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the "Tropical Fan" ....... education please

OriginalOwner

By OriginalOwner,
in BMW 2002 and other '02

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OriginalOwner Grand Master

OriginalOwner

Posted
Posted

OK, I don't recall hearing about a "tropical fan" until yesterday, mvliotta educated me.   And that was because he posted a picture of his '02 Temple (see below)   ......   and when looking at his awesome picture, I saw the Red Fan ..... and the Red Fan looked horribly off-kilter and unbalanced with that one fan blade not where it "belongs" in order to bring symmetry & balance & peace & harmony to that system which rotates at high speed .......

 

35FE204D-D469-48C9-B158-57507BEEA47C.thumb.jpeg.c9b5a0d86ab7f526b1b8271ec3f2a704.jpeg

 

 

AND THEN, while searching around this morning,  I found this picture posted by tdskip on 03 April 2018, of his possible Tropical Fan ...... and holy smokes, there it is again:  that lower right fan blade is much too close to the lower left fan blade, symmetrically speaking ..... which makes it look off-kilter and unbalanced for a rotating system .......

 

IMG_5202.JPG

 

 

SO, what's up with all that off-kilter design, which I assume is from the factory ??  I'm presuming that the fan is of course properly balanced so as to not quickly destroy the water pump bearings.  But it sure does seem strange to me.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

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dlacey Grand Master

dlacey

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Posted

I think the blade positions are the same on the standard 360mm fan and the tropical 400mm fan. I understand that this unbalanced looking arrangement is done to prevent resonant beating at certain RPMs. Its common on variable speed fans... 

 

I use the tropical fan out here in, errr, the tropics... but I feel a shrouded 360mm is better than this ancient 400mm design.

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'59 Morris Minor, '67 Triumph TR4A, '68 Silver Shadow, '72 2002tii, '73 Jaguar E-Type,

'73 2002tii w/Alpina mods , '74 2002turbo, '85 Alfa Spider, '03 Lotus Elise

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jimk Grand Master

jimk

Posted
Posted

Non symetrical blade locations avoid pulsing.

 

Not unique to BMW.  A 1949 Buick I inherited in 1960 while in high school had fan made that way.

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A radiator shop is a good place to take a leak.

 

I have no idea what I'm doing but I know I'm really good at it.

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Conserv Grand Master

Conserv

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, OriginalOwner said:

I'm learning, Thanks Much !!!!

 

dlacey,

     lucky me, when I was Penang I never got resonant beat ...... until the Bombay Blue Sapphire kicked in while seated at the E&O Hotel !!

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 


Carl,

 

You should measure the fan in your ‘74. The 360 or 400 mm. diameter is the maximum overall diameter. I say measure yours because I’m under the impression that a majority of U.S.-bound ‘02’s received the 400 mm. tropical fan from 1972 through 1974 — the shroud appeared in 1975.

 

My ‘73 tii has a tropical fan which I believe to be original.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

 

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1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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John76 Grand Master

John76

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Posted

If your car has a shroud, it has a 360mm 5-blade fan.

The euro cars had a 300mm 4-blade and the tropical 5-blade fan option was 400mm... but no shroud.

The 360mm w/ shroud gives the best cooling and least noise.

From my archives,

John

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dlacey Grand Master

dlacey

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No need to measure, you can feel the difference! The standard 360 5 blade has a rounded hub outer profile...feel the radiator side at the bottom of the blade....if it's curved form leading around to the centre bolts then it's 360. If it's a square edge and you can feel that slot shown in the pic above, then it's the 400mm.

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'59 Morris Minor, '67 Triumph TR4A, '68 Silver Shadow, '72 2002tii, '73 Jaguar E-Type,

'73 2002tii w/Alpina mods , '74 2002turbo, '85 Alfa Spider, '03 Lotus Elise

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Mike Self Grand Master

Mike Self

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, John76 said:

The euro cars had a 300mm 4-blade

So did the early US model 2002s and 1600s.   Don't know when they started installing the larger fan on US-bound cars, but my Feb '69 car came with the small 4 blade fan.  After several years and long summer trips I ditched it for a 400 mm tropical fan.  It never overheated with the smaller fan, but the temp gauge needle was at 2 o'clock on a hot summer day interstate highway vacation trip.  

 

Some years later I installed a staggered two row radiator and went back to the smaller fan for originality, and with a 75 degree thermostat it does just fine.  

 

mike

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'69 Nevada sunroof-Wolfgang-bought new
'73 Sahara sunroof-Ludwig-since '78
'91 Brillantrot 318is sunroof-Georg Friederich 
Fiat Topolini (Benito & Luigi), Renault 4CVs (Anatole, Lucky Pierre, Brigette) & Kermit, the Bugeye Sprite

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OriginalOwner Grand Master

OriginalOwner

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Posted (edited)

Measurement Accomplished with fan installed, so the measurement is more-than-reasonably close since I am unable to measure directly across the front of the fan due to the radiator.

 

a)  no fan shroud.

b)  my '74tii has a 5-blade fan .... I had no idea since I've never paid attention !!  And two of the blades are closer together, so I'm guessing it looks sorta/kinda like mvliotta's fan in the above picture !!  Amazing !!

c)  max measured outside dimension is about 13.5 inches  =  343 mm.

----- so I will equate that to 360mm fan diameter

 

AND THEN, I dug around in my picture file and found a picture of a tii engine ......  and there it is, a red fan with 5 blades, and the lower left blade is off-kilter a bit ...... so I'm definitely learning a lot !!

 

image.png.385dae4f1466b44486b4452c1c1017f6.png

 

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

Edited by OriginalOwner
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Conserv Grand Master

Conserv

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, OriginalOwner said:

Measurement Accomplished with fan installed, so the measurement is more-than-reasonably close since I am unable to measure directly across the front of the fan due to the radiator.

 

a)  no fan shroud.

b)  my '74tii has a 5-blade fan .... I had no idea since I've never paid attention !!  And two of the blades are closer together, so I'm guessing it looks sorta/kinda like mvliotta's fan in the above picture !!  Amazing !!

c)  max measured outside dimension is about 13.5 inches  =  343 mm.

----- so I will equate that to 360mm fan diameter

 

AND THEN, I dug around in my picture file and found a picture of a tii engine ......  and there it is, a red fan with 5 blades, and the lower left blade is off-kilter a bit ...... so I'm definitely learning a lot !!

 

image.png.385dae4f1466b44486b4452c1c1017f6.png

 

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 


And, now that we’ve learned Dave’s ( @dlacey’s) identify-your-fan-in-the-dark secret, the photo obviously shows a 360 mm. fan!

 

And… about that car of yours, Carl! If you plan to keep it long-term, you might want to consider a tropical fan. 😋😁 Well… maybe in a decade or two…

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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