Electric fan and shroud conversion

Steve O · 02-22-2005, 06:17 PM

Building the cool.

I have always like sanitizing the engine compartment on my rides while upgrading and maintaining them. While cleaning up the engine compartment on my beloved 242, I decided I wanted to get rid of the mechanical fan clutch and cooling fan. There's just something about the waterpump pulley having nothing but shiny new bolts hanging off the front of it and the quietness of an electric fan setup. Unfortunately, Volvo didn't make one for my particular model and all of the aftermarket or salvage yard fans always looked so "bolted on". Along with the requisite cooling capability (overkill is the only way), wanting it to look like it was supposed to be there was one of my main objectives. Working with materials I had laying around, short some trips to the parts store for "shop supplies", I managed to build up an electric cooling fan shroud assembly that fits the bill quite nicely.

It started innocently enough by buying an electric fan assembly from a partner for what he gave for it at the Davis swap meet, a whopping $15 or so. The fan had supposedly come out of a Ford Taurus and had been in a 240 before. One end of the shroud had been lopped off and notched so it would sit it's side on the original mounting point on the bottom of the radiator. After turning it several different ways and trying to find out how to mount the top like the stock shroud it dawned on me, the easiest way to mount it up like stock was to use the stock shroud to mount it. I could just graft them together.

The first step was to cut down the stock shroud to about the depth I wanted the whole assembly to end up being. It would need to cut further but it's better to cut several small cuts than one cut too big. Next the donor fan shroud was laid on top of the stock shroud to see how much of which needed to be cut.

Trying to find a spot or direction that all of the edges would match up turned out to be a challenge in patience.

With a lot of cutting and bunch of mini cut off wheels later, the edges looked close enough to call it a fit. Once the depth was determined the shrouds were both cut so none of the edges overlapped at all. Due to the differences in the curves between the two shrouds, there were large gaps where no material was left due to it's bend or angle.

The fan assembly and blade was stripped out and the remainder was propped up on top of a suitable height base. In this case a Folgers coffee can with the stock shroud underneath it. Once the position was set just right and the two pieces aligned, all of the areas to have fiberglass laid were roughed up with some 80 grit paper to make the glass adhere well. The first layers of fiberglass cloth were laid over the four corners. The corners that had the largest gaps got a few layers on the first pass. After the first layers hardened it was time to survey the damage.

The now one piece shroud assembly was brought down to the car for a test fit. This allowed it to be judged for depth and to make sure it sat square to the radiator. Any mistakes in depth or alignment definitely need to be corrected now before the fiberglass was built up and everything was hardened. It turned out that minor adjustments and some small cutting was needed on one of the corners that had large amounts of plastic removed and the edges were a good distance apart. The adjustments were made and with another thin
layer of fiberglass, it was retested and lined up much better.

The idea being, keep it as close to a stock fan as possible. This meant checking angles, bends and slopes with a lot of care. What the original edges looked like lining up was a little like this.
The areas inside the red boxes are the most important part of keeping
the shroud thin. The edges need to be cut back far enough to be able to
make the transition smooth.

What I needed the edges to look like when I was done was more of an even slope or curve to the edges of the shrouds finally did meet, or in this case, didn't meet. Knowing the fiberglass would be more than tough enough to hold the fan shrouds together even with the large gaps that had been left behind, I cut the shrouds back so the fiberglass would fill in the missing edges smoothly like this.

Once the first layer of glass set up on the outside of the shroud, it was turned over and generous amounts were laid on the same spots inside the shroud. I now had at least a firm foundation to start building on. As each layer hardened, it was ground down to leave as little as possible behind except where the material was missing or too thin. After just a few minutes of grinding on the fiberglass it was obvious that some areas had to be ground
away completely and built up higher in some spots and lower in others. All in all it ended up taking several layer on both sides of the shroud before some of the irregularities could be matched up. In several spots the plastic had to be ground down to make the transition smooth from one shroud to the other.

