Step by step guide to removing the viscous fan, replacing the intercooler & radiator.

When I bought the car earlier this year it came with a spare radiator and intercooler. I wanted to fit these at the same time as I was installing the electric fan and thermostat controller as I didn’t want to drain the coolant twice.

It was a surprisingly easy job and didn’t even involve hitting, heating or cutting so was a pleasure to do. Larger images can be viewed by clicking on the images throughtout  this guide, although there really isn’t anything tricky here and  even I found it easy.

First step is to drain the coolant. I started off by undoing the bottom radiator hose and trying to get the majority of it in a bucket. Remember this stuff is very poisonous to animals so wash the road/drive/grass down afterwards. I had to keep the dog tied to a tree away from the car throughout this.

Next, remove the fan cowl. To do this you will need to remove the top radiator and intercooler hoses. I removed them completely out of the way to make life easier.

Using a 32mm viscous fan spanner available from most Motor Factors including Halfrauds (cost me around £10, although you could always try and borrow one instead), undo the viscous fan. Remember the fan is left threaded so don’t spend ages tightening it up.

There wasn’t enough room to remove the fan out of the back of the cowling so I gently wiggled the cowl until I could remove it out of the front.

Now the cowling can be lifted up and out. It should come out easily now although some have two screws attaching it to the bar that goes across across the top of the radiator. Mine didn’t, it just had a lip that held it in place.

Now the cowling is out, stand back and be amazed at how much space there is. Compare this to other cars where you can hardly fit a spanner they are so cramped. It is even possible to climb into the engine bay, place your feet on the ground and stand there with the engine up to your chest. and yes, I really should get out more.

Disconnect the radiator bottom hose and catch any remaining coolant that was left in there.

As I was replacing the radiator, I removed all of the coolant hoses and took them inside for a good flush and scrub as I didn’t want anything clogging up the new bits if i could help it.

At this stage I left the oil cooler hoses in place as they keep the radiator upright and in place when you remove the bar that goes in front of the slam panel.

Unscrew the four bolts, catching the nuts from underneath before they disappear into the mud and then lift the bar off. Some Land Rovers have brackets attached to the slam panel that need removed. Again, mine didn’t.

Lift the bar up and away making sure that none of the rubber bits fall off.

Now tilt the intercooler towards the back and lift out.

Tilt the intercooler back	and lift out

Now the intercooler is out, the radiator can be removed. I’d left the oil cooler pipes and the radiator to expansion tank hose in place to keep the radiator from falling forwards so it is now time to remove them.

I had to gently prise the top hose off with a large flat bladed screwdriver as it was pretty well stuck on.

To remove the oil pipe hoses, clamp the union with a pair of mole grips or use the correct sized spanner (I didn’t have one). The pipes use a 22ml spanner and needed a gentle crack to undo them while holding on to the mole wrenches.

There will be some oil loss at this point so make sure you have some rags handy to catch any spills and also something to plug the hoses to stop dirt entering. I also found a cable tie would have been handy here so that I could hook the hoses up and out of the way safely rather than trying to tuck them behind another pipe and have them fall out all the time flicking oil everywhere.

A word of warning here. The pipes have small O ring seals that will either be stuck inside the pipe end or the union still attached to the radiator. Find them and keep them safe now rather than spending a rather long time trying to find them on the grass later.

As with the intercooler, tilt the radiator towards the back of the engine bay and carefully lift out.

It will probably dump oil and coolant on you at this stage so be careful.

Now everything is out it might be worth doing a bit of rust proofing. I gave everything a coating of old oil and Waxoyl.

Before the new radiator goes back in you will need to remove the unions from the old radiator. I can’t remember the correct spanner size here and didn’t have one anyway so used the Mole grips again.

Before inserting these unions into the new radiator I gave them a few drops of thread lock and did them up ‘a bit tight’.

Wasn’t sure how tight they should be so thought it would be better if they leaked at first and I did them up tighter than cranked them in too tight to start with.

Before refitting both the radiator and intercooler, ensure that any of the rubber rings are removed from the old items.

It is best to do this before putting it all back together as it saves rather a lot of time. Again, don’t ask me how I know.

As Haynes would say, refitting is just a reversal of the removal and shouldn’t give you any surprises.

The last stage before work could start on the fan is to install the fan thermostat controller and adapter. These are available from X-Eng and are well worth the price. Available in either blue or red although I would have preferred black to match the hoses.

Originally I just cut the hose in two, but found that once the adapter is in place, the extra length caused problems when refitting, so I removed it and then cut out of the hose the exact amount added by the adapter. This worked a treat.