Based on my personal experience...
I have a pusher fan. My car does run hotter at highway speeds (particularly
over 65 mph) than when in stop and go traffic. I have long suspected that,
as Randall states, the fan mounted on the front of the radiator acts to
deflect some of the airflow that would normally pass through the radiator.
I also suspect that a rear radiator mounted fan would reduce airflow through
the radiator as well. However, it seems to me that there might still be
more of a cooling effect by the air deflected by the radiator,with some sort
of obstruction in the rear, rather than air deflected by an obstruction in
front of the radiator (and thus never actually reaching the radiator).
Of course, it's been a long time since I had thermodynamics (and it was a
summer class at that!). :)
Kurtis Jones
Russellville, Arkansas
1963 TR4 - CT19389L
1959 AH Bugeye - AN5L23250
www.geocities.com/tr4_1963
> >However, unless you remove the original fan and it's extension, there
> >isn't room to mount the
>>electric fan behind the radiator. And mounting it in front will actually
>>reduce
>>cooling at highway speeds, IMO. It may or may not reduce it enough to be
>>a
>>problem, but it will reduce it (by interfering with the ram-air flow
>>through the
>>radiator).
>
> O Randall, Imparter of Great Knowledge, please explain to this unworthy
> Old Airplane and TR3 Guy how putting an electric fan in front or behind
> the radiator would make a difference in how much air would flow through
> the radiator? Or did you arrive at this knowledge empirically?
>
> Isn't it rather like putting a resistor in an electric circuit in front
> of, or behind, the load? The flow would decrease just the same?
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