Once most of the transitions looked like they were molded instead of created, the first coats of high build primer were laid on any of the areas that had been worked on. This fills in many of the heavy scratches and shows where the panels are not perfectly smooth. Several heavy coats were sprayed on both the inside ands out.
From this point it was worked out like a bad body panel. The rough spots were smoothed out and bondo was used to fill in the low spots as well as building up areas that needed extra grinding to keep the blends smooth and rounded just like stock.

After several grits of sandpaper and lots of elbow grease, a small amount of spot putty was used to glaze and smooth any of the exposed areas of the shroud. Once everything smoothed to a satisfactory blend and finish, a liberal coat of gloss black vinyl paint was sprayed onto the shroud inside and out. Several successive coats were sprayed on after each dried to give it back that OE plastic look.

After letting the paint set up for several hours the fan motor, blade and mounting hardware was reinstalled. The blade is a tight fit and the assembly fits onto the radiator as perfectly as the stock shroud. It allows no air past it and it almost looks as if Volvo had done it themselves.

All in all the project took about a week of spare time so your results may vary. The total cost with all the fiberglass, bondo, spot filler and paint ran about $50. If I could have picked one of these up for double that I would have jumped on it but once again my love of Swedish engineering and the lack of aftermarket support for them made my creativeness fill the gap.

Sinbad the Sailor · 02-22-2005, 07:33 PM

Very nice write up. I am in the process of doing the same thing. The fan looks very good, like it was meantto be there. How did you wire the fan up? What voltage does it require?

ovlov760 · 02-23-2005, 04:43 PM

great write up. I plan to try this with my 19" fan. I would recommend thumbnailing the pics so enlargements are available

Steve O · 02-23-2005, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ovlov760

I would recommend thumbnailing the pics so enlargements are available

Most of the pics are links to the larger versions, I'll get the links fixed on the ones that aren't.

ovlov760 · 02-23-2005, 08:50 PM

I bought the stuff to start this. Will 16 oz of resin and two packs of 8 sq ft fiberglass cloth be enough?

Steve O · 02-23-2005, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ovlov760

I bought the stuff to start this. Will 16 oz of resin and two packs of 8 sq ft fiberglass cloth be enough?

Should be. Make sure you set the fan assembly on something so it is secure that is the right height, then just lay the shroud around it on the floor (or cardboard to keep the wife happy). On the first layer use just enough to hold the two peices together until you test fit it. Less to cut if it's wrong.

Bishop · 02-24-2005, 09:58 AM

Wow, that's just like seriously impressive, nice work, I may have to do the same with a S80 style recall fan and my 700 shroud, I like how factory it looks, I hate having stuff that looks butchered when using used OEM fans.

Steve O · 02-24-2005, 11:08 AM

Make sure the fan motor you use is a straight DC voltage rather than the ones that use "pulse width" or "duty cycle" to control the speed. I used the Ford Taurus because it's a two speed (three wire) straight DC. I just used two relays, one for low speed hooked to a low temp switch and one for high speed hooked to a stock radiator mounted temp switch. I also used the connector from the Taurus so a motor replacement is a straight bolt in.

Steve O · 02-25-2005, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve O

Most of the pics are links to the larger versions, I'll get the links fixed on the ones that aren't.

I fixed all the links. Only the first and last images have no larger images linked to them.

smith_t240 · 10-23-2005, 03:26 PM

Steve O:

What did you use and did it work good for cutting the plastic? May be a dumb question but the plastic is pretty tough and my only luck has been with a saw. A grinder maybe?

Thanks.

ovlov760 · 10-23-2005, 04:26 PM

A angle grinder or dremel tool will cut it with ease.

Nick · 10-23-2005, 05:36 PM

Any chance someone can fix the links to the photos? I've got a Taurus fan I wanna use and teh pics would be helpful. Thanks

boosted · 10-23-2005, 06:50 PM

nick, you ricer... naw seriously, wait for me.. we'll do ours at the same time!!

