Electric cooling fan?

[AggieDave]

A great mod to make to a water cooled vehicle is to ditch the fan and fan clutch and go with an electric fan mounted on the radiator. Many times its controled by a temp switch.

However, except for oil cooler setups, I've never really seen an electric fan setup to replace the doghouse fan setup. Has anyone tried this? I would think that it would take a significant load off a street engine and maybe be more efficient.

[jrinlv]

I would hate to say, "you could not do it", but heat kills these engines and they want to be hot. JR

[AggieDave]

Yes, I understand that. However, you figure that it works for watercooled applications that there would be a way to setup a system that would work as well with aircooled engines. It would probably even be possible to have the fan(s) continue to run after the engine turns off for a specified amount of time or until a certain temperature is reached. On my big Z71 switching to an electric fans "saves" about 15hp on the engine. On that V-8 a 15hp gain really isn't earth shattering. Having owned a 1303 for 12 years I know that even a 10hp gain is a BIG deal on the flat-4.

Basically I'm thinking outloud on this and fairly surprised someone hasn't done this (that I've seen). Of course you run into other problems, like finding the right pully setup to run your alternator without over reving it. That and what sort of shroud setup would be needed with which type of fan, etc.




Example of a fan for a Chevy/GMC

[zeroaxe]

The thing is that on a beetle motor you can not use such a fan like in your link. It has got to be the existing fan. You see, on watercooled engines, the water flows through the radiator which increases the surface area that can be cooled by a fan that blows along the electric motor's turning axis. The beetle fan blows air perpendicular to the alternator/generator's axis.

So the only alternative that you have is to swap to a completely different alternator(placed elsewhere in the engine compartment), and then fabricate something up that attaches to the original fan, in place of the alt/generator. And obviously this electirc motor needs to put out the same turning speed than the alt/gen. I am not in the position to say if such a electric motor exists I am sure that in the glory days, if this was possible/feasable to do, they would've thought about it back then and we all would be using it now....

By all means, it can still be looked into and tried, but I am sure that most out there would rather spend that kind of money on something that is tried and tested to give that extra percentage power. Like dual carbs, bigger crank etc etc.

Your theory does have some (obvious) grounds that you can release some HP by disconnecting the alt/gen... This is exactly what drag racers do(professional or at shows/meetings). But most of them claim about 5hp or so difference. In my personal view, that kind of HP is not worth spending all that money on......

Just my $0.02, after all, that is what forums are for, no?

[AggieDave]

Just my $0.02, after all, that is what forums are for, no

Exactly.

I am sure that most out there would rather spend that kind of money on something that is tried and tested to give that extra percentage power. Like dual carbs, bigger crank etc etc.

Yup, but have you seen some of the crap that people came up with during the late 60's early 70's for VWs for speed and HP? There's always been a process and a large majority of it hasn't really worked out all that well. That's why I figured someone had tried an electric fan.

The thing is that on a beetle motor you can not use such a fan like in your link.

I've seen similar fans as to the VW fan, but not an exact copy. Since the construction of a large majority of fans are an ABS plastic, the construction of such a fan blade design would be trivial. It would just take some time. The link was just to give a reference as to where my thought process was coming from in regards to products I've seen available for my truck.

Well, at the very least my question has been answered. Nope, no one has seriously attempted a mod like this. Someday maybe I'll sit down and figure it out but not now. Late night postings on the matter take a lot less time then this sort of fabrication.

[wrenchnride247]

Well, there is such a fan for T1's and T4's, but it's for racing only. They use them in europe, and I have seen them in the states as well. It's a good thought, but you would still have to run a alternator of some sort for street use. This will take about the same horse power to run just like the current fan/alternator set-up that everyone uses. So, the only thing you would gain is a cool factor. There is a picture of one somewhere in the members rides.

[wrenchnride247]

I found the picture... Scroll down after you open
http://www.germanlook.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=7589