They just want to cool of their engine. I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts they also have the sender in the block telling the fan to run because the engine is heat soaked. The coolant in the radiator can be down to ambient temp but on the other side of the thermostat the block's coolant is still telling the sender to run the fan.
My sender is on the radiator, when I shut off the car, my avatar, the fan runs maybe 1 minute, that's it. Having an elec. fan sure let me position everything in it's proper place when setting this car up, recommend them!
They do open the door to a lot of possibilities, no doubt. It's confining setting up a car when the fan/radiator relationship controls soo much. This will sound crazy, but using an electric fan can make you change where the tailights might go not kidding
One thing I think everybody is missing is the fact that an electric motor produces more torque per HP than a gas engine. That's why a 1 hp electric motor can run the same fan that a 350 hp gas engine can, it's the torque that actually spins the fan, not the HP. Not saying a 1 hp electric motor has as much torque as a 350 HP engine, it doesn't, but that 1hp puts out as much torque as the supposed 20 HP loss. On the why don't they use electric fans on big trucks argument, well, they actually do on some of the smaller class 6-7 units. I have seen aftermarket electrics for class 8's {the largest trucks}, but have never ran one. Every truck I have ever driven the last 32 years has had a clutch fan, and all but one was air engaged, the exception was oil engaged. The fan freewheels most of the time, only kicking in when the AC head pressure rises or the engine temp gets above the senders set temp. And when that big fan kicks in, believe you me, you can feel it suck the HP off the engine! It will cause a 200-500 RPM drop immediately. Don't know how that relates to lost HP, but it's enough you feel it pull the engine down.
I think I found the lost 40 hp. That big ole 18" propeller on the front of the engine at 4500 rpm's is probably creating the same amount of forward thrust that would be created by 50 engine hp transmitted to the rear wheels. Therefore, the mechanical fan produces a net gain of 10 hp. I "figgered" all this with pencil and paper with help from an abacus. If anybody doubts this, I will make up a table and post it on the internet. Then it will be true for sure and repeated for generations.
Very interesting thread.Thanks for posting.A little trivia here.Growing up,I knew a gentleman who was a torpedo man on a Gato class sub in WW2.When they were in a hurry to get somewhere on the surface and it was safe to do so,they would run on the electric motors,as they could run 3kts faster than with Diesel.They also ran the Diesels to keep the batteries up. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
There was a cool thread some years back,where a guy converted an electric fan to look like an old brass house fan. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/electric-fans-are-ugly-tech.162030/
Horsepower is torque in ft-lbs X rpm divided by 5252. Doesn't matter whether the source is electric, gas, diesel, or steam powered.
O.K., 40 HP to turn the heavy, wind moving fan. I disconnect it at the digs... But need it on the street. Give and take. Some energy to get it spinning, (?) Never noticed it... Like pushing a freight car. Just get it rollin'... Another MOOT HAMB 10 minutes.
Unless you're on the worlds only forum dedicated to traditional cars and talking about electric fans. Then THEN THEN none of that holds any more water than a screen door. The facts are BS the BS is fact, what's wrong is right and wrong is wrong and what's right is wronger. It takes 40 Hp off a 350 ICE to drive a fan or 1/3 HP electric motor, Electric HP stronger than gas Fuel HP, torque is differently measured and the whole damn world is bassackwards and good and evil will switch rolls shortly
Are mechanical fan shrouds traditional ? Henry didn't use them on early cars. Here's the answer to all this, scrap the fan, just drive fast enough to get air flow to the radiator. Done......
My uneducated view on this: I´m not a big fan of electrics in general. These buzzin´, sparkin´ wires frighten me. I prefer mechanical stuff where I can see how things work...not what you asked for but I´m telling you anyways... my intoxicated 2 cents
I sorta swore off getting into these talks. before 64-5? Maybe something from across the big water hole, probably Italian, German or Swede. Here? Well one day decades ago some hot rod guy thought it was a miracle of automotive genius and he started it. Likely on a bracket racer looking for all the power he could muster, maybe something in Comp Eliminator. We all know how it then migrates (is that a dirty word today) into the hot rod community afterward. Personally I don't like em. It fits in my "basket of...", oops, fuck, there I go again! It's a "me too" part in my book. An easy way out, a simple fix, a popular "...and I read in the magazine that...", and, well you get it. Sure, they work, sometimes better, sometimes the best solution of all. Me? Give me a clutch fan on a modern engine, whatever Henry (or any other OEM/engineer designed on the oldies but goodies. Shrouds? In the 30s? Are you serious? Well I am. Check this shit out: The top is a Packard 12 (one of my old restorations). The next is an L-29 Cord. Hard to see, but on the Cord the corners were made with a series of small fanned out folds. Looks bitchin in person. But yes, there were shrouds used in the 20s and 30s on select cars making big power (for the day). A quick edit: Found a better pic of the Cord shroud. My motivation for looking this up? Maybe it will inspire someone like it does me. I can 'see' this approach on my 39 Flathead radiator. You like?
LOL I have been known to drop the fan in the pits. A friend of the ol' man showed up at the shop early one Saturday morning when I was little without a fan on his A. The Ol' Man asked how he kept it from overheating and he said, "I work second shift and try to drive only on the freeway." Then the Ol Man helped him bolt a cut down fan on. I guess he didn't live that close to the onramp.
This is SO easy to make !! Another interesting thing is the fan rides high on a jack shaft. A fan that is bolted to the WP and sits too low is a big reason for electrics. This is from the tread root posted. Well worth checking out.
VIc, the water pump on those spins off of a jack shaft driven by what's actually the flywheel. It also spins the generator, all happening on the other side of the engine, like this: Yeah, that shroud looks like no more than some disciplined time to fab up. When I spotted this the 1st time (way too long ago) I thought back then that it was a really logical way to do it. The almost 2 years ago had the same model car in the shop and it dragged those old thoughts through the cobwebs of my memory. That graph looks like it can really speed the process. Maybe I'll be making one for my flatty sooner than later. Damn this board is kool, full of all kind of smarts and inspiration. An edit for others: This was a front wheel drive car from 1929 thru 1931 which explains the engineering in the pics shared.
Do you have a bigger picture of that diagram? I damn near feel like going out to the shop rt now! Seriously, I really am pretty stoked over this and I'd like to print it.
No I don't, and that one above is close to something sorta like what the layout would look like. Lemme see what I can find
http://sheetmetalworld.com/sheet-me...torials/5962-how-to-develop-a-square-to-round This tells the basics and how to make it work.
What's the purpose of the chrome shaft that runs from the firewall, splits around the distributor, goes through some rollers, and then to the fan shaft? Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The pic angle is deceiving, but that's the shifter. It comes out through the middle of the dash panel, pushes in and out, tips side to side at the shift knob for gear selection. Here's a dash pic and a close up of the rollers and trans connection.
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