Steve O · 10-24-2005, 12:23 PM

WTF!

Sorry haven't been in here for a while. I'll try to fix the link when I get home tonight.

Nick · 10-24-2005, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boosted

nick, you ricer... naw seriously, wait for me.. we'll do ours at the same time!!

Haha, kevin, we'll break out of the 20 second 1/4 times together!

Thanks Steve, I look forward to the pics.

Steve O · 10-29-2005, 02:09 AM

Done! Did I mention I hate Comcast?

760 Sleeper · 04-01-2006, 03:13 PM

Hey steve o, what's up with that double belt stet-up?

760 Sleeper · 04-01-2006, 03:16 PM

I may sound retarded, but is that a puller fan or pusher, and is it cooling the radiator or the the engine bay?

Jordan · 04-01-2006, 05:13 PM

it cools the engine bay...

760 Sleeper · 04-01-2006, 07:27 PM

So it's a pusher fan that pushes air to the engine bay?

Steve O · 04-01-2006, 10:02 PM

It's a puller fan. Same as the stock mechanical one.

The double belt setup is stock.

Jordan · 04-01-2006, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 760 Sleeper

So it's a pusher fan that pushes air to the engine bay?

its a puller that pulls into the engine bay.

240Psycho · 04-04-2006, 01:25 AM

whats the best way to hide the relay and the wiring? thats the only problem with my set up.

Steve O · 04-04-2006, 11:26 AM

I've got mine on the driver's (left) side of the radiator, where the sheet metal is at a 45' angle. It makes the power hookups easy. I've got two relays one high, one low. You can see mine if you look but it would be realy simple to make a small cover for them. All of my wiring (including stock) is in black zip loom tied to the body so it's hidden anyway.

Jordan · 04-04-2006, 02:16 PM

I put it behind the headlight, infront of the air box. wrapped in a circle and just rested there. its actually pretty clean. i'll take some pictures for you if you want.

