2 cooling fans on R1600

[Slackline]

Prior Owner had this electric fan in front of the belt driven fan.

Should I keep it?

r16fan.jpg

And, what is that Prestone port for?

[notoptoy]

The Prestone port is for flushing the system, you can connect a garden hose and clean out the system under hose pressure to help clean out any rust. You can still buy these aftermarket kits today.

[Slackline]

Oh, ok. Thanks.

[spl310]

I would lose one of the fans. Personally, I'd keep the stock fan

[fj20spl311]

I would keep the stock fan in the garage. The Prestone Port to wash out the salt water on a boat.

[rwmann]

On the U-20, I removed the stock fan and mounted a thermostatically controlled 14" SPAL puller behind the radiator. No boat, so no Prestone port...

[Linda]

I have the Prestone port at the back on the heater hose, a better spot I think.
The stock fan should be good enough to cool the car. The block might have some rust sludge though. Maybe flush the radiator at least if the car has been sitting. Checking temps at various points can help assess the system. No leaks anywhere?
Someone did some work on the car as I see an ARP stud in one pic
Linda

[redroadster]

That electric would fail on the heat side anyway
If it runs hot, bet it needs a rod out.

[Slackline]

Prestone port: drain and capture coolant then remove lower rad hose and flush?

ARP: I added them. This is the car that had the head gasket flipped, so it was blocking coolant ports. Probably why it ran hot and they added the fan?

Since fixing the head gasket and tuning, low speed and idle it does not get warm. On the road at 60-65 it runs warmer and the temp gauge is straight up on the center mark which I believe is 190.

My guess is the electric fan is blocking airflow at highway speed.

[rwmann]

"My guess is the electric fan is blocking airflow at highway speed."

At what temperatures are the electric fan set to start and stop on?

[Linda]

New thermostat after the head gasket fix? These cars are a little tricky to clear the air out of...see archives.

Linda

[Mackn367]

I'm no engineer but I don't think stacking 2 fans together will help - and maybe even make it worse... however I think it actually might work if one fan was spinning one way and the 2nd was spinning in opposite direction - - in my opinion I would remove one of them. For me I am working on everything weight reduction so I went with the lightest setup I could do.

Edit: To add I would also make sure the fans are correctly set up as either a push or pull (if fan is in front of radiator you would set it up as a "push". If the fan is behind (which it is) then it would be set up as a "pull")

[rwmann]

Contra-rotating fans provide propulsive or flow efficiencies only when synchronized in pitch, phase and RPM, generally requiring the same number of blades. Otherwise, not so much.

A fan (or multiples) ahead of the radiator matrix blocks some flow to the radiator face when the fan is not running (pushing). A puller fan of the same diameter (or multiples) mounted aft of the radiator matrix does not impact flow through the matrix to the same extent, and is superior when running.

[Slackline]

Both pull. Electric fan comes on with ignition. No temp switch.

I’ll remove the electric. Need to make sure cooling system is burped properly.

[rwmann]

Agree. There should be no need for both. Does the stock 1600 fan have a thermo-clutch?