As soon as I find out that Eurospares have the correct clamp available another turns up ! Ferrari 400GT Fan Motor Bracket | eBay Eurospares don't have a photo of the bracket so at least I can see what it's like and what the difference is between the correct one and the one on my car.
Finally got a an original 365 fan motor plus an Ali 3-bladed fan (thanks Grant). Now all I need is another Ali 3-bladed fan as the pair I already have are plastic so now I'm back to having an odd fan. And so it continues......
Having driven my car all winter, it's Vegas, I never had the occasion to have the fans in front of the radiator running. Temp sits right under 90C. Or at least I never noticed them. Now I do. I let the car idle for an extended period, something I seldom do, and I heard a noise, almost a rattle from inside the grille. In the process of finding the noise it turns out that one of the fans is making a noise I don't want to hear. I looked into replacing the noisy one and found that the replacement doesn't run the same blade. Making me wonder if I should just try to find a motor rebuilder. I'd rather have two the same. Pull both of them and have them reconditioned would be my preference. Since June will bring 100 degree temps, my car stays in the garage in the summer. I like to resolve the issues for the next season then. Does anyone have positive previous experience with a shop that could recondition both motors? My reasoning for doing both motors would be to get ahead of the second one acting up. And since taking them out thru the grille looks like the probable path, I'd rather not disturb the grille any more times than I need to. Any help, advice would be appreciated.
You must remove the grill, this is the only solution. Four screws and four screw top down and went out. I repaired my fans myself. Remove fans, remove the cover of the electric motor, brush carefully copper winding (not with a metalic brush), spraying a cleaning product compatible with the electrical part. Lubricate the friction parts, repaint if necessary and reassemble. If it does not work you have to go to a professional Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for the insight. When they come out I will be able to find out what the noise is and like you said, they probably need cleaning and lubrication. The removal part was a given, I just wasn't sure what the internal parts consist of. Armature, brushes, bushings, and housing with magnets? I'll give it a try.
If the fan in the last picture are correct they look like 308 fans. On my 308 I have Pantera fan blades I had here from my old car. Pantera fans are not rare because owner replace them with aftermarket. Mayde this can help!
I got tired of the noise and inefficiency of the stock (Lucas) fans and replaced mine with Hayden fans. Never looked back - they're great. Bob Z. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Rusty....sober up already. Put in some modern fans as pictured. They will do more than make noise and tax your alternator. You'll actually be able to drive it in town on a hot day too.
Wow - a reply to a post I made over 2 years ago ! I found exactly the original fan that I needed, had it rebuilt and it works fine thanks.
Have you looked at the way they are installed? Basically a tie wrap pushed thru the radiator core. The fan lays flat on the radiator surface, that is if the surface is flat. No matter how well tensioned the straps are, the fans rub and chafe against the fins of the front face of the cooling components distorting the fins.Since the "face"of the mounting surface made up of the condenser and the radiator leaving several elevations. I have used Hayden fans, mostly in motor homes. Besides having wire that isn't properly sized. They come with "scotch locks" for tapping into the circuit of your choice and they melt when the poor connection generates too much heat. If you can direct me to a fan that would use the original mounts, isn't made of abs plastic, and has adequately sized wire, I'd use two of them. Thanks, DaveO
The mounting method is up to you as is the wire gauge. As far as laying flat on the radiator, do you mean like every production Ferrari made since the TR and 328 not to mention most of the automotive world? There is supposed to be rubber between the plastic fan and the radiator preventing wear of the radiator core. The fact is a ducted fan mounted directly on the radiator will move far more air through the radiator causing better cooling with lower energy used with less noise than any other method. The quality of the installation is up to the installer, not the manufacturer of the fan.
I will look into optional types of fans. Is there a "rule of thumb" as to how much air volume this application should be able to "move". I will need a pusher fan, or fans, depending how much air they will move. For those that have opted for an aftermarket fan system how did you determine the displacement of the fan and did you run one or two. One source indicated the fan should cover at least 70% of the core. Finally will a pusher fan perform as expected if it is mounted 1" from the surface of the radiator? Another heat exchanger in front of the radiator covers over half of the radiator therefor the fan can't be mounted any closer. Any ideas?
Maybe a way to chose the right size fan would be to look at the amp draw. If you know the amps required to run for the old fans and pick a modern fan with the same amps it would probably flow much money more air.
I went thru the workshop manual and couldn't find load or current draw information for the original motor. What I was hoping to find would be the CFM air movement the fan is capable of. Then I could match up a fan with similar performance. I will be fitting the fan circuit with an ammeter to find how much current it draws, once I have the grille out. I still haven't ruled out having the OEM motors rebuilt. Does anyone have a positive experience with having these motors reconditioned by a motor rebuilder?
First, I'm not soliciting, just offering my 2 cents. I've succesfully rebullt/restored old cooling fan (or A/C, C/C, heater, headlight, power antenna/seat/window, etc) motors on variety of vintage cars, including several Daytonas, as a part of my restoration services. May not be easiest, least expensive or even most efficient solution, but it can be done. Heck, I've even (successfully) rebuilt/restored an 16 & 2/3 rpm record player once after receiving it from one of the most highly regarded specialists and seeing my client having wasted almost obscene amount of $$s with them for something that not only looked embarrassingly crappy, but didn't even work. So choose/research your "rebuilder" wisely.
When I installed the Haydon fans on my GTC, I fabricated some simple brackets with metal straps from the local hardware store. The whole job took around three hours and looks right in place. The modern fans will, I'm sure, flow a lot more air for the same power consumption due mostly to a more efficient fan blade design. The original fans on my car looked like something that belonged on a pre-war Ford! If anyone is interested, I will post some photos. Bob Z.
I forgot to mention, use the largest size fans that you can fit. Better too much cooling air than too little. Bob Z.
Good advice even though the 400i is a very well cooled system. I once got stuck in NYC traffic one 90+ degree day and had no overheating problems whatsoever even with the A/C cranking full blast!
I wish we only got to 90F! Most days in summer here are over 90F by 9am & we normally see around 110F. My car is also fine at 90F & at 100F it's OK but you do not want to sit still for too long. A better cooling solution would enable me to use the car more often. When I had my radiator cleaned out a couple of years ago the old guy that did it was surprised that this was being used to cool a V12 as the core fin design is one of the most inefficient. He thought it must have been out of a lot older car as most manufacturers had moved to the newer designed cores by this time. He also advised that changing to a modern core would dramatically improve the cooling for the same amount of air being pushed through the radiator. I am on the lookout for an old radiator that needs recoring to give this a try - I don't really want to modify my good original one. Al
Yep Al, I'm in Houston. A radiator guy saw mine and laughed. "I guess you don't drive it in the summer, huh?"
This company has a good reputation. Aluminum Radiator, Performance Radiator, MADE IN USA - Be Cool Might find an aftermarket unit to fit.