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79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Tech Talk for Cruiser owners.

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79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by tezza88 »

I've go a 79 series land cruiser wich i recently droped into a hellova puddle, and the engine fan was paddeling water and went through my radiator resulting in a broken fan blade and a choped up radiator, so firstly obviously my fan clutch didnt work the way it should av, but any way so i tossed the old engine fan and replaced it with 16" Davis Craige thermo fan ( sposed to be the biggest they make and suposedly should cool v8's and 4'bys no problem) downstream in its place and obviously a new radiator.
My problem is that the thermo just isnt pulling enough air to cool it under laboured conditions, just the 1 fan isnt large enough to cover the whole radiator and because of the design and shape of it fitting two side by side isnt realy an option, nore is putting 1 upstream and 1 downstream ( not enough room in front). now just to make sure ive replaced the thermostat just to rule it out as a problem, but considering going bak to am engine fan but has any 1 else done a swap for thermo on 1 of these and did it work?
any sugestions?
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by SimonInAustralia »

tezza88 wrote:so firstly obviously my fan clutch didnt work the way it should av
I don't think that the fan clutch is supposed to protect your radiator from the fan in deep water, that isn't what it is designed to do.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by hulsty »

Put the engine fan back on, pulls heaps of air.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by tezza88 »

yeah thats wot i am planning on doin, but i already installed the thermo set up and falked out the dough for it so ive bein trying to make the thermo set up work,

"I don't think that the fan clutch is supposed to protect your radiator from the fan in deep water, that isn't what it is designed to do."
the fan cluch is supposed to free spin wen it has an opposeing force to it, including deep water as water will distort the fan and like it did to mine... chop up the radiator
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by hulsty »

tezza88 wrote: the fan cluch is supposed to free spin wen it has an opposeing force to it, including deep water as water will distort the fan and like it did to mine... chop up the radiator
If the engine was cool and the fan clutch disengaged it would have, if the engine was warm and the clutch engaged it would stay locked till the element cooled.

If it freewheeled at every opposing force, it would not work at all, the air resistance is opposing.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by SimonInAustralia »

tezza88 wrote:the fan cluch is supposed to free spin wen it has an opposeing force to it, including deep water as water will distort the fan and like it did to mine... chop up the radiator
No, it is supposed to partially disengage when cool, and fully engage when hot.

Designed for different amounts of cooling, and less load on the engine when not needed, depending on temperature, not to protect the radiator from fan damage in water.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by RAY185 »

tezza88 wrote:the fan cluch is supposed to free spin wen it has an opposeing force to it, including deep water as water will distort the fan and like it did to mine... chop up the radiator
Where do people come up with this garbage? :roll:

Back on topic:

1: Do you have a shroud on the thermo fan to force it to suck air through the majority of the core and not from around it?

2: How are you controling the switching of the fan?

3: What temperature are you telling it to cut in and out at?

4: Put it down to experience and put a viscous fan back on it, thermo fans are a compromise and rarely match a functioning viscous fan.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by tezza88 »

tezza88 wrote:
the fan cluch is supposed to free spin wen it has an opposeing force to it, including deep water as water will distort the fan and like it did to mine... chop up the radiator
No, it is supposed to partially disengage when cool, and fully engage when hot
.
yes i no this, and that is wot i meant by disengageing. if it is partily disengaged then its not gonna spin at full revs and destort wen cool in deep water and yes it was cool at that time, i no its not designed to protect the radiator... wot i was trying to say has not come out very well wich would be my bad wording,
Any way yes it has a shroud over it but it really need to hug the thermo more, all i wanted to no is if any 1 has done a swap 4 a thermo and has it worked? but thnx 4 the advice any way and like i was saying in the first place i will be goin back to a engine fan with a new cluth obviously
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by tezza88 »

i had a manual control switch to turn it on, and i had it running from the time the engine starts to the time it turns off, street drivin was fine, but doesnt cope with hills on highways
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by SimonInAustralia »

I tie off the (viscous) fan to something in the engine bay to stop it spinning on deep water crossings.

Prevents problems with the radiator, as long as you know about the deep water in advance and can stop to tie it off first.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by guppy »

Tie it off... that would never work, if the fan cut in it would be all over, rope or wire flyin everywhere.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by SimonInAustralia »

guppy wrote:Tie it off... that would never work, if the fan cut in it would be all over, rope or wire flyin everywhere.
That is what my mechanic suggested, I do it, it works. Many others do the same, it works.

You thinking 'that would never work', is different to actually knowing that would never work.

With a viscous clutch fan, it stops the fan from turning, the viscous clutch keeps spinning while the fan blades are stationary, it doesn't cut through the rope/wire/occy strap/etc.

Some discussion about it on other forums...
http://forums.overlander.com.au/viewtopic.php?p=657915" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewt ... w=previous" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by SCANAS »

x2 with tying it off. I assume this probably does damage to the viscous or prematurely wears it out a little but it's better than having the fan go through your radiator out the back of bumfu3k. If anyone has a better idea post it up.

The best thermo's you can get are ef-au falcon. Better than all the aftermarket stuff I have seen people try over the years.
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by tezza88 »

just a follow up 4 any1 interested, ive tossed the thermo, and put on a new Viscous clutch fan, mayb wot happened to mine ( fan chopping up radiatior in deep water etc) is a common fault with these series cruiser as the new fan has about a 1 inch further back offset in it then the old original one... ie its 1 inch closer to the engine and 1inch further back from the radiator... just sum food for though
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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by Frankenyota »

Had this problem on my HZJ105, the standard fans are very flexable.
After researching on lcool landcruiser forum, the fix is to fit an 80 series fan with stiffer blades.
This helps to stop the blades flexing out into the radiator.
Stick with the viscous fan, as already said.

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Re: 79 Series Cruiser Thermo troubles.

Post by DanGrey »

SimonInAustralia wrote:
guppy wrote:Tie it off... that would never work, if the fan cut in it would be all over, rope or wire flyin everywhere.
That is what my mechanic suggested, I do it, it works. Many others do the same, it works.

You thinking 'that would never work', is different to actually knowing that would never work.

With a viscous clutch fan, it stops the fan from turning, the viscous clutch keeps spinning while the fan blades are stationary, it doesn't cut through the rope/wire/occy strap/etc.

......
that's what they call 'it all in the mind'... yeah i cant agree more.. I had done this one too.. All is well.. it'll work.. trust the mechanic.
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