<VV> less fan crap

[BobHelt at aol.com]

Hello Timothy,
NO! Nobody is telling you that and frankly I don't really see  how you 
could conclude that.
 
But despite your satisfaction with your Corvair's cooling,  there 
remain...yes 60 years later.....two major problems with the Corvair's  cooling 
system. First is that the fan just consumes too darn much horsepower for  the 
amount of cooling it does. GM found that the fan (the best one) takes some  26 
horsepower at 6000 rpm. That is a lot of power stolen from a Corvair engine  
that might be producing a couple hundred HP at that speed. If the hp  
consumed could somehow be reduced more power would be available to power  the car. 
that is the goal of most racers.
 
And then there is the problem with the engine. There just  aren't 
sufficient cooling surfaces to provide adequate cooling under certain  conditions. 
Chevrolet found that out when they ran their major road-trip tests  during the 
summer of 1966. Then Corvairs with both A/C and A.I.R overheated  badly for 
the 80 mph tests and overheated disastrously for the WOT testing. They  had 
to be shut down to prevent MELTING the engines. Sure, now I will get some  
push-back that Corvairs don't overheat, but realize that these were 
Chevrolet  tests, not mine, and should be taken to heart. Chevrolet even knew of the 
 limiting cooling capability of the early Turbo power engines. Benzinger 
often  spoke of the driver running out of road before the engine overheated as 
a  prevention to disaster. And the Chev engine test engineers running the 
dyno  tests frequently reported that they had to let the Corvair engines cool 
between  max power tests just for this same reason.
 
And all of these were new stock engines. Just imagine the loss  in cooling 
when the engine has some miles on it and a few head passageways get  plugged 
up with dirt. Everybody is concerned with this situation.
 
So, face it. The stock Corvair's cooling system is adequate  for most 
driving conditions but it can be overheated under certain conditions  easily 
obtained with certain models and equipment.
 
Regards,
Bob Helt.
 
 
 
In a message dated 7/30/2013 7:05:34 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
shortle556 at earthlink.net writes:

I just  drove my Corvair Camper van 3200 miles to and from Kalamazoo with 
my stock mag  fan and now you are telling me I need a new one? I say bull 
pucky. 
Timothy  Shortle in Durango Colorado  81301