiator shroud, how did you mount the radiator without it getting all messed up from the vibrations? From the pic It looks like that you have made up a new "shroud" and welded it to the body?

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Howard: "You don't need a pen to be a writer Vince"
Vince: "I think you do"

I just got some shiny aluminium, folded it & riveted/sikaflexed it in place.
The Sikaflex seals everything & stops any rattles, and is probably stronger than the rivets!

Note: I do not recommend removing the metalwork from the body (it was already done on this car), just remove the screw on shroud from the engine side of the radiator.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

cheers. I run a electric fan on my radiator, and i recently put a shroud around the radiator to stop it from rattling around, i found that it made cooling A LOT worse, simply because it screwed up the air flow. I think i will just get rid of it.

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Howard: "You don't need a pen to be a writer Vince"
Vince: "I think you do"