I have purchased a loader with a perkins 3 cylinder diesel engine. The engine is over heating. On inspection water pump, radiator ,hoses all seem to be in good working order, however I found this engine turns clockwise and it seems to have a counter clockwise radiator fan installed. This is aa Perkins 403c 11 engine. I am confused as I never seen a radiator fan that blew forward. Any information appreciated.
Regarding the fan can you post a photo of it and indicate which way the engine rotates on the same photo. What make/model of machine are you talking about here.?
If its a pusher fan check the radiator fins closest to the fan blades for blockage and crap. It may look clean from the front but be plugged at the rear side. Stick a bright light between the fan blades and go around the front and see if you can see light through the fins of the core. Try to check the complete core by moving the light to different positions
All my loaders blow radiator airflow out the back.
If the machine has considerable age to it the Between tube Cooling fins could be destroyed from corrosion and time, will not dissipate heat well without those.
Don't just look that you can see light through the radiator, look between the fins to see how much dirt there is. To clean it, use an air blow gun, then soak with water, use a degreaser like dawn dish soap, or purple power, let it soak, rinse, soak, repeat until there's no dirty water when rinsing after the soak. Then blow it out again with air. If there's an oil cooler or other coil in the way, you might have to remove one. Or check the temps of the engine and radiator with a non contact thermometer to see why. A fan that's turned around will still blow air the same direction, but won't work as well.
Then there are the fans used on some Cat equipment back in the 1960/70 or so. You could actually reverse the air flow on them. Just don't forget to reverse on of the blades or you can have an overheat problem. Seen that first hand!
When you say out the back do you mean through the radiator over the fan then over the engine ? I have found the repair manual for this engine The picture of the engine shows a clockwise fan with 6 blades but I have on here a 7 blade counter clockwise fan. I bought this used and I know repairs were made.
Blade count means little. Rear Engine Machines discharge OUT rearward, Most loader/Dozer style equipment force air FROM engine Side to Push Forward helps to keep spilled Load Dirt from building up on cores. Some fans had reversable Blades, Push in and rotate for WINTER use to send some heat to operator.
Maybe I'm a bit dense but what are you referring to as clockwise and counter clockwise with the fans? Is the fan gear driven or belt driven? Does fan run the same rotation as the crankshaft? When you say engine turns clockwise I'm assuming you are saying while looking at the front (not the flywheel end).
The crankshaft and fan both turn clockwise from the front and are belt driven. This is a picture of the fan from the radiator side looking back to the engine. As you can see it appears to blow forward from engine to radiator. I am confused because I have not seen this configuration.
So the engine rotates clockwise per your photo of the fan.? If so that's a pusher fan and will suck from the engine compartment and blow the hot air out the radiator. Very common on dozers and front-end loaders. Does the fan have some sort of shroud around it.? If so how close do the tips of the fan blades run to the shroud.? They should be within 1/2" or less of touching it to get maximum air flow. That fan looks like a bit of a lash-up TBH. Not the sort of thing you'd expect to find on a piece of Yellow Iron.
I am pretty sure it's the original fan. There is a tight fitting shroud. Will start putting it back together now that I think this is the correct fan. This is only my second used loader so I am feeling my way. Thanks to everyone who replied and helped me get through this problem.
I forgot to mention that the full “thickness” of the fan should also be right inside the shroud for efficient operation. In other words no part of the blades should be outside the shroud.
No Perkins 3 cylinder fans turn anti clock they are all belt driven from the crank clockwise, your engine has a high output pusher fan fitted, on the small M.F. Tractors in the U.K. it's possible to see these engines fitted with 2 or 4 bladed fans.
It might help if you mentioned what make and model of loader you have. You also never mentioned if you checked the thermostat.
Also I would like to know how it was determined the water pump is functioning. If it was mentioned I missed it.
In the 1st post he mentioned the water pump but I don't know how he actually checked it.