Just fitted a kenlowe Fan
 

My water pump bearing was screaming at me every time the car got hot, I tried letting off the belt tension a bit more but then the belts screamed at me instead at high rpm so rather than taking the obvious solution I removed the viscous fan and put a 2 speed 17" kenlowe in its place. Now I know I'll have to replace the water pump at some point but this means I can run the belts a bit looser to extend its life but other bonus's are:
1) I now have the space to hand crank the engine from above
2) Might get a bit more fuel economy
3) Might get a bit more bhp free'd up
4) Engine runs a bit quieter

Not the first here to do this conversion but worth considering if your pump isnt happy.

I've also started this conversion on my W123 300D - as you say it has benefits. And whilst there are many people who disagree I think it is a good choice to make.

I've also found (with our similar climates anyway) that driving without a fan works fine too - you then get even more access to the front of the engine!

His Grandson used to work with me about 10 years ago. Good guy.

I've been running only electric fans on 2 of my cars for over 5 years. A '73 280 and a '72 250C. I'd like to run one on my '74 280C but due to radiator mounting changes in '74 I can't.

Be sure to upgrade the battery or the alternator will wear quickly.

Mine aren't 2 speed fans and they pull about 15 peak amps. The 2 speeders will probably pull a lot less and you might not need to upgrade the battery.

Thanks for the info Mike good to know they worked for you. This fan draws 18 amps at low speed and 24 amps at high speed and I have a modern battery. The fan is on low speed and only for short periods in this climate even in heavy traffic so as long as the battery can average out the load for the alternator I hope it will be ok. I'll try and remember to not put the window demistor on at the same time I don't want to end up replacing the water pump and alternator :(

Hope it works well for you, more important in my climate that the fan is water proof !!

I couldn't agree more - however - being a bit to the east of you it tends to have "rained out" just ever so slightly by the time the Atlantic has done it's worst.

That's Ireland's main contribution to the European Union, and we are paid well for it ;-)