Building a Mini 'Pressure' Washer

[mickeyw]

I have just recalled a beer fuelled discussion from some months ago. The subject was about the merits, or otherwise, of cooling fans behind the rad working as suckers or blowers. Specifically the application was for low ground speed (so neglibile ram effect involved).

The argument (always is when beer is involved) included the fact that some heavy plant/agricultural vehicles have clever cooling fans that can be put into reverse to blow the cr4p out of the rad when the airflow reduces due to blockage.

Could this method be applied to our mud soaked radiators? Would need to blow it out before the mud dried obviously.

Has anyone looked into this?

[Retroanaconda]

I think that's definitely worth a shot, I imagine most 12V DC fans would be easily reversible?

Good news is that my fan now works again, so a solution for this weekend has been found. My rad cover is in place, and with the fan on there I won't be worrying about it over-heating all day.

I got a cheapo garden sprayer from B&Q. Cost me less than £10, and it cleaned off the 3-week-old mud on the rear lights okay...so here's hoping it'll work okay. For now at least

[BogMonster]

Probably not - what most are trying to blow out is dried seeds/chaff which has no stickiness at all so I doubt it would work with anything wet - not unless you had a mutha of a fan anyway

[nas90]

Ask SimonR IIRC he had it on his old 90.he is fairly local to you so may know a supplier.

Or good Ole B&Q

Or I can supply some mesh for a beer token

Simon's good idea is to use the gap betweeh the rad and the plastic grille with a 90deg small return on the mesh which sits on top of the rad just clearing the bonnet catch

When the mesh dries lift-out knock against something solid and mud drops-out put back in front of rad, simple, effective

Dave

[mobyone]

if you have onboard air and enough air flow, or small diameter hose, you could just put a fitting to some hose and run a y piece airline with the snap fitting on the bit you would put an air tool into connected to a straight through connector for air tools. with hose attatched to this and obviously airlines connected to the othe two connectors,it would then easily suck up the water you need to do the cleaning as it will be a venturi effect. will cost about £10 for the fitting and the hose, just be sure the hose for the water is a smaller diameter than the airline. this would need to be downstream of the compressor so the air is not wet for the rest of the onboard air system. then you would only need a container for the water.

richard

[Robkav]

Would their be any call for me to bring my moble pressure washing set up to some events?

[BogMonster]

Sounds like it

[Jon White]

I did consider washer pumps, but I didn't think they'd have enough pressure to be honest.

That said, they use them for water injection systems so I'd imagine they'd do an okay job.

A headlamp washer pump is a different beast from a standard screen washer pump. Take a look at them - they're pretty awesome by comparison!

Jon

[landroversforever]

I guessed they could be, as they dont normally have a wiper like the windscreen does.

[ThreeSheds]

I guessed they could be, as they dont normally have a wiper like the windscreen does.

On the photo below you can see a direct comparison between normal screen washers and (relocated) headlamp washers - but as well as the much higher volume of water, what you can't see is the vastly increased velocity. They are pretty impressive - but my vote would still go for the removable/shakeable mesh idea...

Roger