Anyone with dinan S/C have a picture of their fan clearance?

[rootuddha]

Today has been too much fun :( After driving the car and hearing a strange sound I look under the hood and find one of my fan blades (318 fan) has broken off and the one behind it got jammed under the hose between the radiator and pulled the top clip thing on the shroud off of the radiator.

I pulled it out and set everything back where it goes come home for a while then go up to autozone. Pop the hood when I get there and the same blade was jammed in the same position again.

So I pulled it out, broke that blade off (it had become sort of bent which I think is why it did it again so quickly) and set everything back where it should go.

I start the car up and its really rough. I've been having o2 sensor problems on and off (new one on order) and I can't tell if the roughness is from the o2 sensor or maybe the balance from losing 2 fan blades is throwing it off.

Now I'm wondering how in the hell this happened with the fan in the first place. Is it a common problem? Everything was in place as it should be. There's only about a quarter inch or so clearance between the fan and the top of the shroud.

I'm pretty sure it burnt my fan clutch up too because it had the fan jammed in there with nowhere to go when the blade got stuck. So now I'm out a fan, fan clutch, o2 sensor and possibly a shroud.

How can I keep this from happening in the future? Are there any better options out there?

[Jim M3]

If I am not mistaken the top of the shroud needs to be cut to clear the fan blade. Did you make this modification?

[rootuddha]

I was under the impression the modification didn't need to be done if you're using the 318 fan?

[rootuddha]

This is all the clearance I've got. I had to help keep the hose in place with wire after the first blade broke and took part of the plastic mounting tabs for it with it.

This sucks so much ass... I don't think there's enough clearance there to compensate for things like flex etc. Has anyone ever relocated that hose that goes through the top of the shroud before?

http://www.48hrstrategy.com/clearance.jpg

[99M3Riverside]

Does this look familiar this happened last week.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/99M3Riverside/DCP_1174.jpg

I am not sure how it made contact but it did. I put a new fan on and it seems to be alright.

[rootuddha]

Man this is gettin bullshit. I think its time to come up with a better solution. I'm willing to bet if I could relocate that hose and shave down some of the shroud it would eliminate the problem completely. How much clearance is there between your fan blades and the shroud?

[e36'n]

That sucks, good luck man.

[rootuddha]

One other question, is there any disadvantage to going with a good electric fan instead?

[pbonsalb]

Most electric fans are not as powerful as belt driven mechanical fans. Some people in hot climates say the electric fans are insufficient in heavy traffic with AC. Many people who do not have superchargers do fan deletes and report no problems, but it seems the supercharger adds some load to the engine and this taxes the cooling system more.

I am tempted to try an electric fan myself.

Philip

[jmargo]

Here is my clearance. You need to cut the shroud and relocate the coolant line.
http://www.yellowlightman.com/dmc/gallery/albums/userpics/10009/DSC00820~10.JPG

http://www.yellowlightman.com/dmc/gallery/albums/userpics/10009/DSC00814.JPG

[rootuddha]

Awesome. For now I just removed the fan since I haven't even got the belt on the S/C yet. We just got started on tuning and it will be a few days. I'm definitely fabbing up a pair of better top brackets for the radiator. Sounds to me like a must as far as I'm concerned.

How does the 318 fan stand up to moderately heavy track conditions?

Also what radiator is that you're using jmargo?

[jmargo]

The Rad is a zionsville...

[DukeM535i/Turbo]

Jmargo - is that fuel filter in the picture rated for fuel injection?

It looks like a filter designed for a carbureted car which means it is designed for 10-15 psi. If it bursts, you may have a BIG fire.

Pardon me if I am wrong.

[GodFather]

if we are talking about the same thing, i believe that is a filter that connects to the crank case vent, not sure if we are talking about the same filter though.... :dunno

[jmargo]

Yep its my ghetto crank case filter. My fuel filter is oem BMW and not in the picture.

[fritzintn]

Like I mentioned at the house the other day, you may want to think about fabbing up some radiator brackets to move it forward a bit to keep the shroud/coolant line happy.

My old kit used some ghetto looking 'L' brackets in leu of the stock ones. That alone should gain you a little bit of clearance. My old kit worked fine with the oem fanblade/clutch + spacer.

[Jim M3]

In the Dinan set up they have new brackets that move the radiator forward and then trim the shroud.

[rootuddha]

Sounds good thanks for the help everyone. I was able to get replacement brackets from Dinan at 11 bucks each. Not bad! I also ordered a new 318 fan, clutch and the stock shroud (I'll be sure to trim it this time) and I'll probably reroute the overflow hose on top of the radiator this time.

[Jim M3]

Thats the way you do it. You should have asked for Dinan directions, there are plenty of them floating around this website.

[paul e]

Here are two pics I have of clearance. The second, smaller one is of the 318 fan Dinan includes with their SC kit. The first pic shows the larger M3 fan we switched to a couple of years ago. I credit George at ICS for even suggesting that we try it. All we had to do to make the switch was to remove about an eighth of an inch of plastic from a corner of the shroud which was sticking out toward the blades. Theres about a half inch clearance between the leading edge of the fan and the radiator, and the only time I might worry is if the fan clutch is so damaged that it produces a half inch of play as the fan rotates, and thats more play than you will likely ever see.