Slim fan mounting options

[Chris Andrews]

Basically two:

1.  Fab up some aluminum brackets  PROS Safe, CONS PITA
2.  Use the included plastic "zip ties"  PROS Fast and easy, CONS see below:

My father-in-law said that the zips  (that go right through the rad) could wear (vibration) through the soft aluminum Fluidyne, and eventually cause leaks.

Your thoughts?  Anybody experience this potential leak issue?

[Robin Toor]

Basically two:

1.  Fab up some aluminum brackets  PROS Safe, CONS PITA
2.  Use the included plastic "zip ties"  PROS Fast and easy, CONS see below:

My father-in-law said that the zips  (that go right through the rad) could wear (vibration) through the soft aluminum Fluidyne, and eventually cause leaks.

Your thoughts?  Anybody experience this potential leak issue?

I would think that since the zip ties go through the air fins of the rad, it wouldn't really effect the actually plumbing that carries the coolant through. Sure the zip ties may wear out the air fins, but those don't matter, as they do not carry any coolant. I would think that the actual soft aluminum that carries the liquid through is stronger than the zip tie, and the zip tie would break first before ever penetrating through the aluminum.

Lowell/Meron's rad had the slimline fans with zipties on there for a while, and there was no wear on the aluminum at all. The rad still worked strong and had no leaks.

[Fraser Cassells]

What I do is use a TY27MX ty wrap from T&B products(black one with SS clip and UV protection), use one with a washer to go through the whole unit and another one on the otherside to "clamp" it tight with the head slipped on the length of the first one stuck through the whole thing... got me?

No wear and tear observed, and easy to re-re during our numerous re and re`s
 I buy my Ty wraps by the 1000...

[Chris Andrews]

Hmmm, the ties that came with the fan are round, like pipe, not flat like zip ties.  They are quite thick, and ribbed.

I will look around for the  TY27MX........

[Kimyee Lai]

Seeing how the plastic is quite a bit softer than the Al.  It's unlikely to really wear through the Al.  I'm doing the same thing right now, and after looking at it, a custom mount shouldn't be more than drilling two holes each in 4 pieces of short Al. bar.  I think zip ties are a viable option though...

[Jovan Ceklaj]

I made a custom mount out of aluminum.  Took me all of 5 minutes to make it.

[Fraser Cassells]

the other thing is you would want the fans to be directly on the surface of the rad, a thin foam bead around the perimeter of the fans protect the surface of the rad from the fan edges.
With two slim mounts we loose the shroud effect we get from the stock fan setup thereby reducing the cooling effectiveness somewhat, offset hopefully by an increase in cfm.

[Kimyee Lai]

The lack of shrouding might actually be a good thing, at higher speeds .  I'm going to add some thin foam to the fan too...got some craft foam sheets at Michaels.

[Fraser Cassells]

In THAT case, for high speed cooling with a shroud, you need another fan inside the shroud counter-rotating creating an equivalent near-zero tip clearance for the main electric fan... this assumes you know the exact fan pitch angle for the speed and cfm in relation to max speed and desired temps at that sustained speed...

OFF TOPIC BIATCHES.........

[Chris Andrews]

I made a custom mount out of aluminum.  Took me all of 5 minutes to make it.

The mounting "bungs" on the Fluidyne stick out, plus they are different for each fan - drivers side & passengers side.    Each fan would need custom mounting brackets of different sizes (length and depth).  I would have to fab up spacers too......

It would take more than 5 minutes.......not impossible but a pain.......

I'm going to take a look at the "included" mounting hardware, if I sand off the "ribs" then the "pipes" will be thinner and not have built in saw-teeth to wear at my rad....   :booze: