Radiator fan by "A-Team Performance" - thoughts?

[Brosh]

Hi guys,

BMW E36 328i M52B28

Need to replace my radiator fan (yes it's electric).
SPAL are too expensive for me and I'm looking for a good alternative.

Looking at this:
https://www.amazon.com/Performance-R...4568443&sr=8-7
Good price, good reviews. On the other hand no way it puts out 3000CFM and no wattage listed.


So,

Did anyone hear about "A-Team Performance"? Any good?
Any other good suggestions except SPAL?

[pbonsalb]

4” thick is a lot. Do you have that much space to the stud in your water pump pulley or do you plan to cut it off? Do the threads of the supplied thermostat fit any threads on your radiator or any unused ports in your block or head or do you plan to trigger it using the switch for the stock auxiliary fan?

[Eric93se]

When I installed mine I just offset the fans motor with the WP thread by an inch or so. I don't know the thickness of mine. I didn't like the mounting zip ties so I actually RTV siliconed the fan to the rad lol.

[pbonsalb]

The offset is a good idea. Was yours a 16” fan? And are you using a stock thickness radiator? If you have a Spal you can use its kit:

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/SPAL-...SABEgKbCvD_BwE

If you have mounting holes you could make something similar. I have made legs and brackets before.

[Eric93se]

It's not a spal, I think I bought it by searching ebay for "slim puller fan", sorted by price and found a 16". So the gap between the WP and fan motor is about 3/8" and the motor is and inch or so below the WP. So the thickness of the fan is under 3". The rad is a cxracing all alum, normal 2 row, the shroud needed a good amount of trimming to get it to work. If I could get a hacksaw in there I would take the wp thread off, but right now it's not hurting anything, I can still get belts on and off (just put a gates belt on the other day for the main drive).

My fan is permanently attached to the rad via RTV silicone lol.

[Brosh]

4” thick is a lot. Do you have that much space to the stud in your water pump pulley or do you plan to cut it off?

I dont see what you are talking about, this is a picture of my friend's stock radiator with this same fan:
ateams16.jpg

Do the threads of the supplied thermostat fit any threads on your radiator or any unused ports in your block or head or do you plan to trigger it using the switch for the stock auxiliary fan?

My current fan is triggered using the switch for the stock auxiliary fan so I'm going to do the same.
The only think that I will change is the sensor, it will be 80-88 (Celsius), so that the big fan comes on at 80 and the AUX will be added at 88.


So from what I can see there is no real alternative for SPAL and in my country it costs around 350$ which I dont intend of paying.
Any other ideas?

[pbonsalb]

The fan looks like it fits fine. Now that I think about it, when I was having trouble fitting electric fans, I had a supercharger with extended crank pulley that interferes with the fan cage on the bottom and a thicker Z3 S54 radiator.

There are 2 different 80/88 sensors so make sure you get the right one. One has small pins and one has large pins. I found the small one did not stay securely attached so I now use the big one and spliced in a harness end that fits it that I happened to have.

I assume you understand how the fans are wired. The temperature sensor wires are grounds. When the sensor reaches the specified temperature, the ground loop is completed. The high and low speed ground loops simply turn the fan relays on.

[Brosh]

Very cool, thanks for all the info. - super useful!

I also have the Z3 S54 radiator but no extended pulley so I'm not worried, loads of space there.

About the sensors, any chance you remember the PNs?
If not PNs, than at least which engines/cars I can take them from so I can dig and find them?

[craigjimc]

80/88 degree switch (later cars) should be 61 31 8 376 440 for your 328i. Part is for late 318ti with no engine-driven fan.

[Brosh]

80/88 degree switch (later cars) should be 61 31 8 376 440 for your 328i. Part is for late 318ti with no engine-driven fan.

You got me a little confused,
If this is a 328i part - how does a the late 318ti fit in here?

[pbonsalb]

That is the one with small pins. As I recall you have to trim off a locking tab on the switch to seat the connector. You could zip tie them together but I did not like it. You could salvage the connector from an obd2 E36 318i. I found that the large pin switch had the same connector as the auxiliary fan power connector and had a spare connector end that I spliced into my fan switch harness. Yes, the power wire harness is much heavier gauge wires but that does not mean you can’t splice. I had no easy access to a 318i car body engine bay harness to salvage from.