Series III with Ford motor, Best cooling fan setup ?

[Austin]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post on the forum so here goes !

My vehicle (First landrover :D)

Landrover series III 1976 LWB
Ford 250 pre crossflow with 2v head (form an XY or XA Falcon)
Landrover Radiator

I got it about 6 months ago with rego and have just been fixing up various issues (no reverse gear ect...) and was finally able to test it out on some sand tracks. It didn't get very far before the water temp was in the red and it was boiling up !.

It runs ok though on straight roads just not at slow speed in the sand yada yada....

Anyway it has a thermo push therm fan thats not working (Tested with wires from the battery and its kaput !). I also hear that series conversions are prone to overheating and as I want to do lots of off road driving in the sand I wanted to know what you guys recon would be the best fan configuration to get it running cooler ?

Cheers

A

[Wolfman_TWP]

I would replace the faulty thermo fan. From what I've seen (At supercheap) they are not that expensive. I've run a thermo on my HR, without the pump mounted fan (on the engine), without overheating problems.. And I also noticed that in cold winter weather it doesn't even cut in at all, unless I'm stuck at the traffic lights.

You didn't mention whether the pump mounted on the engine is still there or not. If it is, then the thermo will help a lot at low revs.

Wolf

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my LWB (109) has a Holden motor conversion (202 Red), and runs both the engine fan, and a thermo. And the thermo hardly ever cuts in, unless it's on idle for long length of time it does..

[Cliffy]

Obvious one......hows the radiator? If you are uncertain, get it serviced (ie stripped, rodded and re-assembled and pressure tested) and see if it improves. The radiator place will tell you if the core is finsished. New (heavy duty) radiators aren't too expensive. Also check the thermostat (jammed, missing?). If all that fails (with new thermo fans) then the head /head gasket may be u/s.
Also, plenty of themo fans at any wreckers! just need some "fabrication" to get them in and working.

[land_do]

Gday mate, totaly off the subject here but how does the ford motor go?

[dickyjoe]

Gday

Firstly welcome to the religion that is Land Rover.

My idea for a Series with this engine would be to remove the land rover radiator and throw it away. Find a good sized radiator that will fit between the alloy guards and cut and shut it in. Ive seen a SWB Series 3 with a Holden 6 and a Crossflow Holden V8 radiator and a thermo fan. Worked quite well. Ive seen another Land Rover with a Ford 4.1 allow head engine in it and it had a similar setup. Worked quite well.

Maybe a range rover or 110 Radiator with thermo fans from a EL or AU falcon would work well. The idea of cooling a car is to get as much air as possible through the radiator. Capacity increases are good also. A push fan probably would be scattering the air and not guiding it through much.

I had a 16inch Davies Craig fan pushing my 202 Holden Series rover and it was rubbish. The fan didn't push much air and the radiator was really not big enough for the job.

Should be easy enough to sort out.

Good luck with it and keep us posted on how you travel with it.

Rich

[chazza]

Thermatic fans seem to work well when the speed of the machine can kept up above 40km/h, below that on a hot day they seem to struggle especially off-road.

A viscous coupling fan seems to be the best bet with a clean radiator and one designed to cope with the Ford engine. Make sure that a fan shroud is fitted and that air entering the front of the grill has to flow through the radiator i.e. no air gaps around the edges,

Cheers Charlie

[wozapinin]

I've got the 4.1 (got alloy head and have had iron head) in my shorty with c4 auto and 3.55 diffs. The radiator is standard 4 core with thermo fan same width as radiator (I've tried original engine driven fan both clutch and fixed) and it's the same in the sand and high revs on the highway. The temp comes up but as soon as the revs come down the fan brings temp down to therm switch preset. Real anoying as setup works real well and a real bummer in hot weather.
My next mod is to put defender bonnet and front grill. This will give me the room to fit original xf radiator. give it a 1/4 more serfice area for cooling (good for the hwy may improve sand driving a bit but we'll see.
Was talking to LJWA a while back and his better half grew up on a station uo north (hot climate) and they had a fleet of landy's, some with holdens some with fords... Apparenty the fords ran way to hot all the time and there was nothing they could do to fix.
Also the ford's are good for about 4000 revs, anything over and they get hot.
Still ford motors are cheap and theres alot more around than the holden motors nowadays. I'm on motor number 7 in mine and always have one ready to replace. Can't live without driving the old girl for too long;).

[land_do]

Howed you go with the adaperter plate to gear box?


