Clutch Fan?

[slow_ti]

Hey guys. My S52 swap just got finished up about a month ago. And it's been running great. Although. Yesterday I was driving and I heard a pop. I didn't really think anything of it. I proceed driving for about 1/8 mile and I started smelling coolant through my air vents. Then I start to seriously concentrate on my temp gauge, i caught it the moment it started to rise and turned my car off and coasted into a side street. Thank god there was one right there. I open the hood, and there is coolant everywhere. My car left most of the coolant on the street. My clutch fan like exploded braking about 5 blades off the fan and hit the fan shroud and the smaller radiator hose. Not the two big ones but, the lower skinny hose on the bottom of the radiator. I don't think the radiator is damaged but the fan really destroyed the shroud and hose. I've heard that these fans have a history of kinda falling apart. I obviously have to replace the skinny hose and shroud. But my question is, go back to clutch fan and replace the blades, or go with a two electric fan set up. Suggestions would be great! Thanks

[tiFreak]

I say electric, frees up a bit of horsepower and I've never heard of one blowing up like that

[slow_ti]

Ugh. Im torn. I hear clutch fan is better. Than I hear e-fans are better. Agh!

[spidertri]

I've never heard of people saying clutch fan is better. Everyone does the fan delete mod or they replace with an electric fan.

[familytruckster]

Originally Posted by spidertri

I've never heard of people saying clutch fan is better. Everyone does the fan delete mod or they replace with an electric fan.

+1

I'm surprised the clutch just let go, usually they are loose and/or leaking prior to the failure.

[cooljess76]

This is very common on BMW M50, S50, M52 and S52 engines. Search bf.c for "expolding fan syndrome", no joke. In fact, this is the exact reason that sparked the fan delete mod. Search bf.c for "fan delete mod" or "FDM".

And for the M42/M44 guys, DO NOT delete your electric fan. FDM is for 6cyl swaps and the fan in question is a clutch driven fan which is mounted on the water pump. In short, the fan delete mod involves removing your clutch fan, running a lower temp thermostat and adding Redline Water Wetter. You still maintain the electric "pusher" fan which should be mounted in front of the radiator.

Also FWIW, I'm running an aluminum water pump pulley by ECS tuning. It's slightly smaller in diameter than the stock plastic pulley. This works sort of like an OVER drive pulley in that the water pump will spin more rpm and pump coolant faster.

[Kingston]

My guess would be that somehow one of the hoses actually got in the patch of the spinning fan blades, causing the carnage. Happened to me right after I got my first BMW, when I didn't know enought to be wary of what POs had done to the car. In my case, the narrom hose wasn't routed properly, and fell into the path of the fan.

The fan clutch is actually pretty darn efficient, and has lasted for how many tens-of-thousands-of miles? I'd replace with a new one, and replace again at 80K mile intervals. Cheap insurance!

[slow_ti]

Yea^ mine has like 120 k miles on it

[Kingston]

Yeah, if you drive 20,000 miles a year (which is quite a lot), another fan might last you 6 more years! And they're what,$50? Seems like an easy choice to me...