Fan Delete Mod

[kurtf114]

Well on bimmerforums this is a big thing to do for the 6 cyl's. But can we do this to our m42's? Better yet, is it worth it? Any power gain?

[bearsbmw]

Not having that fan runing will shorten the life of the engine and any components near the engine... The electric fan will not push the air needed to move hot air from the engine bay and out the bottom of the bay... If you remove that air blocking electric fan that I hate so much your engine will actulay run cooler and more efficiently with just the clutch fan working and extend the life of the alternator... 1-3hp is not worth it

[Danny707]

Take it off and wire up an electric fan.

[kurtf114]

I got another question too. I saw this

Adjust the cam timing - You know how on the E30 M3 you have to buy a $300 kit with adjustable cam sprockets to tune your cam timing? Not on the 318iS! The M42 is equipped with tunable cam sprockets from the factory. So pull your Cosmoline covered valve cover off and with the proper tools you can tweak your intake and exhaust cams up to 6 degrees +/- to provide more top end horsepower or more low end torque. See, you don’t have to blow a grand on a set of Schrick cams to make your M42’s cams a little hotter. The best setup is to adjust the intake cam to 5 degrees (advanced) and leave the exhaust cam alone. I would recommend having a shop do this work.

And was wondering if anyone has done it? I race motocross and I have done basically the same thing to my race motor. But I was wondering if any did it, and does it work with the e36 m42?

[tjts1]

Well on bimmerforums this is a big thing to do for the 6 cyl's. But can we do this to our m42's? Better yet, is it worth it? Any power gain?

Yes a lot of us have. Search button reveals all.

Not having that fan runing will shorten the life of the engine and any components near the engine... The electric fan will not push the air needed to move hot air from the engine bay and out the bottom of the bay... If you remove that air blocking electric fan that I hate so much your engine will actulay run cooler and more efficiently with just the clutch fan working and extend the life of the alternator... 1-3hp is not worth it

BULL ****

[nomad]

I'm with tjts1, I've done the volvo fan conversion and it works fine. The fan adequately cools the engine and my temps are more solid than they were with the stock setup.
If you understand coolant, thermostats and radiator systems you'll realize this conversion is no different than any other new car setup. It's just getting rid of the old school clutch fan and replacing it with an electric one...

Also, any time you take off an accessory that runs off the crank you are "freeing up" horsepower. Can you feel it? Still not sold on it but a dyno is the only way to tell.

And to the question of adjustable cam gears: Yes, the M42 cams have elliptical holes so that you can time it advanced or retarded from factory setting. The ideal rnage has been thoroughly tested and dyno'ed and it's been suggested to let a pro do this on a dyno for accurate results. Search will reveal the info as it was written in the GRM magazine article.

[bearsbmw]

Yes a lot of us have. Search button reveals all.

BULL ****[/QUOTE

Been tested with engine bay thermometer... I dont have the Notes anymore but I remember the difffrence was hudge at idle... Just thought I would share my findings and by the way test was done on e36 not e30 so there could be major diffrences ... thanks

[xwill112x]

I got another question too. I saw this

And was wondering if anyone has done it? I race motocross and I have done basically the same thing to my race motor. But I was wondering if any did it, and does it work with the e36 m42?

it just sets the power band higher up...no point in doing it, the factory setting is best.

[///M3]

I've done it on a few E36, such as 1996 328 / 1996 M3 and be honest its not going to give you more HP, perhaps, maybe may allow your engine to rev up faster... but if the clutch is working fine, it really don't put too much drag on your engine.

[ajatya2]

I havent done it to mine but i have delt with it on other cars and ive seen them go out of timming and cause more problems. i do belive if done properly you can gain from it. On my car i put a aditional small electric fan in that i have riged to a switch so when romping on the car or stuck in traffic for a wile i can cool the motor down when ever. I have a temp gauge in the motor so see how hot the bay is and when i turn it on it drops it about 30+ degrees at a idle, about 15-20 degrees in daily slower driving and have found that at highway speeds it dose not acompish much. but its a eazy way to cool down

[cristimm]

I did the FDM almost a year ago. It is very easy to do it on E36 that have A/C, all you need is new temperature switch part no: 61318361787, and new electric fan part no: 64508372039

Everything is plug and play:

1. replace the thermoswitch
2. remove mechanical fan and shroud and fit the new fan (it fits perfectly), remove the aux fan (the one in the front of the radiator) because it will not be needed anymore and plug the aux fan connector into the new fan.

See pic before and after:



The power improvements are very low, noticeable only on partial loads - it seems that the engine revs freer than before.

[deekay]

it just sets the power band higher up...no point in doing it, the factory setting is best.

absolutely wrong.

i did the following to my car all on a friday evening:

-removed clutch fan
-installed e36 fan in front of radiator, wired to factory aux-fan circuit with a 30A fuse
-installed new valance with bar across center hole deleted, cut and tucked the shroud under the bottom

pics:







during normal driving the temp gauge now stays at 3/8 instead of the 1/2 mark, which means it is getting better cooling from ambient air. given that the clutch fan doesn't engage until the engine is hotter than that anyway, this is a good thing.

performance increase was comparable to removing the power steering; there is more power everywhere, which is exactly what you'd expect from getting rid of a driven accessory. i have no idea why someone would think this modification would shift the powerband... anyone who's put underdrive pulleys on a car will know what it is really like.

i've only had the temp gauge cross over the halfway mark once, when i was stuck in traffic for an hour... pushing the AC button to turn the fan on immediately took temps back below the halfway mark.

the gains are incremental, but if you make a weekend project of getting rid of power steering, air conditioning, and the electric fan, you will love the newfound acceleration, and you'll get a few more miles out of each tank of gas as well.

[4banger]

i think he ment tweaking the intake cam gear.

[deekay]

ok... well i thought we were talking about redoing the fan setup.

at any rate, stu mchenry has thoughts on what to do with cam timing here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/tech/318is/318is.htm and given his experience i know who i'd listen to.

[tjts1]

deekay
Very nice setup. It looks like you also removed the AC? Do you think the pusher fan would fit with the AC condenser still in place? The E36 fan is identical to the volvo puller fan only backwards.
thanks
Justin