Run electric fans all the time?
Well both types have plus/minus things about them. Electric is quieter on cruise, less of a paracite, cools better at idle, water pump lasts longer? but more to go wrong with electric than mechanical.
There are pros/cons to everything. Mechanical is simpler, but not as efficient. Electric is more efficient, but you have to upgrade the electrical system and run a good controller. And sure, stuff to fail- relays, fan motors, controllers, etc.
Of course, when something in the mechanical system does fail, it can do so catastrophically. I've seen fan blades tossed, water pump shafts fail and send the fan blades into the radiator, etc.
Thanks but no thanks
I will stay with my good old reliable belt driven 7 blade fan they just work
Like I told you before I have been that route spent the money, upgraded electricial it just is not worth it.
I know all the modern day crap blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada
I am old school and proud of it I dont/want all that bullshit
And yes I do have several modern vehicles that have electric fans and they work very well, but not in my classic cruiser.
I'm not trying to tell you what you should run on your car, if your mechanical system works for you then keep it. All I'm saying is that there's no reason why an electric fan system
can't work. Set up properly electric fan systems are more efficient and plenty capable. That doesn't mean you have to convert your car over. It just means that if you tried an electric fan that didn't work it wasn't because it was an electric fan, it's because it wasn't set up properly.
As for as the upgrades, most people upgrade their electrical system anyway. Amp meter bypasses are commonplace, very few people run stock output alternators anymore. My alternator is only a 100 amp, all I did was run an amp meter bypass and add the relays for the fan. Nothing crazy, I didn't rewire the whole car.
Mechanical systems fail too, they break fan belts, chew up water pumps, toss fan blades, etc. And they run all the time, or most of the time depending on the fan clutch. Modern electric fans, especially those designed for OE applications, are designed to last hundreds of thousands of miles without maintenance. That's more than the original mechanical system was designed for.
Interesting information on fan dynamics, thanks. My background is EE, not ME (or aeronautical engineering) :rolleyes:
Don't airplane propellers windmill even when feathered, though?
Anyway that was my concern - that the Contour fan would not windmill when off, which was confirmed above. But if that actually helps airflow, then they should stay off at speed!
I installed a high-flow thermostat with no change. Probably time for a modern aluminum radiator ;)
What an airplane propeller does is very specific to the aircraft. Some are direct drive off the crankshaft, some have gearboxes, some are direct gear reduction. And then some aircraft have variable pitch propellers too, which is a factor.
A lot of times it isn't about drag though. On an aircraft small enough not to have an onboard APU all the electric and hydraulic power comes from the engine spinning. If you have some kind of engine failure, you keep the propeller spinning if you can because in a lot of situations/aircraft that will keep your magneto's and your hydraulic pump turning too. So you may lose glide distance but you keep power and control. And if you have a variable pitch prop you may change the pitch to reduce some drag but still keep it spinning for power.
In some cases a multi-engine military aircraft can shut down an engine (or two in some cases) and lock them out to extend range, like a P3 on a long anti-subarine mission. But it has the other engines to maintain electric and hydraulic power. A civilian aircraft may not have that capability even if it is a multi-engine.
So it's complicated. :p
My degree is Aerospace Engineering, so, I spent a lot more time on jet and rocket engines than I did on prop driven stuff. But that's how I understand it anyway.