02-22-2005, 06:17 PM	#1
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	Electric fan and shroud conversion *Building the cool.* I have always like sanitizing the engine compartment on my rides while upgrading and maintaining them. While cleaning up the engine compartment on my beloved 242, I decided I wanted to get rid of the mechanical fan clutch and cooling fan. There's just something about the waterpump pulley having nothing but shiny new bolts hanging off the front of it and the quietness of an electric fan setup. Unfortunately, Volvo didn't make one for my particular model and all of the aftermarket or salvage yard fans always looked so "bolted on". Along with the requisite cooling capability (overkill is the only way), wanting it to look like it was supposed to be there was one of my main objectives. Working with materials I had laying around, short some trips to the parts store for "shop supplies", I managed to build up an electric cooling fan shroud assembly that fits the bill quite nicely. It started innocently enough by buying an electric fan assembly from a partner for what he gave for it at the Davis swap meet, a whopping $15 or so. The fan had supposedly come out of a Ford Taurus and had been in a 240 before. One end of the shroud had been lopped off and notched so it would sit it's side on the original mounting point on the bottom of the radiator. After turning it several different ways and trying to find out how to mount the top like the stock shroud it dawned on me, the easiest way to mount it up like stock was to use the stock shroud to mount it. I could just graft them together. The first step was to cut down the stock shroud to about the depth I wanted the whole assembly to end up being. It would need to cut further but it's better to cut several small cuts than one cut too big. Next the donor fan shroud was laid on top of the stock shroud to see how much of which needed to be cut. Trying to find a spot or direction that all of the edges would match up turned out to be a challenge in patience. With a lot of cutting and bunch of mini cut off wheels later, the edges looked close enough to call it a fit. Once the depth was determined the shrouds were both cut so none of the edges overlapped at all. Due to the differences in the curves between the two shrouds, there were large gaps where no material was left due to it's bend or angle. The fan assembly and blade was stripped out and the remainder was propped up on top of a suitable height base. In this case a Folgers coffee can with the stock shroud underneath it. Once the position was set just right and the two pieces aligned, all of the areas to have fiberglass laid were roughed up with some 80 grit paper to make the glass adhere well. The first layers of fiberglass cloth were laid over the four corners. The corners that had the largest gaps got a few layers on the first pass. After the first layers hardened it was time to survey the damage. The now one piece shroud assembly was brought down to the car for a test fit. This allowed it to be judged for depth and to make sure it sat square to the radiator. Any mistakes in depth or alignment definitely need to be corrected now before the fiberglass was built up and everything was hardened. It turned out that minor adjustments and some small cutting was needed on one of the corners that had large amounts of plastic removed and the edges were a good distance apart. The adjustments were made and with another thin layer of fiberglass, it was retested and lined up much better. The idea being, keep it as close to a stock fan as possible. This meant checking angles, bends and slopes with a lot of care. What the original edges looked like lining up was a little like this. The areas inside the red boxes are the most important part of keeping the shroud thin. The edges need to be cut back far enough to be able to make the transition smooth. What I needed the edges to look like when I was done was more of an even slope or curve to the edges of the shrouds finally did meet, or in this case, didn't meet. Knowing the fiberglass would be more than tough enough to hold the fan shrouds together even with the large gaps that had been left behind, I cut the shrouds back so the fiberglass would fill in the missing edges smoothly like this. Once the first layer of glass set up on the outside of the shroud, it was turned over and generous amounts were laid on the same spots inside the shroud. I now had at least a firm foundation to start building on. As each layer hardened, it was ground down to leave as little as possible behind except where the material was missing or too thin. After just a few minutes of grinding on the fiberglass it was obvious that some areas had to be ground away completely and built up higher in some spots and lower in others. All in all it ended up taking several layer on both sides of the shroud before some of the irregularities could be matched up. In several spots the plastic had to be ground down to make the transition smooth from one shroud to the other. Once most of the transitions looked like they were molded instead of created, the first coats of high build primer were laid on any of the areas that had been worked on. This fills in many of the heavy scratches and shows where the panels are not perfectly smooth. Several heavy coats were sprayed on both the inside ands out. From this point it was worked out like a bad body panel. The rough spots were smoothed out and bondo was used to fill in the low spots as well as building up areas that needed extra grinding to keep the blends smooth and rounded just like stock. After several grits of sandpaper and lots of elbow grease, a small amount of spot putty was used to glaze and smooth any of the exposed areas of the shroud. Once everything smoothed to a satisfactory blend and finish, a liberal coat of gloss black vinyl paint was sprayed onto the shroud inside and out. Several successive coats were sprayed on after each dried to give it back that OE plastic look. After letting the paint set up for several hours the fan motor, blade and mounting hardware was reinstalled. The blade is a tight fit and the assembly fits onto the radiator as perfectly as the stock shroud. It allows no air past it and it almost looks as if Volvo had done it themselves. All in all the project took about a week of spare time so your results may vary. The total cost with all the fiberglass, bondo, spot filler and paint ran about $50. If I could have picked one of these up for double that I would have jumped on it but once again my love of Swedish engineering and the lack of aftermarket support for them made my creativeness fill the gap. __________________ ~Steve O "Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult looking for cracks in the glass ceiling" '94 965 For Sale $1400 before smog '80 242 Sold '61 P1800 Sold '95 Dodge Dakota wife's redneck caddilac '87 760T Scrapped '90 740 SE F+T 13.962 @ 100.5 1/4 ~ Daily Driver Last edited by Steve O; 07-09-2010 at 04:47 PM.. Reason: Relocated images

02-23-2005, 04:43 PM	#3
ovlov760 Daddy. Coma. Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Midwest - IL	great write up. I plan to try this with my 19" fan. I would recommend thumbnailing the pics so enlargements are available __________________ 1997 850 200k 1997 850 T5 125k ARD white tune ~~1988 760 Turbo~~ - Sold

02-24-2005, 09:58 AM	#7
Bishop Bored Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia	Wow, that's just like seriously impressive, nice work, I may have to do the same with a S80 style recall fan and my 700 shroud, I like how factory it looks, I hate having stuff that looks butchered when using used OEM fans. __________________ If a mod wrote this, it would be hell funny...

