Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My car gets closer and closer to starting up and operational testing. A couple of days ago I spun the engine on the starter motor just to check that everything was copacetic with that, but what I didn't know was that apparently the blades of the plastic fan had warped with age, enough to catch on the radiator.



And when some of them caught, they bent backward and dragged over the fins. many fins were mangled fairly deeply, smashed down between the tubes. The good news is that the radiator still held water, but I'm taking it to the shop this week for a pressure-test just to be sure. That said , the rad shows signs of prior repairs and I plan to replace it with a higher-performance item at some point anyway since I live in the subtropics. But if it passes the pressure test then at least I can hold off on that until after winter.



Once the radiator was out, I happened to be looking at the water pump and noticed this small wire clip (for lack of a better term), which is easy to remove and put back into its slot. Being still ignorant about many details of the Twin Cam engine, what does this clip do?

What is "the origin of the fan"? I'm looking for it too and hard to find

The Veg wrote:Once the radiator was out, I happened to be looking at the water pump and noticed this small wire clip (for lack of a better term), which is easy to remove and put back into its slot. Being still ignorant about many details of the Twin Cam engine, what does this clip do?

it retains the water pump bearing (shaped with a protruding "ear" or loop so that it can be removed from the locating groove).

regarding the bent radiator fins, with some patience they can be straightened with a small wooden edge (not too many times) to improve appearance and efficiency a bit, as long as the core tubes are good the radiator should still do its job, esp. if it was in good condition before.

You could get one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laser-5024-Rad ... B004495X5K

The wire does not retain the water pump bearing but stops the bearing from moving if the bearing is less than an ideal fit when the housing heats up. However, if the bearing is inclined to move when the engine gets up to temperature, then in my opinion, the front cover is shot and I would replace and certainly would not rely on the wire to keep the bearing in the correct position.

Leslie

geni wrote:What is "the origin of the fan"? I'm looking for it too and hard to find

Looks like a Ford Escort MK1/2 fan.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202814835955 ... 1436.l2649
https://www.classicpartsshack.co.uk/sto ... 00aa_.html

types26/36 wrote:

geni wrote:What is "the origin of the fan"? I'm looking for it too and hard to find

Looks like a Ford Escort MK1/2 fan.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202814835955 ... 1436.l2649
https://www.classicpartsshack.co.uk/sto ... 00aa_.html

It's similar to those but not exactly the same. Prob'ly some kind of Ford though, since it's such an exact fit. I'll most likely switch to all-electric fans.

nmauduit wrote:regarding the bent radiator fins, with some patience they can be straightened with a small wooden edge (not too many times) to improve appearance and efficiency a bit, as long as the core tubes are good the radiator should still do its job, esp. if it was in good condition before.

I got a lot of them straightened with a very small screwdriver, and a light shining up from underneath to show how much anything was blocked. They still look terrible, but should work. The rad will be getting pressure-tested while I'm away biz-traveling this week but I suspect it will pass the test.

That fan was fitted to 1600 Mk2 Ford Cortina and 1600 Mk1 Ford Capri. Also fitted to Escort Mk1 Mexico, Twin Cam and RS1600 (won't find many of these in a scrapyard these days though!)

I've found a pair of flat nose toothless pliers very effective in the past for straightening out bent radiator fins. See link below.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-Carbon-St ... 2963996670

I'll be surprised if straightening the plastic fins is a permanent solution. I'm often surprised! But a technique I applied to a Chinese rad fan that I slipped into my heater box to sub for all the rottenness in there may help.

The Chinese fan at 7" was a bit too large. After destroying one fan on the lathe trying to bring it to the perfect diameter, I then powered up a replacement for that one and bore a rasp along the edge of the spinning fan. In a couple minutes the fan was right-sized and only needed deburring. This particular rasp was a hand-staked one with leaves a particularly nice finish.

So, if the warpage returns, I might address it with a rasp.

John

For 30 years I've used a Spitfire fan which sits back over the water pump pulley.
It has a rectangular bolt pattern with one pair of holes matching the pulley.
So the pulley is held buy two original bolts and the fan by two bolts.
It leaves plenty of room in front.

http://images.lotuselan.net/lel/56307/0/dsc_0029_19.jpg

http://images.lotuselan.net/lel/56306/0/dsc_0018_17.jpg

Imho it's best not to fit a Fan on the Water Pump.
I had a Fan on a Water Pump and when the bearings broke in the Water Pump the Fan trepanded the Rad
Alan

Good news on the radiator. It passed the pressure test with flying colours,and the shop also straightened a few more fins, boiled it out, replaced the broken drain-cock and touched-up the paint, and only charged me about 45 minutes of shop time. Should be back in the car today or tomorrow.

With the rad back in, I went to mount the electric fan but found that the blades had become very weak and brittle with age:




Between the broken blades and uncertainty about the health of the motor and the rusty condition of the mount, I decided to go with a modern electric unit instead.

That's where most of us end up
Cheap, quick and reliable - also reduces water pump bearing load.