Run electric fans all the time?

72bluNblu said

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.

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.

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Agreed, when I was a kid, my dad had a 1983 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 Convertible, the fan clutch failed and took out the water pump and timing cover with it. On that car it had a serpentine belt with a mechanical fuel pump - which they didn't make timing covers for so my dad had to have an EFI one modified. So the car was off the road for months. We got lucky it didn't mess up the radiator and shroud along with it.

My uncle worked at Bosch when they were designing those Contour fans, he said its one of the most difficult applications he had seen, the fans almost touch the exhaust manifold, engine bay tightly packed, small grille openings, very thin radiator, A/C, and it had to cool with the A/C on max in death valley in the summer. My fan is OEM and is over 20 years old already.

I'm a mechanical engineer but I work on braking systems for a living. Also kind of into planes, the windmill restart videos of a Russian Tupelov TU-95 at altitude are interesting to say the least.