Removing an engine fan from a petrol SC

Hi,

I'm wondering if the fan's viscous coupling on my van is suspect. The engine temp gauge is looking normal (but we know that they can sit in the middle until they overheat) but it 'feels' like its running hot. Standing next to either of the doors with bare legs - you can feel the heat from the engine - and the hand brake feels hot too.

The fan will spin with resistance when cold (will not roll on it's own and stops when you stop pushing - but not much feeling of resistance). But when turning off the engine when it's been running it behaves exactly the same.

it's a petrol van, so there's no radiator 'door' that's pulled up by the chord - and the radiator looks clean and unobstructed.

I'm ordering a 'watchdog' temp gauge - but it's coming over from Oz. Similarly, I've ordered an new viscous coupling (petrol is different from the diesel I believe), but that's coming over from UAE.

I'm now looking into how I can remove the fan and coupling - any tips on doing this without having to take out too much other ancillary bits?

Thanks

Hi goose.

I pull the whole thing off by taking off the 4 nuts that hold the clutch to the pulley. I use a wrench and hold the motor still by pushing on the belts or sticking something in there to lock it tight. There’s a tab on the fan shroud that pops off so you can pull it out from the top. It’s how I’ve done it on every motor, gas or diesel.

Is yours different or obstructed in some way? If so I’ll look into it further so you are not barking up the wrong tree listening to my terrible advice.

Good luck, God Bless
-Bryan

Thanks - I'll give that a go when the new fan clutch turns up.

My fan was a bit "iffy" and I changed my fan clutch all I had to remove and get out of the way was the top hose and I didn't lock the engine I just held the fan. But mine's a diesel so probably totally different.

It definitely works now but takes a while to kick in. A way to test it is go for a drive get the engine hot and when you stop flip the engine cover and rev it, you should feel the extra wind blowing. Mine only seems to lock up and kick in when the engine is quite hot at about 85degrees. Then when you turn the engine off it stops dead unlike when it's just warm when it keeps going around for a while.

I think they're quite a clever idea but I can't help but think that sitting in traffic on a really hot day they're not that effective because the engine isn't going around very fast. I've got a digital temperature warning thing too and I think that's a very wise investment so give yourself a pat on the back for van protection.

Cheers,

I've had a look (it's a 2001 2RZ-E engine) and it looks like there is no clip off part of the shroud - other than a very small piece to help get a fan belt over the fan. It may be possible to remove the top half of the shroud, but it may involve removing the radiator cap housing, the expansion tank and a hose or two. You can get an idea of the layout with this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcDNYwLk47I&ab_channel=OLIVERTHEMECHANIC

(though the method he took to remove the radiator seems very questionable).

You can see the top of the housing at about 1 minute and 2 minutes in - and you can see how it splits at about 6 minutes in.

Ok that's way more complicated than what I had to do. On a positive note, swapping the fan clutch is really easy when the fan is off and yours probably cools better than mine because of the cowl concentrating the fan's sucking... Good luck.

Hey goose, that’s much more difficult that I thought it would be.

I used to pull fan clutch’s on HMMWV’s by taking off the nuts that held the fan blade. Then I’d push it just enough out of the way to sneak out the clutch. Kinda drop the fan blade to the bottom of the shroud until I needed it later way of approaching it.


Might work for you too.

Sorry they made it so hard, good luck Sir