My '85 MGM, "Maisa"

[friskyfrankie]

Is that harness a "plug and play" or do you have to cut and splice?

[Arquemann]

Is that harness a "plug and play" or do you have to cut and splice?

Plug n play, if you use it for the correct application, as in something with 2 H4 bulbs.
All the lengths worked out pretty well for a box, used all factory ground locations.

The harness I used is not a conversion harness for sealed beams or such, it's an H4 to H4 relay harness designed to be able to use high power bulbs, like 100W+

[Arquemann]

- I got my rear tires rebalanced yesterday, they were a bit off so the ride ought to get smoother -

And here's where things went to shit...
Tires got balanced just fine, mechanic (my friend) told the tires aren't "the best". On friday I took the car out on bigger roads and the vibrations above 90 kmh were horrible.
Over the weekend I yeeted the spacers, got the wheels back on, which resulted in slightly less vibrations, but definitely more than before balancing.

Got the rear of the car on jackstands with the engine on and in gear, at first it looked like the wheels were a bit bent, but upon closer inspection the wheels have very minimal runout, but the tires are pretty horrible in that aspect.
The rear tires are DOT 21 Nankang white walls, which have been blooming brown for probably 2 years already, seems like they are deteriorating internally and increasing in runout. Until this week, they haven't been balanced since they were new. The poor balance they had might've been working as an accidental road force balance, so now that they're actually balanced weight-wise they vibrate like hell.

So I kinda need two new tires for the rear, almost preferably 4, as the front tires are over 9 years old and quite hard. Stupid thing is that the fronts are the same make and model and 5 years older than the rears, but they haven't aged nearly as much and seem to be actually round still.

Thing is, I'm still broke and I want to get the turbine wheels redone with new tires for next summer, so spending a couple hundo for two tires I'll use for a few months seems like a huge waste.

[Arquemann]

Problem: mechanical fan is loud
Research:fan and related parts in full operational capacity, possible room for improvement in fan design
Hypothesis: change fan, make things quieter
Prerequisites: fan needs to closely match dimensionally, in direction of rotation and be inexpensive to acquire
Experiment №1: replaced original metal blade fan with BMW E65 7-series fan, which is more modern in design and materials
Results: new fan is even louder at an elevated RPM
Conclusion: fan design affects noise levels, but experiment №1 provided the opposite of desired results.

TLDR, I had an idea, it didn't work out and I'm out about 30€.

[friskyfrankie]

Problem: mechanical fan is loud
Research:fan and related parts in full operational capacity, possible room for improvement in fan design
Hypothesis: change fan, make things quieter
Prerequisites: fan needs to closely match dimensionally, in direction of rotation and be inexpensive to acquire
Experiment №1: replaced original metal blade fan with BMW E65 7-series fan, which is more modern in design and materials
Results: new fan is even louder at an elevated RPM
Conclusion: fan design affects noise levels, but experiment №1 provided the opposite of desired results.

TLDR, I had an idea, it didn't work out and I'm out about 30€.

Good reason NOT to mess with the OEM unless there is a damn good reason to do so. In this case I do however see your reason for trying it.

[gadget73]

I remember putting a 7 blade fan and clutch on a Vic once. I think it came off a 460, but was the same size and whatnot to bolt up to the Vic. Damn thing sounded like a tornado. It was something laying around in Scott's stash and it went on a visitor's car that had to go back home and he didn't have money to replace the clutch. I don't remember why we didn't use the Vic fan on that clutch, maybe it didn't bolt up or something.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Guess I'm used to the mechanical fan noises. The '97 was noisy if it hadn't been run in a while, but settled down pretty quick. The '79 had perhaps the loudest original fan, since it came with a factory flex fan being an A/C car, so it was a bunch of noise all of the time. It's been much nicer after converting it to a later Box 5 blade clutch fan.

Still, interesting to know one could graft such a fan onto a Box with a little work.

[Arquemann]

Guess I'm used to the mechanical fan noises. The '97 was noisy if it hadn't been run in a while, but settled down pretty quick. The '79 had perhaps the loudest original fan, since it came with a factory flex fan being an A/C car, so it was a bunch of noise all of the time. It's been much nicer after converting it to a later Box 5 blade clutch fan.

Still, interesting to know one could graft such a fan onto a Box with a little work.

I'm well used to it too, and with the factory fan it isn't obnoxious, but on acceleration and highway driving the fan is most of what I hear. Makes it feel like the engine is wound out even though it's barely over 1500rpm.

I like the reliability and simplicity of a mechanical fan, but these cars do make alot of noise from the engine bay, most of which is the fan. I know a guy with a '60 Cadillac that runs incredibly smooth and quiet, almost silently gliding at low speeds. And another one is a '64 Comet, which is even more impressive to be so quiet being a much cheaper can. I feel like the straight-cut whine of the first gear in the AOD is louder than either of those cars.
I guess the focus of R&D was completely different in the 80's, bean counters and emissions...

Finding a suitable fan wasn't that hard. I browsed sites with used parts, by images I could see which spin the right way, approximate size and if the clutch mounting would work out at all. Most modern stuff rotates CCW. Some Hilux, Pajero and Mercedes van stuff were pretty close but my thinking was that nobody cares of those things are loud, but a 7-series beemer on the other hand... Also the BMW fan is used to cool up to a 439hp V12, so I thought it might be adequate for my small block too.

If I go E-fans at some point, the 98-00 or 00-02 whale shrouded single fans look very appealing. Whole deal off RockAuto for not that much money, and the shroud is the same size as the one for boxes. They have 2 speeds, which is handy for AC.

But that stuff requires a 3G upgrade first.