Engine Fan: Old Style vs. New Style

[usualdeviant]

Hi guys, sorry it's been so long since I poked around here. I guess I got to the point where I'm somewhat knowledgeable about E30s. But the time has come when I need your expertise again!

OK, so I pulled a nice fan clutch from the junkyard, which works great on the new style fan. But my new style fan broke apart upon smacking my old fan shroud. Turns out the shroud was just warped from age and heat cycles. So I have a new shroud, clips, and plastic fan (the kind that came with my model, the old style). However the old fan does not fit the new clutch. I don't trust my own precision to drill extra holes in the metal of the new fan to make it fit. I bet it would be out of balance just enough to screw up another water pump, so I'm not going to go that route.

Finally my question is, does the new fan work on the old car? Same engine - M20. I have a 325i made in 1/87. And why did they change it? And why did they make the parts incompatible? And when did they make the change? Germans, I sware.

I have a couple of options. Keep my old style fan and mate it with an old style clutch. Or, ditch my old style for a new, and keep my new style clutch. So which thing would sell better? My never-been-used old style fan, or my used-but-still-excellent new style fan clutch? This guy's got to make some beer money. It kind of sucks that I threw my old style clutch away. Might have been the beer's fault.

[jlevie]

While there were two fans used, with the changeover date being 9/87, the same fan clutch by part number looks to be usable on either. I wonder if this fan is not for an E30 M20 engine.

While the immediate cause of the fan failure might have been the shroud, I'd bet on bad motor/trans mounts as being a contributor.

[usualdeviant]

Hey thanks for the quick reply. After doing about ten minutes of research on bavauto, it does indeed appear that the clutch I have is off an E36. E36 fan clutch has 3 mount holes, while both E30 fan clutches have 4. It kind of sucks that the fan that it goes to is $65 new, while the fan my car actually is supposed to use is only $30. But, the E36 fan is beefier and looks like it can really cool an engine at the drive thru. FYI I already put in the heavy duty engine mounts with aluminum reinforcement cups, as well as replacement tranny mounts. It was all due to the warped shroud. Problem solved. So now I just have to choose between the nice newer fan or pick up an old style clutch. I think I'll go with the fan, next paycheck. Thanks for reading!

[usualdeviant]

OK so I found a cheap version of the E36 fan on ebay. And the only reason I am interested in this subject is because I found one of these fans actually installed on an E30 at the junkyard and it looks more well-built than the stock E30 fan. So after putting this one on mine, it seems that the blades just barely - and I do mean just barely - knick the nearby cooling hose, coming off the thermostat. So I zip tied the hose away from it just to be on the safe side. I don't think it will hold forever though. Anybody know any tricks for this? Or am I better off just using the fan that was actually designed for my car?

[FLG]

There is a clip that holds that hose to the valve cover.

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[usualdeviant]

Oh I fogot to mention that I do have that clip installed as well. The stock fan clears the hose, the E36 fan just barely barely doesn't. In other words, yes, it clips the hose.