So This is Embarassing

[HealeyRick]

One of the last things I did before putting the Healey http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,8264 away last winter was to try to address the cooling issues.  Despite fitting a 14" Maradyne electric fan as a pusher, it still wasn't getting the job done. The car was running hot and was even worse in traffic.  So I built a shroud out of a discarded cookie baking pan, attached the Maradyne as a puller, and leaned the radiator back so the rear of the fan could motor could pass under the water pump pulley and hoped for the best:



I finally got to try it out yesterday and to my dismay found it was running even hotter.  Limped it home, raised the bonnet and watched the fan whirring away.  But I didn't feel any air movement under the hood.  Took a piece of paper and put it near the fan in the engine compartment and it was sucked toward the fan.  Hmmm.  Took the paper and held it against the grille and it blew straight forward.  I had engineered a perfect system for passing engine heat through the radiator.  Even though I flipped the fan over properly to change it from a pusher to a puller and thought I had wired it correctly ... apparently I didn't.  Embarrassing thing is I had the exact same problem when I installed it as a pusher last year. Reversed the leads on the fan motor and it was now operating correctly.  After two days of driving it around, my water temp hasn't gone over 200 degrees.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Moderator]

You're not the first to make this mistake.

I thought you were going to say you forgot to cut a hole in the cookie pan.

[HealeyRick]

The way it was cooling I might as well have not cut a hole in the cookie pan.

[DC Townsend]

Doesn't hold a candle to the whole front brake episode.

[roverman]

Rick, Don't be so hard on yourself. I bet IF you drove it really fast, in reverse, it would be just fine...lol. At least you didn't melt it.  Cheers, roverman.

[HealeyRick]

Thanks for bringing the brakes up, Dave.  Remember, "Whatever doesn't kill us still makes us pretty f'n miserable."

[DC Townsend]

At least yours in running. It's more than I can say for mine.

[rficalora]

I did the exact same thing on mine.  Set up as a puller... overheated 1st time out... fan was installed backwards.  What's worse is mine had a label with an arrow clearly pointing into the radiator!