Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobb
I think its more efficient to use 2 fans at low speed, than 1 at high speed. I doubt the weight of the fan has an effect on mpg and it comes in handy for traffic and AC use.  |
Well there are two trains of thought on this, there is that one and there is the train of thought that you can put a 16 inch fan on the radiator and get more airflow through the vanes because a 16 inch fan pushes far more air than 2x 12 inch fans ever could.
I'm still wondering about it all actually. The latest idea is to simply pull the air directly from the ground underneath the front bumper with two large fans, and with the use of an enclosed cowling around the radiator it then dumps the hot air into the sealed engine bay, which then vents at two spots on the bonnet near to the windscreen wipers with a slight positive pressure, the area of the windscreen which is responsible for seeing through is sealed with a factory rubber seal already in place, only the left and right edges of the bonnet are open to outside air.
The entire engine bay is sealed off, to provide an area where positive air pressure can be maintained, except for where it is better to vent the air aerodynamically.
Then the idea is to remove the thermostat, reason being is that we need to keep temps low and keeping the thermostat open all times will keep temps lower until such times as it is required to run the fans to keep things under control.
The fans are the thermostat now, and the radiator operates at the exact same temperature as the engine at all times.
This way I can do a full front grille block and a belly pan, the radiator then is using both convection assistance and fan forced cooling assistance. The radiators aren't in the path of the airstream and I can close off the entire engine bay except for the top.
The only problem is I'm concerned about the temperatures achieved inside of the engine bay exceeding the limitations of the wiring inside of the engine bay, and various other issues, for example the transmission overheating, alternator overheating, and the manifold, that can be fixed with manifold thermal tape but I'm still concerned about the temperature then heatsinking back into the head of the engine and cooking the oil ontop of the head from excessive exhaust temperatures.
So I'm waiting on some arduino temp sensors to arrive, which I can then attach to various points inside of the engine bay and obtain current data on temperatures, then compare with the mods.
If I ever need additional hot air exhausting I can then create a tight spot for the air at the very rear of the engine bay along the firewall and then create a mouth which drops down to a limit and opens up to force additional cold air in from the front, the gradient of this opening then can be varied depending upon how much cooling is necessary via arduino programming. Effectivley creating a fully automatic temperature control system. We don't get snow here so its worthwhile looking into if I want to make a smooth aerodynamic underbelly.
Thoughts?