FYI - while it seems as tho I'm always posting opinion contrary and diametrically opposite to that posted by others, my opinions have been formed from up close and personally having been there - done that over a considerable period of time - to wit:
When I was a young lad, long ago tho not so far away, in another century and another time, I distinctly remember when water-cooled infernal combustion engined vehicles each came replete with a four-bladed fan, attached to the water-pump via 4bolts and a spacer, depending on engine\chassis configuration - wanna talk aboutcher parasitic losses!
As engine power demand increased and rpms increased to meet those demands, hot-rodders, finding those early fans would sometimes let go, causing much collateral damage, oft removed the offending part - which also resulted in overheating and reduced win ability
Along came flex-a-lite, very thin aluminum\ss blades on thicker hub, such that the blades would deflect at higher rpm and higher airflows, reducing load on engine - still with the centrifugal forces, expanding horizons, and collateral damage, but flex-a-lite hung in there, thru the auspices of jcwhitney
Strangely, one guy here or there was giving repeated runs and wins with no overheating, but nobody knew how, as the hood was always closed - a fortuitous glimpse revealed a blower motor with a Signal or Emerson electric fan blade attached, mounted behind the radiator - those reciprocating table and floor fans used the same diameter shaft as the heater blower motors in the vehicles, so the adaptation was easy
Suddenly came a proliferation of electric fans for racing, even applied to towing and working vehicles
Then, with the proliferation of affordable automotive air conditioning, thermo\centrifugal hydraulic clutch fans began showing up on the showroom floor, declutched below spec'ed temp, nearly fully engaged above temp - there went the electric fan market, down the tubes except for the RV trailer crowd, not a very big market as the fan clutches were working for them
Hayden began to offer auxilliary eng and trans coolers, and aux electric fans for the towing crowd, but also helpful when instaling large engines in compact cars with small radiators
Then, came the self-destruction of those fan clutches when racing: either the housing pulled off the bearing, or pulled the bearing off the shaft, or the bearing froze, wallered the shaft and pulled off, or broke the shaft or the clutch disintegrated at hi-rpm - whether from oem defect: some, design deficiency: some, owner neglect: many - again with the collateral damage
Again with the electric fan renaissance - firmly established amongst the limited towing crowd, vehicles had become larger, trailers larger, engines larger, even the oems were offering auxilliary electric fans as part of their towing packages (got the factory towing option aux fan from same vehicle with 454 on my built 6.5LTD GMC crewcab dually) - however, the racing market was larger, so fan technology improved, with more powerful flat pancake-type motors to reduce real estate requirements, molded plastic frames and blades to reduce weight and improve ease of design\configuration
Now, you can hit yer local boneyard and find the ideal package to fit your requirements and available real estate, all oem, available everywhere, so you're not stuck on the road in some small one-cylinder town, with no hope for the morrow
So, being this is a forum, where all sides of the story should be availiable to facilitate the best decision, I always try to give the other side of the story - the rest of the story - maybe the unknown story, having been there, done that - anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it - read it if you will, ignore it if you must, but never say "I didn't know"................
_________________ '05 CRD Limited Pricol EGT, Boost GDE Hot '11; EDGE Trail switched SEGR; Provent; Magnaflow; Suncoast T\C, Transgo Tow'n'Go switch; Cummins LP module, Fleetguard filter, Filterminder 2.5" Daystar f, OME r; Ranchos; K80767's, Al's lifted uppers Rubicons, 2.55 Goodyears Four in a row really makes it go
Last edited by gmctd on Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
|