<VV>Fanz, and how they work

[JVHRoberts at aol.com]

Where to start...
 
1. The drive for a Corvair fan is actually fairly efficient. It is NOT the  
major power user here. 
 
2. No doubt one can improve on the Corvair fan, it's tough to do worse. 
 
3. A 350 Chevy has some MAJOR advantages cooling wise compared to a  Corvair. 
Much greater surface area in the radiator, compared to a Corvair  engine. I 
dare say, probably more than 10X the area. It also poses FAR less  resistance 
to air flow than a Corvair engine. In a Corvair, VW, or Porsche air  cooled 
engine, the pressure inside the shrouds is MANY times greater than the  pressure 
needed to force the required air flow through a radiator. Hence the  massive 
HP requirement on an air cooled engine's cooling blower. 
 
4. My guess is, if someone wanted to do the work, a decent cooling fan in  
the stock Corvair location would not only produce massive improvements in  
cooling, but take less HP to boot. Again, 911s cool FAR better, and their fans  
typically use less power, all the while blowing more air at greater pressure. 
 
5. Electrics are interesting, and if someone decided to put a 200 volt or  so 
alternator dedicated to the cooling system, with a modern electric motor  
appropriate for the application, something could be made to work. But it would  
STILL weigh more, be a LOT more expensive, and be of no functional advantage  
over a proper belt driven blower..
 
Off of soapbox...
 
 
In a message dated 8/1/2005 1:23:20 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
lechevrier at earthlink.net writes:

>  Doesn't make much difference how many blades you use or how much 
>  engineering you do, it still takes a certain amount of power ...

Ron  --

No disrespect to your opinions, but Tom's little set up just happens  to
work. And his off-road buddies that are using this system out in  the
sand say they are getting 25 more hp to the wheels (as reported by  Tom).

So, maybe, just maybe, what has happened in the last 45 years, is  that
some folks have engineered a better system for moving air that uses  less
power than GM's Corvair design -- surely a lot is wasted with the  belt
going around those two extra pulleys and changing direction twice  --
with the electric fan, the alternator can be relocated axially,  greatly
improving belt efficiency.

My basic thoughts on this  are:

If one can cool 350 ci high perf water pumpers on a dyno with one  of
these fans, why not 164 ci in a Vair? 

Eddy - what happened to  Eddy - had one running a couple/three years ago
that he took to convention,  now Tom has one out there driving around
doing burnouts in the street in  front of the hotel with a turbo on it,
and some of y'all still say it can't  be done. (Yeah, he's an impetuous
young guy -- people thot Edison was a  crackpot, too.) 

Well, I want to tell you, it's time to sell that horse  and buggy and
move into the 21st Century -- electric fan Corvairs have been  done. Tom
took his wife out to dinner in the contraption Friday night  (really a
very nice clean LM, a pearl goldish yellow with a white top  and
accents), and then they returned in that very same car - it was  still
running. Yeah, it was a bit warm when he returned, but it is a  turbo
setup, he'd just been 'showing off' (above), and he shut it down  without
a turbo cooling off period (remember; young, impetuous).

PS:  He is not using the cheapest fan on the market - it pushes/pulls
roughly  double what a stock fan will do -- remember the stock Mag fan is
a design  compromise - the '60 fan, a VW/Porsche copy, is the high
efficiency design  from that era, it just doesn't work well with the
Corvair  layout.

PPS: John Deere has used the Corvair style belt layout on some  garden
tractor/lawm mowers from the same era as Corvair, only they had  a
centrifical clutch and a spring tensioner on the idler side, oem.  Seems
to get my dad's lawn mowed without throwing belts - replaced the  first
one in at least the last 20 years this summer.

PPPS: Tom's  also got some nice big valve covers for you roller rocker
guys.  

Bill Strickland