Re: Electric fans

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

kenlipo@domain.elided (Ken J Hitchcox) scribbled in the sand:

>This a Tom Mandera thought process so bear with me. <bg>

Lord help us!

>It is my
>understanding that the 304/345/392 have excellent cooling
>systems...except at low rpm/high torque situations.  Like when I'm
>crawling along through the desert.

Have you experienced this or just heard this?  I've read posts to the Digest
where IH owners almost swear they *can't* make their cooling system over boil
even in high desert heat.

>Moving more air across the radiator
>doesn't seem to be the answer.  Seems like it would make more sense to
>move more water through the engine.  What about some kind of axuilary
>water pump? or maybe a larger pulley for the water pump? Tom, John Landry
>any comments? Does anyone make something like this? Am I way off base?

I dunno Ken.  If you're having a problem, I think you first have to think
along the lines of how efficiently are you removing heat from the cooling
system.  More air certainly is *one* answer, but if you have a radiator full
of corrosion and mostly plugged... then yes, moving more air through it won't
help much.  If however you have a clean radiator (inside and out), then
evaluating how much air your putting through it makes sense to me.

But don't get focused on one thing.  Certainly if you could move more and / or
cooler water through the system, the engine would in turn be cooler.  But I
can't see how it'd be practical to move more water through the engine.  To
turn the pump faster, you'd need a *smaller* diameter pulley on the water pump
or a *larger* pulley on the crankshaft.

If you are looking for practical ways to run your engine cooler under high
load and low speed conditions, I'd first make sure your *entire* cooling
system is in tip top shape.  Remove and inspect or replace the radiator hoses.
Buy a two part cooling system flush chemical from Prestone and also the kit
they offer with a tee fittings for backflushing the entire system.  Follow the
directions on both to the letter... a proper flush job involves removing the
thermostat.  You may even want to consider having your radiator professionally
disassembled, cleaned and reassembled.  Make sure you have a new radiator cap
of the correct pressure rating (like 15 psi for the Scout II line).  I run a
lower pressure radiator cap for on road use in order to be kinder to my 76
Traveler's old cooling system.  If you have one, make sure your fan clutch is
working properly.

After tuning up the cooling system, *then* you should take a serious look at a
big electric radiator fan... alone or with your stock fan.  You could add an
electric fan to the front of the radiator as an assist to the rear fan,
although an electric fan is more efficient at the rear.  If you want to avoid
an electric fan, then a flexible blade fan is not a bad option *if* your
engine rpms will be relatively low when your "crawling" in the desert.

That's my $0.02 worth!

Happy holidays,

John

------------------------------------------------------------------------
jlandry@domain.elided             |
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