Engine fan not spinning?

[WadiaAbushanab]

I think my 1980 Fiat spider 2000 has been overheating. I watched some videos on refilling coolant and getting air out of the system because air can prevent coolant from getting to the engine. It also said that it can fix your fan if it isn’t working because it reads a thermostat and knows when to spin.
My question is, should the fan begin to spin as soon as I start up the car? I’m not sure if my fan even works. If it is supposed to start right when I turn the car on… my fan is broken.

[Nut124]

No. The fan should start when the engine gets hot. This is controlled by the temp switch at the bottom of the radiator.

The fan should start well before the temp gauge approaches the red, somewhere around 190F.

You can test the fan motor by connecting it to 12V with jumpers.

[TX82FIAT]

As Nut 124 said. You can test the fan with a few inches of jumper wire by making contact with the two prongs sticking out of the temp switch on the lower drivers side of the radiator. When you say you think it is overheating, is that based on the gauge reading on the dash? If you have a device (handheld IR temp sensor) you can validate the heat temp.

[WadiaAbushanab]

Okay thank you both. And it just seems like it is getting overly hot. Also only the top of the radiator would get hot, which apparently means that coolant isn’t circulating through the engine and radiator. But after I did this coolant change it seems to get equally hot. I guess I’ll see how it runs now.

[redcars]

Base on what you said I think you have air in your cooling system. Two things will keep the bottom of your radiator from getting hot. The most common one is air in the system. 2nd is a bad thermostat.

[WadiaAbushanab]

How do I get all the air out of the system?

[TX82FIAT]

If the radiator is now getting equally hot you have coolant flowing, the Thermostat T is opening and the water pump is doing its job. Air will blead out over several heating cycles of expansion and contraction. Run through 4 or five heating cycles in a row running the car for 10 minutes or so, shut her down, let the car cool down. What is the level of coolant level in the expansion tank when hot and cold. If not enough coolant in tank the air will be sucked back into the coolant system when the car cools. Cold the coolant tank should be just over the minimum fill mark. The tank will act like a purge valve letting some air escape each time you run a 10 minute heat cycle drawing more coolant into the system each time the car cools so proper coolant level in the expansion tank is important. All this assumes you have the heater hose T installed at the high point as an additional fill option.

[WadiaAbushanab]

Okay thanks for the info. I’ll make sure I keep an eye on those things. I filled up the expansion tank nearly to full but luckily I’ve only driven it once since then so I’ll have to drain that tank down to above minimum .

[Nut124]

How do I get all the air out of the system?

I do not want to risk overheating the head so I always jack up the front and fill and burp the hoses when filling.

[geospider]

getting a hint that this part of these cars may be new to you.. can be frustrating.. but follow the following and should be ok..

https://autoricambi.us/tech-blog/bleedi ... 4-spider-/

geo