10-23-2005, 05:36 PM	#12
Nick Board Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Winter Park, FL	Any chance someone can fix the links to the photos? I've got a Taurus fan I wanna use and teh pics would be helpful. Thanks __________________ -Nick S30 & E30 No mas Volvo.

10-23-2005, 06:50 PM	#13
boosted Board Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: melbourne, fl	nick, you ricer... naw seriously, wait for me.. we'll do ours at the same time!! __________________ -1998 V70r AWD

02-23-2005, 08:50 PM	#5
ovlov760 Daddy. Coma. Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Midwest - IL	I bought the stuff to start this. Will 16 oz of resin and two packs of 8 sq ft fiberglass cloth be enough?

02-24-2005, 11:08 AM	#8
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	Make sure the fan motor you use is a straight DC voltage rather than the ones that use "pulse width" or "duty cycle" to control the speed. I used the Ford Taurus because it's a two speed (three wire) straight DC. I just used two relays, one for low speed hooked to a low temp switch and one for high speed hooked to a stock radiator mounted temp switch. I also used the connector from the Taurus so a motor replacement is a straight bolt in.

10-23-2005, 04:26 PM	#11
ovlov760 Daddy. Coma. Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Midwest - IL	A angle grinder or dremel tool will cut it with ease.

10-24-2005, 12:23 PM	#14
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	WTF! Sorry haven't been in here for a while. I'll try to fix the link when I get home tonight.

10-29-2005, 02:09 AM	#16
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	Done! Did I mention I hate Comcast?

04-01-2006, 03:13 PM	#17
760 Sleeper Board Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Brainerd, Minnesota	Hey steve o, what's up with that double belt stet-up? __________________ 88 764T R.I.P. 2002 V70 (mom's)

04-01-2006, 03:16 PM	#18
760 Sleeper Board Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Brainerd, Minnesota	I may sound retarded, but is that a puller fan or pusher, and is it cooling the radiator or the the engine bay?

04-01-2006, 05:13 PM	#19
Jordan Board Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tacoma, WA	it cools the engine bay... __________________ 1977 242DL -Chiquita- My Buyer/Seller Feedback Thread http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=122278

04-01-2006, 07:27 PM	#20
760 Sleeper Board Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Brainerd, Minnesota	So it's a pusher fan that pushes air to the engine bay?

04-01-2006, 10:02 PM	#21
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	It's a puller fan. Same as the stock mechanical one. The double belt setup is stock.

04-04-2006, 01:25 AM	#23
240Psycho 300- Club! Join Date: May 2003 Location: Port Richey, Florida	whats the best way to hide the relay and the wiring? thats the only problem with my set up. __________________ *..::VFBG::..* Kyle with a '91 244 (build in progress!)2.5L ̶1̶6̶V̶ 8V turbo T5 worldclass trans '90 245 the work horse with 260k 04 S60R 6 speed '00 S70 T5 for the wife

04-04-2006, 11:26 AM	#24
Steve O Unnaturally Aspirated Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Elk Grove	I've got mine on the driver's (left) side of the radiator, where the sheet metal is at a 45' angle. It makes the power hookups easy. I've got two relays one high, one low. You can see mine if you look but it would be realy simple to make a small cover for them. All of my wiring (including stock) is in black zip loom tied to the body so it's hidden anyway.

04-04-2006, 02:16 PM	#25
Jordan Board Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tacoma, WA	I put it behind the headlight, infront of the air box. wrapped in a circle and just rested there. its actually pretty clean. i'll take some pictures for you if you want.

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