Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 DIY Urban Cooling Kit

Folks,

Despite risking engineering and design criticism , I felt it time to tell you all about my take on cooling and what I have fitted to give me some peace of mind when caught in traffic for longer than I want.

My install is around a Tripac 6.5" engine fan, which is reversible so that it can suck as well as blow. I have installed in on the faux grill, with a little bit of additional support, but not much as it's quite light. It sucks air out of the under-bonnet area and blows it back onto the engine. The force of the 'wind' is significant and is broadly in a circle, so air is directed to the engine pretty evenly.

When first fitted, although it was blowing relatively well, there was much turbulence around the faux grill area as air needed to rush in and out in pretty much the same space, which left is less effective that it should have been. I'd already been wanting to find a way to get some air into the oil-tank area as this gets very hot after a decent run and I eventually bit the bullet and cut me a hole in the front of the bonnet. That was a struggle actually, as the cowling and bonnet are both closed, so some accurate marking and cutting is required. Mine is only OK, but it's out of sight, so little harm done with my slightly wonky circle.

Power is taken from Fuse 18 (Intercomm) and can still use the same 5A fuse, as the running current of this fan is only 4A according to the label. I wanted a really discrete switch, so installed a push-button On/Off to the right of the steering cowl with an indicator light to match. Fuse 18 is always live, so it means I can have the fan running when stopped, if only to help cool things down quicker than normal.

I am very happy to report that it works a treat! What is most surprising is that after a decent run, the temp of the air coming out of the fan is really quite warm, showing that the 'suck' is pulling cold air into the under-bonnet area and helping cool things in there as it comes out much warmer than it went in. The force of the air then onto the cylinders is considerable and if I stand in front of the engine, I can feel the (very) hot air hitting my legs as the fan does its job.

I've not had much of a traffic jam as yet, but it's easy to switch on, it's under my control, is uber-discrete (in my opinion anyhoo) and does exactly what I wanted it to do.

I am sure that the factory UCK is more efficient, but this is a lot prettier IMHO and cost about 1/3rd of the price.

Happy to accept feedback, good or bad! Sorry about the low res pictures, but I wanted to do a write up now and the car is in the garage.

Top job, I'm liking that very much. That looks like it could be a winter project for me.

Nice one , double whammy - cools the engine AND the oil tank in one go !

Great idea, excellent!!! ...looks nicer than the original.
That would be a nice mod to add suppl. cooling for stucked in traffic. I presume that you
have take out the two inner traps to acces the footroom to get an airflow and so provide a nice leg heater for colder seasons

is there a possibility to put the fan inside or is there not enough room ? ( to make it completely invisible)


cheers,
Smaug

The fan looks good , as Smaug suggests there are possibilities for some sort of heater too !

Interesting looking leather storage things below steering and on the gearbox cover , where did you find them , or were they specially made ?

wonder if you could stick the fan inside the bonnet on the other side of the screen so it would be mostly out of view. just a thought. great job.

B

I can see some venting into the footwells there, with warm feet being the result on those cold winter days - you do remember cold winter days don't you?

Great mod. and a good result, well done and very worthy of a Talk Morgan regular.

Thanks for getting those photos up, worth at least 5000 words.

Nice solution and as you say a lot more discrete.

R1NGA, very nice work.

Just food for thought, it's been my experience from streetrods that when mounting fans, they should be run through a separate relay. This allows for the switch / signal wiring to be run at low amp draw while the relay is being supplied by a fused direct wire from the battery or other high amp location that is keyed on and off with the ignition.

In doing my research for an overheating blown 392 hemi, I found that all the major brands, I ended up with Spal, pulled about 1 amp per 100 cfm.

In your case the fan is probably only pulling about 400 to 500 cfm as it seems to be usable on a 4 amp fused circuit. That's not a lot of air, but anything is better than what you had when you started.

So in my case with around 3000 cfm from two 11" Spal fans, I wired in a 30 amp relay and ran both fan motors from the single relay fed by a 10ga wire. I was at the Indy's Nationals and we were in parking lot traffic and my fans quit. What I found out was that my two fans pulled over 30 amps and my relay fried, read melted. In the hotel parking lot I converted over to two 30 amp relays and ran one for each fan motor. This proved to be the right way to go and it worked great from then on.

Here is a typical "kit" for fan power and coolant sensor for a streetrod. It comes with a circuit breaker in lieu of a fuse.



Here is a wiring schematic that is commonly used for wiring in a relay for any requirement needing a relay, mainly used on electric fans though.



Here is the pin out on a typical relay with internal circuit shown.



These relays can be purchased at about any auto swapmeet with the plug and wiring pigtail for around $5 each. I always have a few sets around the shop just in case I need one.

I would just double check the wiring on your fan after it's been running for a few minutes. If it's getting warm, I would go the extra step and install a relay for a separate power source for the fan. You can still use the same wiring control setup you have now, just to the relay instead of the fan.

I would also just check to make sure you're not just blowing air into the under bonnet area without any means to exhaust the air or you will not get any circulation. Likewise on the blow towards the motor; if you're pulling a negative pressure under the bonnet you're just cavitating the fan so to speak.

Again, nice work.

Excellent thread. As I live in the desert, I will be installing the cooling modification, and I appreciate the ideas. Worth considering:
Two rows of cooling louvers on top of the bonnet. This will prevent negative pressure inside the bonnet, and fan cavitation. (Cool look, enhancing the aft-placed louvers on more recent models).
Fan placement behind the faux-grille with addition of NACA- styled matte black circular duct (composite material) ahead of grille, in order to accelerate air flow toward cylinders.
Reversible function for directing warm air to crew in cold Wx.
Regards,
TN