A funny thing happened on the way thru an oil change

The latest hi-tech zenith of efficiency is the Viscotronic fan. This has an engine management controlled variable speed viscous fan. It is an amazing piece of kit. I happen to have a bit of experience with an application where a diagnostic laptop can be linked to the vehicle and the speed of the fan can be infinitely varied within reason by means of mouse on slider. It so happens that I have two near identical vehicles except that one has a simple viscous coupled fan and the other having the latest viscotronic unit and the reduction of noise from the latter is very noticeable. With the same fan blades it is probable that this equates to a significant gaining of horsepower or reduction in fuel consumption.

Huw

Reply to
Huw
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Diesel versions have an extra electric water pump which continues to pump coolant around the turbocharger bearing and cylinder head area after shut-down.

Huw

Reply to
Huw

It would be difficult to have an engine driven fan that was between the engine and the radiator. If one didn't care where the fan was relative to where the radiator was, then it would be a relatively simple matter to have an engine driven fan. It wouldn't be a very useful fan though.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Not so - the original Mini did just this. With a side mounted rad...

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

great, another thing that can go wrong and cause overheating - an electric water pump. is it so much better than the aluminum one in the newer E36 ?

not just heater core flow) in the E90...

Reply to
news

err, but it DOES do just that.....

Reply to
spare-me-spam

;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Cool beans...

That is the exact bit of trivial detail that had me asking the question in the first place. On my Z3, once the engine reaches full temperature, the fan noise at normal engine rpm (above 3000 rpm) is annoying, even though I'm tooling along at a high enough rate of speed so that the need for the fan is negligible.

-Fred W

PS - I'm just back from 2 weeks R&R in northern Maine, in case anyone missed me (or hoped I had dropped off the planet...)

Reply to
Malt_Hound

No, it doesn't. The fan runs even when the car is moving forward at a high speed forcing more air through the radiator than the fan ever could.

-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

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