Cooling fan on a '06 TE450 with 4G IMS tank?

Seen a few cooling fan threads around, but none with the 4 Gallon IMS tank which leaves minimal room for a radiator fan on my 2006 TE450. Except in small spots down low, I have about 1" to fit the fan blade and mount. If critically placed, maybe a bit of room for the motor to protrude further behind and downward on the radiator(s).

I have been looking at pictures of low profile radiator fans from various models of bikes (fleabay for example).

Pictures do not come with dimensions. Tons of used street bike fans for low cost out there. Most from street bike models like the R6, R600, GXSR 600, ZX10R, and the like. Seems people like to crash these and part them out. Big surprise. These models use low profile fans where the fan motor is mostly embedded in the fan hub rather than separate from the fan blade.

Anyone already solved this?

Might need to allocate time to visit a motorcycle salvage shop and sift through the boxes.

- Mike

On my 07 TC450 I mounted pusher fans to the front of my radiators since I use Motosportz radiator guards . They are mounted just a little over 1/2 down up and have never had a issue getting mud in them. I just used zip tyes to mount also. You can get the same 3.5" Spal fans most European bikes use on Ebay for $36. FYI, I have the big IMS tank too.

oregon trail,

i damaged the fan on my '10 te250 from a similar clearance issue with the new ims tank. i found the spal puller fan for $36 on ebay from your reference here... thanks loads. $100 from husky, $75 from the local spal reseller, but at least 2 weeks backordered. i love the cafe.

i moved to my current location from the rogue valley. i'll be heading up there soon for a visit and some riding. pm me if you're interested in jumping on the ride.

I have rad guards on also. Was trying to avoid front mounting, but might cut my losses and go that way like you have. The R6 fan seems like is is close to an inch and maybe affords enough clearance behind the radiator guessing by the pictures.

Yea the moto Z rad guards are quite restrictive and my bike does get warm often but as long as im moving it never seems to boil over. I need to order uptite's Y splitter to send more heat over to the fan side.Ive thought about Evan's waterless coolant but haven't committed yet.

You might have to improvise with the fan like oregon trail did since Ive heard ism tanks take up all the room for fans.

Guys you dont need a fan on an 06 TE 450. I had one for nearly 4 years riding in Australian Summer heat (often around 40 celcius-110f). Do two things if you are concerned: 1 put in the best coolant you can get and 2: consider a higher pressure radiator cap ( mine was stock). As an aside I am 250 pounds stripped and ride tight single trail (1st & 2nd gear mostly) and have yet to boil. Also make sure your spillover tank is always at least half full.

i'm a believer in the evans waterless coolant... in bikes that used to boil in tight slow speed trails, the evans (zip ty xp+) fixed that. the newest steed, '10 te250 boiled hideously with the stock coolant on switchback climbs... since switching to zip ty, it hasn't even burped in worse conditions.

not sure about the fitment on a 450, but the stock fan position on the 250 had the fan at the bottom of the radiator. i installed ofg guards, which moves the fan up to the middle of the rad. i will now use the lower right (looking forward) mounting hole, rotate the fan ccw around that mount, and drill a new hole for the upper left mount. this brings the fan down to at or near the stock position, and gives me the necessary clearance for the aftermarket ims tank.

I looked a the R6 and other low profile street bike fans I noted today. They are in real life very large diameter and won't work. The KLX250S/SF however is very close. Might be able to mount it low on the right radiatior back side, maybe get 75 coverage. Will be checking that out more as time allows. For this weekend's ride it will be an Uptite Y and Engine Ice.

the spal fans are water and dustproof... a very good thing in my world.

i experienced very minimal improvement with engine ice, but huge improvement with evans/zip ty. this past weekend without a fan and having to ride out of some steep hard canyons there was no overheating with zip ty.

Hmmm. ZipTy site was showing out of stock on the XF+. Too late for this weekend though. Scotts performance carries it (NPG-R) version. Will check it out, tnx.

Do you have a temp monitor? Does the waterless just result in higher running temps without boilover (in our te450) or does it really work to make the heat transfer good enough that no or less fan is usually required (claimed), or more likely both may be happening? I have to wonder if the oil is still cooking or not. No boilover can be a misleading thing if the temp is unknown. I put a trail Tech Vapor on my TE610 and I watch the radiator outlet temp. Tempted to put a sensor on the 450. Inquiring minds like to know.


Ordered one of the SPAL 4" pusher fans from flea bay. $36. Will mount it on the front side as suggested and be done with it. Maybe a coolant temp sensor later (digital display readout).

i have several local dealers that carry the zip ty coolant, so that works out nice. i believe the theory is higher boiling point keeps it liquid vs. gas, so the heat transfer properties remain intact, allowing the cooling system to function as intended. i would be interested in seeing the operating temperatures, though. if you put a sensor on your 450, gather pre and post waterless coolant results, please post to this thread.