I've got the 4.1 (got alloy head and have had iron head) in my shorty with c4 auto and 3.55 diffs. The radiator is standard 4 core with thermo fan same width as radiator (I've tried original engine driven fan both clutch and fixed) and it's the same in the sand and high revs on the highway. The temp comes up but as soon as the revs come down the fan brings temp down to therm switch preset. Real anoying as setup works real well and a real bummer in hot weather.
My next mod is to put defender bonnet and front grill. This will give me the room to fit original xf radiator. give it a 1/4 more serfice area for cooling (good for the hwy may improve sand driving a bit but we'll see.
Was talking to LJWA a while back and his better half grew up on a station uo north (hot climate) and they had a fleet of landy's, some with holdens some with fords... Apparenty the fords ran way to hot all the time and there was nothing they could do to fix.
Also the ford's are good for about 4000 revs, anything over and they get hot.
Still ford motors are cheap and theres alot more around than the holden motors nowadays. I'm on motor number 7 in mine and always have one ready to replace. Can't live without driving the old girl for too long;).

[Austin]

The belt driven fan is still working although it doesn't have a cowl so I would say its pushing air up to the radiator and just isn't efficient enough.

As the landy cools down at high speed and both top and bottom hoses are hot to touch I would say the thermostat is working and that the radiator is working reasonably well (Radiator service might be the next step)

I have decided to go with a 16" replacement fan from supercheap to start with (mainly because its seems like the simplest first step).

How dos the ford motor go ?

Its got the 2v head and extractors. I haven't tested it on the highway yet but apart from the overheating I am pretty happy with the performance.

Thanks for the help and I will post an update once I have fitted and tested the fan.

Cheers

A

[bee utey]

The belt driven fan is still working although it doesn't have a cowl so I would say its pushing air up to the radiator and just isn't efficient enough.

As the landy cools down at high speed and both top and bottom hoses are hot to touch I would say the thermostat is working and that the radiator is working reasonably well (Radiator service might be the next step)

I have decided to go with a 16" replacement fan from supercheap to start with (mainly because its seems like the simplest first step).

How dos the ford motor go ?

Its got the 2v head and extractors. I haven't tested it on the highway yet but apart from the overheating I am pretty happy with the performance.

Thanks for the help and I will post an update once I have fitted and tested the fan.

Cheers

A

Fan shroud! Must have!!! I've had a lot to do with fans and cooling on difficult jobs. Make a fan shroud that FINISHES at the FRONT EDGE of the fan, it must not shield the whole fan. Unlike a propeller on a plane, an engine fan chucks air off its tips at an acute angle to its axis. This is because most fans don't have the correct shape to be a propeller: the pitch is even over a length of blade. Build your shroud correctly and you'll never look back.

[Disco Stew]

I've got the 4.1 (got alloy head and have had iron head) in my shorty with c4 auto and 3.55 diffs. The radiator is standard 4 core with thermo fan same width as radiator (I've tried original engine driven fan both clutch and fixed) and it's the same in the sand and high revs on the highway. The temp comes up but as soon as the revs come down the fan brings temp down to therm switch preset. Real anoying as setup works real well and a real bummer in hot weather.
My next mod is to put defender bonnet and front grill. This will give me the room to fit original xf radiator. give it a 1/4 more serfice area for cooling (good for the hwy may improve sand driving a bit but we'll see.
Was talking to LJWA a while back and his better half grew up on a station uo north (hot climate) and they had a fleet of landy's, some with holdens some with fords... Apparenty the fords ran way to hot all the time and there was nothing they could do to fix.
Also the ford's are good for about 4000 revs, anything over and they get hot.
Still ford motors are cheap and theres alot more around than the holden motors nowadays. I'm on motor number 7 in mine and always have one ready to replace. Can't live without driving the old girl for too long;).

Did you originaly fit the cross flow yourself and if so did you need an adapter kit or engineered it yourself. I'm after a kit or info on how to fit said engine to my series 3 109.

Must be the confined engine bay in regards to the Fords running hot as in my many years on the road I have had numerous Falcons and Holdens (I don't count Commodores as Holdens) and never had a problem with the Fords and to be honest only a few with the Holdens. Then again you have to work the Holden much more to get near the Ford performance.

[bsperka]

I had a ford 250 and there was a steel plate between the aluminium pump body and the block. Don't know if this applies to your engine though. The steel plate had rusted out on mine and had a smallish hole, less than a 5c piece. As a result alot of the water wasn't going through the radiator, lots of cavitation I guess. This showed up when the engine was at highway speed. You'll see what two gaskets under the pump, with the steel plate in the middle. Only real way if it is rusted is to pull the pump off.