Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Fitting an electric fan

I did mate. I am currently pondering if I can do something similar but as I have the later heater matrix on the top of the scuttle I think I'm going to have a different arrangement. If I can get a squirrel cage fan in the space available and make up a different distribution arrangement I might be able to improve matters.

The heater in my '76 worked really well...
Post "fug stirrer" type though

Tim did you flush the matrix, My wife had a Renault 5 once & the heart was pathetic. A bit min blast through with garden hose & the sludge was out and it worked.

Good idea, but in my case it's not the heater matrix that's the problem, it' the poxy heater fan. The motor itself is pretty weak and the fan is a very poor design, just radial blades. The box it's sat in has got no ducting at all as such, just the flaps either side and two pipes at the front leading up to the windscreen vents.

With the hood up, it gets very nice and warm within a few minutes, but top down on a cold day you're lucky to get any heat at all out of it, the fan just can't shift enough air. With the side flaps open you might get a bit of warmth on the legs, but then the screen mists or freezes up. Driving in the winter when it's a bit damp/foggy/drizzly I tend to have the hood up more than I strictly need to. Crisp, clear days aren't so much of a problem as you just wrap up warm and enjoy it.

The Smiths heater in my LR S2a works well, however a couple of months ago I started to see a small puddle of rusty coolant on floor mat after standing for some time. A recent 300 mile round trip in cold weather had it working well enough for fan needing to be only just above min speed. I did initially see further coolant leakage though and fancy I saw steam when coming to a halt as my glasses were steaming up. A stop on the A1 revealed rad relatively cool and no noticeable coolant loss. Since then it seems to have resealed itself as no further loss noted.

Apparently new cores are available from Clayton Classics but because they are deeper than orginal, require both heater motor and mounting of unit as a whole to be spaced out with washers.

I've just done one and it's a straight swap: they provide a set of clips with the new core so all the old gubbins just fixes on the bottom; the top plate is identical.

Many thanks, that's encouraging although I was told by Clayton themselves of mods required. Could it be just for LR application

That's interesting - I get lots of heat even when the fan is switched off! Nice and toasty with roof off but sidescreens on.

There is a distinct difference in performance between the 1980’s heater we had in our 1985 4/4 and the system fitted to our 2014 car. Mrs F never asked me to turn the heater down in our 1985 4/4. She regularly asks me to turn the heat down in the current 4/4.

My little 1.2 Corsa (my commuter) has an absolutely awesome heater. Can only manage minutes on 'full' heat,

Been doing some research and it seems most vehicles with the Ford Xflow engine in seem to suffer from poor heating. Even with all the upgrades I've done, I would only describe the heat output as 'luke warm'.