Fan mounting to rad
 

Working away in the engine bay test fitting rad. I'm not running AC or PS and I am using the SN95 front drive set up so am able to run fans as pullers.
I have Martin's kit and fans. I'll have to switch the blades around and play with the polarity of the wires.
Right now I'm trying to figure out a good way to mount the fans to the rad. Martin says to just use the "through the rad" mounting pins, but I really don't want to do that. I bought a 3' piece of 1/8th x 1" steel just to try to come up with a game plan. Figured if I could maybe mount 1 piece on each end and one in the middle (vertically) to the rad or to the upper support, and then it would have to be attached at the bottom somewhere.
Or I could take it to the local machine shop and have them weld a couple aluminum tabs/L brackets to the top and bottom for the fans to attach to.
Any one have any good ideas or pics?
Brad

I didn't like the idea of putting pins through the radiator either. Instead I made some mounting brackets out of aluminum stock. Looking at the photo now I'm thinking I probably should have done some trimming of those brackets around the fans but this got the job done.

https://www.v8miata.net/members/case...g-0945-713.jpg

THAT !!.... is exactly what I was describing. Awesome. So it's safe to drill and tap into the rad?

Make sure to test fit the radiator before mounting the fan. On my car, the sway bar caused a problem. See post #9 https://www.v8miata.net/general-moto...et-motor-1852/

It's tough to see in the photo but I only drilled through the small flange at the top and bottom of the radiator. The bolts you see go through the bracket I made, then the flange, then I have a nyloc nut on the other side. The bolts do not go through the radiator core and I did not tap anything.

It's also possible that Martin's radiator changed in the past five years.

Cool. Gives me enough to go on. I may end up doing the same but welding them on.
Thanks for the pic.

There may not be the extra couple inches of clearance required in the right places to make it work, but a slick way to do it would be to fabricate a sheet metal plenum that attaches as is convenient around the outside perimeter of the radiator and/or its mounts, then attach the fans to the back of the plenum.

A bunch of commercial ones are available as in this picture, but the ultimate setup would be custom fit to your radiator.

Again, positioning the fans where there is depth clearance would be the key.

I'm planning on doing what Casey did, but including aluminum sheet shrouding.

Jason

How far off the rad would the sheet aluminum have to be?

I'll space it as far as possible, once the engine is in. All depends on the space that I have to work with. Also need to put a few rubber bypass flaps in it. All in my head right now, but look at Casey's photo, and just put the aluminum sheet behind the 3 braces. I would space that off as needed, and use weatherstrip to seal the gaps.

Jason