For the near term I picked up a Y fitting and Engine Ice. Drained, flushed, installed the Y connector, new SS hose clamps, filled with the Engine Ice, fan on order. Changed oil since it overheated so often last weekend. Came out a bit darkbrown/blackish with 150miles. Tomorrow doing single track, see how it fairs without the fan. Rigged up a rear license (mountined vertically without a holder) sheet aluminum bracket for the rear red reflector. New amber reflectors on the front forks. Now totally strteet legal again except for my new tail light bulb has a broken filament after only 100 miles. Time for an LED buld. Too rough back there.

One thing I caught - the valve cover vent hose right angle fitting has a clamp on it that was facing outward. It wore about 1/2 way through the 4gallon IMS tank. I rotated it to the inside and will be fine now.

Ran 45 miles or so of Single track Sunday. Engine Ice and Y installed. Only boiled over briefly after 1 hill climb where I had some delays waiting for traffic ahead to clear. Common for KTMs to boil over on that hill also. I kept moving pretty good however.

SPAL 4" fan arrived today. Turns out that it will bolt right onto a Flatland Racing rad guard. Holes are just right. #6x 1" SS bolts and nylock nuts and flat washers.

I am going to monitor the coolant temp with a TrailTech temp sensor/meter
http://trailtech.net/tto_temperature.html
I use the same sensor with my Vapor speedo on my 610, works well.

Also looking at 190F snap switches to attach to the radiator. Found a couple sealed switches that should work to automatically turn the fan on at 190F and off at 175F.

C53GAB190A-175Y Airpax Sensata low profile about $13 each
CA-190-QC about $25 each


- Mike

Nice job mike.

Did you get a push fan and mount it on the front or were you able to find room to mount a pull fan on the back of radiator?

Let us know if it makes a difference.

Had to go with a push fan. Fits right about the middle of the rad guard avoiding contact with the lower triple clamp and the front fender.

The IMS tank leave little room for the fans I could find. The Clark tank leaves the space behind the radiator open. I was eyeballing one Sunday. It sticks up higher though, sort of like the butte in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind movie. Was waiting to hear the music tones play.

I have yet to acquire the fan switch and wire it up. Sensor/Guage being delivered. While the autoswitch is likey good enough, I want to monitor just how warm this thing actually gets in various conditions, especially when I get back into the desert next year.

Did 40 miles of varied single trac. In the (many) slower technical sections I saw a max temp of 226, but the normal range was 189 to 206 running the fan mostly continuously.

I have the flatland guards, engine ice, and a 4" SPAL pusher fan on the front, the trailtech TTO temp sensor located in the right upper radiator hose.

The rad guards are about 1" in front of the radiator fins. This reduces the effectiveness of the fan by letting air blow out the sides, and quite a bit of air blows around the radiator side in the narrow gap between the guard and the rad side.

Next step for me is to fab up a soft rubber or foam gasket to fit between the fan and radiator fins to force the fan air through the fins better.

Ambient was in the low-mid 60F range, so summer/desert riding will be a challenge without improving this. Would be interesting to switch to a Clark tank which leaves the area behind the radiator open and see how that one change affects things, and a proper rear mount fan can be installed also close to the fins. I like the look of the IMS much better though.

The SPAL 4" fan draws 2.26 amps on a good battery with the engine off.

thanks to oregon trail for the ebay info. spal puller arrived in record time, and kicks butt... i felt the bike surge forward when the fan came on.

Did 2 days of prime single track last weekend. I can say that running on very slow technical trails, lots of steep sharp switchbacks, upper 50's F temps I had to run the fan nearly continuously to keep it below 210F.

With a 45W headlight bulb ('06 TE450) and a good number of stalls and resulting electric starts, the battery will die running the fan that much. I pulled the headlight bulb leaving just the city light to help with the recharge rate. Can still take out a now low-charged battery doing many restarts and no bulb when running the fan so much.

The next steps are to cut a hole in the rad guards and mount the fan in the 1" gap between the guard and radiator fins. Less air leakage around the fins, and no airflow obstruction from the guards themselves in front of the fan blades.

I am probably a candidate for a Dynaring or Rekluse clutch, would not need the e-start so often :-), plus need to gear it down more. The tight switchbacks I have been hitting lately are killer, several turned into get off the bike and pull it around the corner turns. One section was 1 mile of continuous hairpins in the trees up a couple thousand feet eleavation. Turning radius of the bike sucks also. I rode a TTR250 on the same trails and it just rolls through, 6" less wheelbase and tighter turns, lower geared than mine also.