OK, some of you may (or may not) think this is nuts, but its something I've wanted to test out for so long.
I'm not sure if some of you are aware or not, but the KJ Diesel has an extra electric thermo fan IN FRONT of the radiator/intercooler/aircon systems. Its a rather large device that looks to me that it does more bad than good. In the whole time i've ever owned the KJ, this fan has worked once, yes once. You can hear it as plain as that famous XJ cherokee fan noise :P! Funny thing was, it came on when the car wasnt even hot - normal driving, but not hot like it was on the beach last weekend. Anyway, to prove my theory that this device restricts more air that it could possibly pass through, I decided to remove it, just for yuks........
When I removed it, there was a perfect dust screen print of the shape of the thermofan on the black aircon condensor radiator that sits up front in the grill. It even had the perfect outline of the FAN BLADES, proving that this thing has'nt turned in over 4 weeks. I did Arcot Station then Old Coach Rd back to back, rediculious amounts of dirt road driving.
USUALLY when a car has a front thermo fan and the car is driving along the road (not even highway speeds) the fan turns around because of the air passing through it, well on this little black ducks' KJ, IT AINT !!
Anyway, it wasnt too much of a debarcle to remove the whole thing, just takes time. 10mm bolts were the order of the day. The CHECK ENGINE light came up on the dash as soon as I started it for the 1st time, no surprise there, but I remembered from the ole' Jeep days that the trick to do is press the odometer reset button 10 times when the key is in the ignition, then start. BINGO!! no light.....
I dont think its the placebo effect, but the car does feel a bit perkier - much to do with the increased airflow passing through the intercooler. I'm keen to give it another lashing through the soft Bribie sand to see how she fairs, but i'm pretty confident it will help the cooling process.
BY THE WAY, HAVE A THINK ABOUT THIS - When I did a soft sand run on Bribie last weekend, she went straight to the red zone
so I backed off, but mind you I did this for about 3 mins straight; this was powdery dry sand + 3 adults + gear + the fact I was heading down wind (the front of the car was in a vacuum hence it wasnt able to pull air through the radiator to cool down) + MTRS @ 40psi doesnt help.........THE FAN DIDNT COME ON AT ALL - I CHECKED !!
When we headed back for home along the beach, I decided to jump back up into the soft sand to test that vacuum theory - guess what? I drove for about 10mins straight on 90-100% FULL THROTTLE/FULL BOOST INTO the headwind. The Temp Guage stayed just under the 3/4 hot mark the enitre soft sand section........hmmmmmmm.
"OK honey, dont freak, it'll all go back together just fine !!"
