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if your electric fan runs all the time...

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: if your electric fan runs all the time...
From: Chris Kantarjiev <cak@parc.xerox.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:41:44 PDT
It may not be the controller's fault. It may be because you've moved
the fan to block the radiator.

A few days ago I mentioned that I'd installed an electric fan with
thermostatic controller on my GT6+. I used a 13" (the width of the
core) fan, which I installed in front of the radiator (a "pusher")
because there isn't sufficient clearance behind. To alleviate the
common complaint that these sorts of aftermarket fans run all the time,
I installed the temp probe at the bottom of the radiator, so I can tell
when the radiator isn't adequately cooling the water, and add air.

This weekend I had my first chance to check it out in real traffic. We
drove about 200 miles, much of it freeway, and I was surprised and
annoyed at how much the fan was running. Even at 70mph on a cool
evening, the fan would come on every few minutes. 

This seemed ridiculous. So I removed some wiring, leaving the
controller out of the picture but keeping the bypass switch. Drive on
the freeway, and notice that the temperature won't stabilize - it just
creeps up and up, until I switch on the fan.

Apparently the core is blocked enough (and is sized marginally enough,
not a big surprise on the GT6), that the amount of air flowing through
without the fan isn't sufficient to cool the engine. Sigh.

I'm going to try another setup: a 10" fan, mounted behind. I believe that this
can be made to fit, and won't restrict airflow very much, since it doesn't
reduce the area presented to the moving air. I hope that a 10" fan will be
adequate to cool things down in slow-moving traffic; certainly it should move
more air than the stock mechanical fan did! I'll let you know my results, of 
course.


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