Radiator Shroud

[Leonstt]

Hi guys,

I have a question around radiator shroud for my M52 swapped E30.
I'm thinking of custom making the shroud myself. But looking at space that I have right now, I realize that I dont have much to play with. As you can see in the crude diagram that I made, I literally have less than 10mm of space between the engine pulley and the electric fan. Right now I running 2 fans. puller and pusher fan. So, my plan is instead of mounting the fan ON the shroud, I'd just use the current mounting position (on the rad itself) and build a shroud around it. Is there any disadvantages of doing it this way?

[ADEN]

I guess no need for a shroud if you went with an electric fan mounted on the radiator, Just make sure the radiator is firmly secured to body.

[TobyB]

There's been a lot of evidence (from places like NACA onward)

that shrouds DO improve airflow through the radiator. And as long as they
cover the tips of the fan and attach the airflow to the radiator, how they
do it doesn't matter so much. So yes, something built around a
face- mounted fan would help airflow a lot. (I forget the numbers, but '40%' might be conservative)

That said:
I find that shrouds are a royal pain in the butt when working on
any car. (except a manual E46, where they're part of the easily- removed fan assembly itself)

I also find that I, personally, don't get stuck in slow- moving uphill hot traffic,
so I'm not using the fan much at all. So the loss in performance doesn't
bug me.

So I'd say- unless you're chasing a situation where you specifically need more
airflow at slow speeds, I wouldn't bother.

there.

See?

Everyone has an opinion!

t

[ADEN]

There's been a lot of evidence (from places like NACA onward)

that shrouds DO improve airflow through the radiator. And as long as they
cover the tips of the fan and attach the airflow to the radiator, how they
do it doesn't matter so much. So yes, something built around a
face- mounted fan would help airflow a lot. (I forget the numbers, but '40%' might be conservative)

That said:
I find that shrouds are a royal pain in the butt when working on
any car. (except a manual E46, where they're part of the easily- removed fan assembly itself)

I also find that I, personally, don't get stuck in slow- moving uphill hot traffic,
so I'm not using the fan much at all. So the loss in performance doesn't
bug me.

So I'd say- unless you're chasing a situation where you specifically need more
airflow at slow speeds, I wouldn't bother.

there.

See?

Everyone has an opinion!

t

I guess shrouds would help direct more air if fan is mechanical and is at distance from the radiator but an electric fan attached to radiator i think shroud won't help much at this situation.

[twright]

My M50 powered E30 didn’t need a shroud. It cooled just fine without one