I have a TIM electric temp guage in my V8 90. It has twin electric fans with a Kenlowe temp switch. At the mo I have it set so the fans come on at 80°C. Does anyone know if this is correct or should it be set higher? Thanks Richard
Your thermostat will either be an 82 or 88 degree unit I'd imagine, so there's not a lot of point in bringing the fans on before the thermostat is allowing water flow, and I can't see any value in keeping the fan running until the water temp reduces so much as to allow the thermostat to close off. I'd try 85 or 90 degrees and see how it goes from there. BTW, FWIW, there is NO electric fan setup currently available that can control and maintain a relatively constant temp the way that a properly operating viscous fan can, and contrary to popular belief, there are virtually no savings to be made either. All marketing hype. The sum of the energy losses (as heat) during the conversion of mech. to elec. and back again (alternator producing electricity to drive fan motor) are greater than the losses due to drag when the viscous unit is actually driving the fan up. Badger.
The thermostat is an 82°C one. I'll try and set it to about 90°C tomorrow. The main reason for the the electric fans is to be able to turn them off when wading. Also when I fitted the auto box the oil cooler sits where the viscous would be. Thanks Richard
More than happy with my twin Kenlowe setup. Each to their own I guess.
Richard
Oil cooler should really be in front of the radiator, otherwise it isn't really having much of a desirable effect. Badger.
I don't know about the V8 setup specifically, but the saving is supposedly to be made as the electric fans are only needed when the vehicle is moving relatively slowly (or obviously stationary) and should defiantly not be needed at cruise speed. That said, bmw are very big fans of viscous fans (sorry about the pun!) and I think any trade off in energy usage is probably off set by their reliability. Toby
On or around Mon, 6 Dec 2004 00:19:42 -0000, "TVS" enlightened us thusly:
I had an electric one on the 110, on a switch, but one hot day the motor went kaput and left it with no fan at all. reverted to a plain engine-driven one after that.
'course, viscous ones *can* fail into non-spinning mode, but that IME is pretty unusual, most of them seem to do the opposite and spin too much, which is unlikely to damage the engine.
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