now the winter is approaching i am looking at ways of warming the engine faster seen as i only do a short journey to work. not got around to fitting electric fans yet but will i get away with taking the viscous fan off anyway. the only problem i can see is if i get stuck in traffic picking he mrs up from town every evening usually traffic is not normally that bad but you can get stuck in queues for 10-15 minutes sometimes.
paul
If the thermostat is working properly, then the coolant won't get to the radiator until it has reached the thermostat's opening (and hence engine operating) temperature anyway, so what can you possibly hope to achieve by removing the fan, unless there is a fault elsewhere? There is a popular misconception that viscous fans rob power, over-cool or under-cool engines and generally cause slower warming up, all bullshit! A properly operating viscous unit robs virtually zero power from the engine as the fan is in freewheel mode the vast majority of the time anyway, being rotated more due to airflow as mph increases than by engine rpm. If you must try to get a warmer engine in a shorter timeframe, fit a kenlowe (or similar) hotstart unit. In severe cold weather situations (Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Northern Scandinavia, etc) the super-chilled airflow around the engine bay can effectively overcool an engine, the answer is a radiator blind to prevent the airflow, not fan removal. Badger.
So why do they use electric fans not viscous ones ?
Steve
On or around Wed, 19 Oct 2005 17:26:52 +0000 (UTC), "Badger" enlightened us thusly:
not blowing cold air over the engine block.
On or around Wed, 19 Oct 2005 17:26:52 +0000 (UTC), "Badger" enlightened us thusly:
ah, but how many are "properly operating"? I've only ever had 2 that I was convinced about.
Last year the viscous coupling packed up on my 3.9, so a nice new pair of Kenlowe electrics were fitted, - and that was the start of my problems.
Initially I began to have starting problems when the engine was hot, especially after being stuck in traffic for a long time.
Local agents couldn't find anything wrong on the test box, but it was hinted that fuel vapourisation could be the problem.
The next service passed all emissions tests ok, but it was noted that the auto trans fluid was beginning to darken as if overheated.
Contacting Kenlowe received advice of lowering the cut in temperature of the fans to just above the halfway mark on the temp gauge, this was well below the 'N' on the Kenlowe thermostat.
The starting problem became much worse over the summer, so when the car went in for the 'call back' petrol tank change, they spent more time on the engine systems and proved that the injectors were leaking and that fuel rail pressure was leaking into the inlet manifold when the engine was switched off.
Tests on the auto trans fluid definately showed overheating, and as the transmission oil cooler is part of the main radiator the faults were put down to little or no airflow going through the radiator during traffic jam periods, apparently even a freewheeling fan causes some airflow.
The injectors were sent for cleaning, but were returned as unserviceable as they were leaking too badly, and it was suggested that overheating of the plastic bodies could be the cause (?)
The cure - 8 new injectors, transmission fluid and filter change, and a new viscous coupling. Just like driving a new car, and 2 mpg more!!
My advice - leave it as it was designed to be, and get a new coupling. Paddocks do a new one for a much better price than the agents.
During stardate Wed, 19 Oct 2005 20:40:54 +0000 (UTC), Lofty uttered the imortal words:
I put a home compiled fan on my old V8 Rangie, used a Range rover temp switch from an EFI. Only difference was the noise reduced from the engine bay. Other than that a waste of time and effort.
Lee D
-- "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
But if you read on, Austin, I covered that point further down. Simply removing the fan doesn't help as the air still flows as you are moving. There is enough airflow to cool a 3.5 v8 with no fan at all at speeds of
25mph and over, as I found out when a lecky fan went phut on me once.... drove all the way from Oban to Elgin like that. Badger.
Yeah. I'm not convinced about the viscous fans on either of my landies. Atleast you know where you are with an electric one!
On or around Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:53:53 +0100, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:
yeah, the bastard can seize in midflight and stop blowing on a hot day, like one of mine did.
viscous ones fail one of 2 ways, mostly it seems they go too stiff and spin when they don't need to.
I really prefer solid engine-driven fans. OK, not as efficient, but they do keep working unless the fan belt fails, and that's usually apparent from other info.
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