Obviously you don't want it so flush that the blades scrape the fins, but in general, when mounting a radiator fan as a PUSHER, is it better to have it as close to the radiator as possible, or to leave a small gap?

 

definitly do not leave a small gap, all the air which you are trying to force through the rad, is going to take the path of least resistance, (that being your small gap) .... you want as much as as possible flowing through the rad...

if you can, mount a puller on it, not the pusher.

 

the fal i had on the fluidyne, i mounted as a pusher flush, i even went as far as putting a bigger piece of "tubing" around it to seal it better. yeah you want it flush.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the fal i had on the fluidyne, i mounted as a pusher flush, i even went as far as putting a bigger piece of "tubing" around it to seal it better. yeah you want it flush.</TD></TR></TABLE>


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">definitly do not leave a small gap, all the air which you are trying to force through the rad, is going to take the path of least resistance, (that being your small gap) .... you want as much as as possible flowing through the rad...

if you can, mount a puller on it, not the pusher.</TD></TR></TABLE>


i thought the same thing..... odd as it sounds i found differently on mine a couple weeks ago. i seriously thought it would be like stated above. but i put on new fans a couple few weeks ago and when i was mounting the pusher it felt like it blew a little more air through the radiator and condenser when just a 1/4" or so off the condenser. i know it wouldnt seem to be logical that way but on my set up it did so i used the little foam pads between the fan and condenser. plus i didnt want the fan and or condenser goin into self distruct if the blades rubbed.

just hook up the fan, run it flush then pull it back a lil and see what your experience is with it. like i said mine worked better for me with a small gap.


ANOTHER thought if its flush you only get the exact diamater of the fan housing blowing air through if its a lil off you get that lil extra diameter around the housing, we dont necessarily need extreme amounts of flow as much as we need coverage out of the uni fans.... they are big enough or as big as the stock ones but the lack of a shroud makes a big difference.

 

when i mounted my car quest 12" slim fan i used the foam pads that came with it and when i had the zip ties thru the rad, i pulled em as far and tight as could, then trimmed off the excess.......so far the fans been working like it should.

i mounted it as a PUSHER, but had it wired up as a PULLER, so sometimes the temps would go up, but i fixed it by rewiring it to PULL air rather than PUSH

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you can, mount a puller on it, not the pusher.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd mount it as a puller fan, but I need the space when the time comes to install my new turbo.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by agrn93ls &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ANOTHER thought if its flush you only get the exact diamater of the fan housing blowing air through if its a lil off you get that lil extra diameter around the housing</TD></TR></TABLE>

This was what I was thinking last night. When used as a puller, if it's not flush, air will not be pulled through as efficiently, and probably sucks hot air around the edges from the engine bay. As a pusher, would it spread the air more evenly to fins outside the radius? Or, would it not be forced through properly as dturbocivic
mentioned?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MeanGreenMachine &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i mounted it as a PUSHER, but had it wired up as a PULLER, so sometimes the temps would go up, but i fixed it by rewiring it to PULL air rather than PUSH</TD></TR></TABLE>

That sucks. I heard about this happening to people. They should make them with a polarity switch.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sprockets &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I'd mount it as a puller fan, but I need the space when the time comes to install my new turbo. </TD></TR></TABLE>

ill be mounting my slim fan as a pusher when it gets mounted on my ac condenser so i can make room for my turbo and manifold.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sprockets &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
This was what I was thinking last night. When used as a puller, if it's not flush, air will not be pulled through as efficiently, and probably sucks hot air around the edges from the engine bay. As a pusher, would it spread the air more evenly to fins outside the radius? Or, would it not be forced through properly as dturbocivic
mentioned?
</TD></TR></TABLE>


think about it like this when you are near a fan it blows regardless how close you are to it it blows. if your radiator or whatever its mounted to is clear and not blocked it will allow air to flow freely through. its not like a pressurized system would be to where air will escape and blow out other places only if it finds a path of lower resistance so agiain whatever its pointed at if it has no resistance to air flow it will go right through.

IMPORTANT i found on my setup when i was having overheating issues the most critical part to the issue was my condenser being 12 years old was dirty and not allowing air flow through near as well as it could a clean condenser or radiator will allow air to flow through as if it does not even exist.

knaw mean?

think of it like this also the radiator is cooled by air coming in from the front of the car, that works just fine and that is a foot or so away right..?... compare it to just air flowing, period, not pressure, restrictions etc... that is overcomplicating a simple matter and does not apply

 

What you say makes sense, and I agree with your reasoning. However, I just got an e-mail from the fan manufacturer's tech support telling me to mount it flush, or I'll lose cfms. I'll e-mail another fan manufacturer tomorrow to confirm.

 

well what they say is true. you will loose some of the pressure/cfm across but i more meant surface area is what i was after. cooling a smaller area really good or a larger area just enough. but anyway honestly itll work either way i think the differences are irrelavent. but hey the more info the better.

what would they say to using the same amount of air to cool a larger area.

 

I don't know. No one replied to my e-mail today. I'll let you know when I get another opinion.