AU thermos not that good of a fit

[VrWagz1]

Well I have done the much hailed AU twin thermo conversion to get rid of the crappy noisy clutch fan, and whoever said they are a good fit has rocks in their head. After i bent the charcoal canister bracket 180 degrees to move it over about 150mm and shoved the battery right over the fans only just fitted. There was more then ample cutting and fine tuning involved in getting them to sit right too. The base of the fans does not lock into anything and i had to install some studs below the radiator for the fans to sit on also. Basically the fans take up from top to bottom of the radiator and completely cover the radiator core + the tanks aswell. They are wide enough to squash up against the charcoal canister (which squash's against the battery, which is squashed against the wall) and then goes right across to the other side and all but touches that side too.

So basically theres nothing special about the AU thermos as far as their fit, infact their a terrible fit, the only thing good is their hight is a fairly good fit. You could probably spend just as much time on any set of twin thermo's and get a better result. A much smaller twin thermo would be alot better and way more practicle.

[Vee-ard]

Personally I wouldnt be soiling my commodore by using ford parts, but thats just personal preference :P

[clubby_you]

you must be upset bye just about every fast chev or holden powered car out there then cause they all run 9 inch diffs

[Vee-ard]

you must be upset bye just about every fast chev or holden powered car out there then cause they all run 9 inch diffs

funnily enough, not really because it isnt my car.

[Helicopter]

Well I have done the much hailed AU twin thermo conversion to get rid of the crappy noisy clutch fan, and whoever said they are a good fit has rocks in their head. After i bent the charcoal canister bracket 180 degrees to move it over about 150mm and shoved the battery right over the fans only just fitted. There was more then ample cutting and fine tuning involved in getting them to sit right too. The base of the fans does not lock into anything and i had to install some studs below the radiator for the fans to sit on also. Basically the fans take up from top to bottom of the radiator and completely cover the radiator core + the tanks aswell. They are wide enough to squash up against the charcoal canister (which squash's against the battery, which is squashed against the wall) and then goes right across to the other side and all but touches that side too.

So basically theres nothing special about the AU thermos as far as their fit, infact their a terrible fit, the only thing good is their hight is a fairly good fit. You could probably spend just as much time on any set of twin thermo's and get a better result. A much smaller twin thermo would be alot better and way more practicle.

Sorry to hear of all your problems buddy, and probably a bit late now...check out the V8 development section showing a chap who fitted the ford mondeo twin fans. They seem to fit very well.

Personally, I will continue with that horrible clutch fan which looks and sounds awfull, but unfortunately does a good job of cooling before going to all that trouble.

Furthermore, I have yet to read any 'real' positive feedback from anyone who has fitted thermo's fans on their 5L as to how good they are when the outside temp is 30+ and running A/C. All very nice when its 22 outside, but its those hot summer months that worry me.

Anyway, when you have completed the install and run the car let us know of your experience.

Cheers

BTW, if their is anyone out there with a successfull story and you don't live in Antartica please let us in on it.

[VrWagz1]

Sorry to hear of all your problems buddy, and probably a bit late now...check out the V8 development section showing a chap who fitted the ford mondeo twin fans. They seem to fit very well.

Personally, I will continue with that horrible clutch fan which looks and sounds awfull, but unfortunately does a good job of cooling before going to all that trouble.

Furthermore, I have yet to read any 'real' positive feedback from anyone who has fitted thermo's fans on their 5L as to how good they are when the outside temp is 30+ and running A/C. All very nice when its 22 outside, but its those hot summer months that worry me.

Anyway, when you have completed the install and run the car let us know of your experience.

Cheers

BTW, if their is anyone out there with a successfull story and you don't live in Antartica please let us in on it.

I have read that thread and have added further comments to it now also. Problem was i already had the AU thermos sitting around so despite the thread saying they are too big i continued to fit them anyway as i had them here.
I read somwhere that the AU thermos dont draw alot of current, around 6 amps. So i used the factory wiring harness as it looks like it will handle about 15 amps given the wire gauge, it also has a 40Amp fuse and a 30 Amp relay factory fitted. But to my dissmay the thermos must draw around 15 - 20Amps as the wiring becomes pretty warm fairly quickly.
So i will need to make up my own heavy gauge wiring harness to run to the AU fans and i will probably run another relay on them so i dont overload the factory one.

[mischa]

funnily enough, not really because it isnt my car.

lol, your diff is the same. And i bet if u ripped your car apart you would find parts with ford stamped on them.

Anyway, i wouldnt worry about the relay if its drawing 15-20 amps, thats not going to overload it at all. i would be worried only if it was infact over or within 2 amps of being over.

[rayvy]

hey just letting you know that i fitted that thermo fan to my VS SS and it was crap in 30+ temps it overheats very quick not worth the time effort or money to convert from the original fan works a lot better even with the air-con running. i sold that ss for 1.5k cause i warped the heads from the heat (didnt expect it to overheat that quick) got a new SS now

[VrWagz1]

I will be sure to keep an eye on the temp gauge. I will add the heavy duty wiring tomorrow arvo and basically it will be a wait and see how the temp gauge goes....

