Jagbuff has installed a Ron Davis radiator in his 456; has anyone done one yet for their 550/575?
Rd is a great unit and can be custom. The rd reputation is good. In scca t1 clubracing his units solved problems and are flawless.
Thx FBB, I've admired their engineering & execution for other cars, and just curious if anyone has had one done yet for their 550/575? I'll probably go ahead & give them a call tomorrow to see if they've knowingly done one yet.
John- The OEM radiator in the 550/575M works fine if the rest of the cooling system is in good shape (hoses and temperature sensors, mainly). Probably why you have not heard of any swaps. Taz Terry Phillips
Thanks Taz, yes, I'd understood the OEM radiators were supposed to be more than adequate, and any cooling issues should be coming from those other areas. I was in heavy stop & go Houston traffic the other day with the mercury pushing 100 degrees, and the gauge was just starting to bump the last (unlabeled) mark before the red. It would drop back down to 190 as soon as I was able to speed up, then go up again when it was stop & go. The car has had SRI's coolant hose kit installed, the coolant was flushed/changed (50/50 mix with demin water) in the last 3-4 months, and the fans seem to be working fine (but I need to check when & at what temp they're coming on) I'll also scan the radiator with an IR gun and make sure there's a good temperature differential from inlet to outlet. Next step, I think, will be to pull the radiator and give it & the A/C condenser a good external cleaning & unclog the fins. If this doesn't produce results, then the plenums will come off, and I'll get the thermoswitches and gauge sender replaced. Ferraridriver's steam line mod looks interesting as well.
John- That should do it. Many of the aluminum radiators are actually less efficient at heat transfer than the OEM radiators. Sort of like an aluminum frying pan. Taz Terry Phillips
Taz, related to this, have you (or any other 575 owners) happened to check the SPAL P/N's on your radiator fans? I was under my 550 last year when it was at Josh Hill's shop (ECS of Virginia) and snapped this pic, showing the SPAL P/N to be VA18-AP6-42A. In googling this P/N, I discovered it's the same SPAL P/N the F355 guys have in their cars, although the two cars have different Ferrari P/N's for their fans (173030 for the F355, and 160910 for the 550). This has been a troublesome fan for the F355 guys as their cars age, and member F355spider has researched it with the local SPAL USA folks and determined that this P/N is an OEM P/N assigned by SPAL, but it's the same fan as their 30102113 (thread is here: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=300662). The specs on SPAL's website state that this fan was designed for racing applications only; it uses an unsealed motor, presumably to allow outside air circulation through it in order to extract the last bit of performance out of it. This unsealed motor also allows water, dust, and other contaminants to enter the motor and shorten its life. In short, SPAL designed it to provide maximum performance, at the expense of a shortened lifespan, which the F355 guys have been experiencing. The solution appears to be to replace this fan with SPAL model 30102049 or 30102050, which have slightly less CFM output, but come with sealed motors. Either model will work, but apparently the 2050 model comes with the correct Amp connector, so it's PnP on the F355 (and also, presumably on the 550). I would think this OEM fan will probably start giving the same issues in the 550 as it has in the F355 as the cars age, and perhaps some of the older 550's are already beginning to have these problems? But back to the original question - have any 575 owners noted the actual SPAL P/N's on their fans, and is it this VA18-AP6-42A? It would be interesting to know if Ferrari actually changed the fan from the F355/550 model, or kept it, and simply assigned a different Ferrari P/N as they did from the F355 to the 550. Image Unavailable, Please Login
John- So far I have not read about any problems with the 550 fans that were not caused by a temperature sensor problem, but the 355 fans are mostly older. Does not look like much of a difference in operating environment, either. The 550 fans are pretty much protected from the outside by a belly pan, the radiator, and the top trim piece, but the 355 fans do not look a whole lot more vulnerable, but maybe they are. The 575M and 612 received a new pair of fans, but I am not sure whether they use the same motor or not and whether there are just detail differences. Will have to take a look when my car goes in for service shortly. Good info and we will keep an eye out for motor problems. Taz Terry Phillips
Last question to 550/575 owners - does anyone have the radiator core dimensions, or even the overall dimensions of the unit? I'm out on the road for another week or two and can't get these myself, but it would be useful to know how much frontal area it has.
Here's a compilation of the radiator fan control schematic, along with a technical description of how they're turned on. I've cut & pasted a couple paragraphs from different places in the WSM in order to have it all on one page. Note the HVAC ECU shown as #1 in the schematic, is not the little temperature/fan speed control panel mounted in the console, but is the one mounted inside the dash to the evaporator core. And BTW, without taking the radiator out of my 550 just yet, it appears the core dimensions are about 20" high x 24" wide x 1.25" thick. The oil radiator adds another 8" to the width making the total 32". These are core dimensions, however, not overall. Image Unavailable, Please Login
