Electric fan.......what about the oilcooler on an automatic?

6

68PBBurntGrey

New Member
Hello Rovers,

I'm a newbie on this forum, so a small introduction is in place.
I'm living in Groningen, the northeastern part of Holland (hence my 'broken' english). And I bought my 1969 P6B auto (Burnt Grey) about 5 year ago in the most southwestern point of Holland. My firts drive just after I emptied my wallet was somewhat nervewracking, but the car performed perfect :D . Mind you: it was a testrun of about 300 km (200 mls).
Since then I'm happily driving my P6 as a hobby. Only this year I've started to work on some improvements: 123-ignition, coil, HT-leads, electric fuelpump and some minor things.

Now my Q: I'm thinking of removing the standard cooling fan (no thermocoupling) and fit an electric fan. The P6 has no cooling problems and is running on 85 C even in summer, so the cooling system is in order. Of course there is a lot of info in this forum about electric fans, but I didn't found an answer to my question:
The electric fan is taking care of the temperature of the coolingwater, but what about the oil temperature of the gearbox oil? In the case of an automatic is it wise to fit an electric fan, regulated by coolwater temperature?

Thanks for your appreciated comment,

Rene
 
There should be no problem from this cause. The transmission oil from the auto box is piped to a coil contained in the cool side vertical header tank of the water radiator. This has the effect of helping the temperature of the transmission oil to rise to operating temperature more quickly than it otherwise would by being wrmed by the coolant. Then, once warmed, the temperature is limited by the temperature in the cool side tank. Provided that the fan cut in temperature is not unreasonable (in which case engine cooling would be in difficulty!) the transmission will see no difference between the engine driven fan and the electric fan.

At later date, if you find any defficiency in the water cooling, you can have the radiator rebuilt with a 3 row matrix instead of the standard 2 row, still with the transmission cooler in place in the cool tank. You are unlikely to have too much problem on long runs - the P6B demonstrates its cooling deficiencies when stuck in traffic jams with no ram air from the speed of travel going through the radiator. Fixed or electric fans won't have a lot of influence on this. Were you to push the engine output, the next refinement is to add a separate transmission oil cooler along the lines of an engine oil cooler. But bearing in mind the function of the radiator cooler in warming the transmission oil at start up, this will need a thermostatic bypass as well as the actual cooler.

At the start though you identified another key factor - make sure the engine cooling system is in good order! So back flushing of the engine, radiator and heater are important at intervals. A known blockage can also occour in the cooling passages of the inlet manifold. If in any doubt it is well worth having the manifold off and rodding/blasting it out.

Hope that helps

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your very helpfull answer!
It would be my kid of thing: destroing the autobox in the purchace of a little performance or fuel-efficiency :oops: .

OK, next step is the trusted scrapyardsupplier for fan and some electric bits.

Again thanks,

Rene
 
Hi Rene

Thought I'd say hi as the owner of a 1968 Burnt grey P6b :O) ( Think it's the oldest production P6b left on British roads!)

Welcome to the forum!

Rich
 
Hi Rich,

Thanks for the welcome from another Burt Grey fan!
Great colour isn't it? Specially when the sun is setting it turns towards a chique dark grey 8) .
Yours is a '68? Mine is from '69 (finger slipped while typing username :? ) and has buckskin leather interior. The seats are in need of some attention, specially the driver seat.
My P6 is certainly not the eldest on the Dutch roads, but the colour is pretty rare over here.

Can you PM me a pic of your P6?

Tanks,

Rene
 
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