Mischa its not the relay i really worry about, its the integrity of the connectors and stuff that i worry about. So i will still be adding the relay still. Might be overkill but it makes me happy im not gonna burn down my car.

[VrWagz1]

I'll add a fewpicks here, This first one is the driver side edge of the thermos sitting next to the moved over charcoal canister thats pushed up against the battery that is pushed up against the edge of the bay.

Note the Gap around the thermos. Not the top angle bit directly under the top hose(i cut that off to assist with removal and install) but the gap down further in the shroud where it should sit flush on the tank. Im goin to have to fill this gap with some black plastic and silicon out of an old 5ltr oil canister i got here as it is bypassing way too much air and not sucking much through the radiator. Thus atm its not cooling very well in traffic and its hardly even hot!!


Here is the passenger side and you can just see it squashes right up to the passenger rail(just under the air box there you can see the rail coming through). Again you can see the gap around the fan shroud where it should sit flush on the tank and is bypassing all the air.



Now its not practicle to simply go right around the fan and cut it an inch thinner as you will lose the ability to mount it properly, all these gaps will have to be filled.
You can quite clearly see that that are way too big, they barley fit in the engine bay to start with. But also you can see how the fan shroud hangs well over top of the radiator tanks and i have had to cut it to fit around the inlet and outlet hoses. The fan shroud should only just fit neatly onto the core of the radiator and should not touch the tanks at all.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Can I state the obvious?

The twin AU thermos are designed to fit the AU, not the VR, so of course they have to be modiifed and they may or may not be a very good fit.

Just because someone else has done it doesn't make it a practical mod.

My opinion though, take it as you will. I'm not having a go.

[Helicopter]

Can I state the obvious?

The twin AU thermos are designed to fit the AU, not the VR, so of course they have to be modiifed and they may or may not be a very good fit.

Just because someone else has done it doesn't make it a practical mod.

My opinion though, take it as you will. I'm not having a go.

Look, you are correct in saying that.

The problem is that after reading all the [more recent] comments re fitting these or any other thermo fan on the 5L, and appart from the great feedback and detailed pictures sent by VrWagz, not much information has been available describing the difficuly of fitting these or more importantly if it was a successfull modification especially in very hot days.

I guess there is no point puting these on if they both have to be running flat out trying to cool the engine even during mild temperatures. I would hope that only one motor needs to be running all the time, and the second motor kicking in when for example stopped at the lights. Otherwise if both are required, then if one of the motors breaks down your stuffed. So you may as well just leave the old klunker in the first place.

As far as the current draw, putting in a second relay close to the power source is always good practice especially with high current drawing devices.

Still waiting to hear from all the others out there who 'supposedly' had great success with the AU fans on hot days..............!!!!

[pjdm1980]

Personally I wouldnt be soiling my commodore by using ford parts, but thats just personal preference :P

Pop your interior light off it's made by ford!


Never even looked at it but if they fitted a 5ltr to the VT I'd say they would be close to the VS 5ltr radiator size so maybe you could use a VTII 5.7ltr thermo set up.
My personnel experience with thermos on my old VH 5ltr showed me that the most important thing was air lose from leaks/holes in the shrouded.

[VrWagz1]

Look, you are correct in saying that.

The problem is that after reading all the [more recent] comments re fitting these or any other thermo fan on the 5L, and appart from the great feedback and detailed pictures sent by VrWagz, not much information has been available describing the difficuly of fitting these or more importantly if it was a successfull modification especially in very hot days.

Still waiting to hear from all the others out there who 'supposedly' had great success with the AU fans on hot days..............!!!!

Exactly. I took it back out this arvo and did some gap filling. Now it looks mung as, but unfortunatly all i had on hand was blue silicon and an old black 5ltr oil canister to chop up, but its all hidden under the CAI mouth. I would rather this worked and look shite then looking good and causing some sort of heat damage to my motor, its a daily drive and i gotta drive it.


Now i can also feel a bit more air through the front of the radiator(as one would expect) and im hoping now it might be sufficient to keep it cool.....I hope.
I also went up the road to someones wreck up the street and pulled out an old hi beam relay and base as it has 2 heavy gauge wires connected to the relay output on the base(one for each fan). I will join onto these with my new heavy duty wiring loom i made up special for these fans and i will have it all tucked away inside the factory relay box under the bonnet so its not hanging around with wires everywhere, and the new loom will tuck behind the factory harness till it needs to pop out at the fans. Hopfully the wiring will go close to looking tidy and factory.

[Brett]

I put Original brand new AU fans on my VR V8 ute and i was surprised with the amount of cutting i had to do, there was ALOT of trial fitting. I used the original tabs at the bottom of the radiator to mount the fans, i just measured up and made the 2 holes, the fitment is great.
Overall i found the fitment to be pretty good after alot of mucking about making them fit right. With the charcol canister i just slide the battery over and zippy tied it into place its a snug fit but is fine, i didnt even touch its bracket its still in place.
I wired each fan with its own fuse and relay to one adjustable temp switch, i also rigged up a button in the car so i can turn the fans off at anytime, mainly for starting but i havent had any real issues with that.
I reckon these fans move alot of air, i had a properly shrouded 16 inch fan on my old Clubsport that never pumped out the amount of air that the AUs do.
As for cooling the engine its not summer yet but it has been warm up here and soon as the temperature gets to the set limit the fans are on for about 1 minute before it drops.
Also i havent plugged the gaps in the sides. My car is a daily driver and so far they work really well, but yeah summertime will be the tester.

[seraphic06]

[QUOTE=Da_rooster1980;1298529]Pop your interior light off it's made by ford!
QUOTE]

Technically it's made by a third party for both GM and Ford as both companies logos can be found.

[delcowizzid]

vrwags did you word this wrong "Now i can also feel a bit more air through the front of the radiator(as one would expect)" or are the fans blowing not sucking LOL

[VrWagz1]

vrwags did you word this wrong "Now i can also feel a bit more air through the front of the radiator(as one would expect)" or are the fans blowing not sucking LOL

lol, no their sucking, i put my hand down in front and you can feel the draw of air going through and the fans blowing hot air all over the motor

I put Original brand new AU fans on my VR V8 ute and i was surprised with the amount of cutting i had to do, there was ALOT of trial fitting. I used the original tabs at the bottom of the radiator to mount the fans, i just measured up and made the 2 holes, the fitment is great.
Overall i found the fitment to be pretty good after alot of mucking about making them fit right. With the charcol canister i just slide the battery over and zippy tied it into place its a snug fit but is fine, i didnt even touch its bracket its still in place.
I wired each fan with its own fuse and relay to one adjustable temp switch, i also rigged up a button in the car so i can turn the fans off at anytime, mainly for starting but i havent had any real issues with that.
I reckon these fans move alot of air, i had a properly shrouded 16 inch fan on my old Clubsport that never pumped out the amount of air that the AUs do.

I have put those slots in also to mount them, but i also added studs as they didnt fully sit home in those old tabs and the last thing i wanted was them coming loose. ATM i have them wired with the factory memcal, so there is no hi/lo settings as the factory tune never had that i beleive. So they are simply on and off like the v6 thermos do. If this proves to be in-effective or not efficient i will make a hi/lo trigger cct. A good thing about these is they dont appear too noisey, so to run them for a little while is no big issue, not like the old chugging clutch fan.
Anywayz i hope this thread proves slightly informative to anyone else considering this option and if i remember i will dig it back up in summer and let people know if they worked in the heat. If i forget pm me and ill post it up thanks for everyones input.

[azkwazere]

Im not sure now lol... are you meant to fit the EL or AU fans?

There are a few people on here who run them, would love an opinion on how they actually work...

Im looking at doing it but i want to be 100% sure first.

aZk.

[Vee-ard]

Pop your interior light off it's made by ford!

Yeah, I've had this argument with zuicider before, is it supposed to have a ford logo there? because it has a big "GM" stamped on it. So no?

[VrWagz1]

Well I have installed the heavy duty wiring loom and extra relay and fuse. It all seems to be working except i blew the fuse almost instantly cause i only had a 20amp one on hand, I will uprate this to 30Amp tomorrow. So no more overheating wires and plugs now and i added a wire ready to connect to for a manual ON switch in the cab if i want it later.
At prestent the silicon has held well and the extra plastic infills i did have held, and plenty of air is being dragged through the radiator, it feels like a comparable amount of air to the old clutch fan. Time will tell if it works now in the heat of summer.

Edit. Also found a 30A standard blade fuse is not enough to start these fans. Maybe 1 for each fan would be ok. But i just went for a 40A dc circuit breaker instead, so all good now, finnally they are fitted wired and working.

[pjdm1980]

Found these on ebay thought they might help!
twin thermo fans suit vl turbo,n/a,v8 - eBay, Other Car Parts, Accessories, Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 16-Oct-09 15:13:30 AEDST)

[greenfoam]

Nothing wrong with the clutch fan guys ? I doubt any of you are running 7000 rpm +

[HoZy]

That is one of the worst AU fan installs, I ever did see...

Take some care with the install, sheesh...

[VN_Luke]

^^ upside down fans is where it's at

I run EL fans on my vn, with them fitted upside down like the above install. They overhang a little bit either side of the radiator, but not a significant amount. There was a good two night's worth of work to get them fitting nice and mounted etc. Lots of cutting, heating, bending, but I got there in the end. - Now you can remove the radiator and thermos as one unit.


As far as temperature goes - I can do back to back dyno runs on a hot day, and whatever temp you set the fans at (within reason of course... 80 deg C+), is where it will sit! Might twitch a little during the run, but generally it's spot on!

They move a remarkable amount of air - I can put a rag over my intercooler when the fans are on, and the rag will be stuck there (there is a good few inches gap between the cooler and the radiator)

Having said all that, I have also heard that the Mondeo fans are supposed to be a much better and easier fit.