<VV> Electric cooling fan results

[Tony Underwood]

At 12:18 PM 7/31/2007, FrankCB at aol.com wrote:
>
>Gee Tony, maybe we should ask Tom Keosababian just what sort of FAN he  used
>for cooling during his 157 mph (on gasoline) and 170 mph (on 
>propane) runs  at
>Bonneville.

No need to ask... :)   I have a photo somewhere of his engine and it 
has a mag fan as I recall.

But we're talking about fan efficiency.   TK had power available to 
spin his mag fan for the duration of his run without having to worry 
about every last ERG to do what he wanted to do.


>He must have been putting out well over 300 HP for these  runs.  I'd say
>he had a LOT more waste heat to get rid of than the 95 hp  car 
>driven at 40 to
>60 mph!!


But could he have done it with an electric motor running ANY sort of 
fan?   Not likely... ;)


tonyu at roava.net writes:

>  efficient  cooling is a lesser matter when money is concerned,
>when the mag fan would  be "good enough".
>Well...  we see today that in certain  applications it's NOT enough.


...such as in roadracing applications where every bit of power is 
needed to propel the car and the half-dozen or so hp wasted on 
spinning the fan could be the difference between a victory and 
also-ran.   The mag fan takes power to spin fast enough to cool the 
engine.   If you have a surplus of power and don't mind the losses, 
it's fine.   If you need every last bit to win a race, it's not good 
enough.   That's why the thread went off on a tangent concerning ways 
to spin the fan without loading the engine (or the electrical 
system), via implementing an alternative power source to run the fan.



For sake of mention, I've never had any cooling issues on any engine 
running a mag fan OR a '62-3 steel "turbine" fan.

I *Have* had some cooling problems in hotter summer weather with the 
'60 and its fan while climbing some of those long uphill stretches 
around the valley here.   No such issues with the engine in the car 
now with its mag fan.   I've seen this with a '61 'Vair as well, 
which used a similar fan until I swapped it out with a '63 "turbine" 
fan (mom's '61 4-door from years ago).   THIS was one of the reasons 
I was convinced that the '62-3 steel fans moved more air and thus 
could cool better.


...makes me wonder about the '60 fan being the "best of the bunch".



tony..