Idea: spray bar instead of rad fan?

[blueflame]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

The first year I removed the fan from my truck I carried it with in the cab along with the needed wrench. Never needed it so finally I stuck it in the garage.

Can't say fe has jumped up though. Truck is quieter without that fan noise.

Ditto. Mines an underpowered japanese diesel van, so I got a much needed hp back too.

Maximizing cooling isnt really an issue for most ecomodders, reduced cooling seems to save gas

[chuckm]

I'm not sure about a squirter/spray system to replace a fan. A squirter is going to cool by two mechanisms: conduction and convection. The cooler temperature of the fluid hitting the radiator will provide a small amount of cooling. The real money is in convection. Then energy pulled out by the fluid evaporating off the fins would be huge. But air flow is critical to driving convection. If you don't have enough air flow to cool your radiator without the squirter, I seriously doubt you'll have sufficient air flow to make your squirter effective.

Additional problem: the fluid on the radiator will likely help dirt stick to the radiator fins. The crud buildup will tremendously lower your radiator's cooling efficiency.

[RobertSmalls]

I recommend an electric cooling fan and adjustable thermostatic controller. It saves gas and frees up power vs a clutch-driven fan, and it doesn't cost much more than a replacement fan clutch. Fanless sounds interesting, but you'd have to monitor it diligently, and you can install a more aggressive grille block if you have a fan on standby.

[aerohead]

the close clearance between the blade tips and shroud is a good thing,as it allows higher static pressure difference across the heat exchanger.The tolerance would be tighter except engine torque would allow the tips to collide as engine moves in rubber mounts.-------------- In stop and go traffic without a fan,a mister system could actually wet the cooling fins enough to clog their airways essentially reducing surface area.---------- Additionally,de-mineralized and de-ionized water might be required as dissolved salts in regular tap water could build up on the fins,again,decreasing the effective surface area of the radiator,if not corroding the aluminum which would ruin heat transfer.----------------- Also,thermal "shocking" of the heat exchanger could conceivably alter it's state of,or lack of heat treatment,which could endanger it with fatigue stress encountered during "quenching."

[RH77]

I may be one of the few folks that have had some close encounters with overheating.

Discussion Link.

The Integra has a rad-block during the coldest 1/3 of the year, but if outside temps get above 50F, I've seen coolant temps as high as 240F, so I had to remove it for the rest of the year. KC temps range from -1F to 101F, so seasonal adjustments have become a tradition.

Timing is at max advance, Stat = 190F; Fuel = 91 Octane, intake temp target = 100F, hood gaps sealed, radiator replaced 3 years and about 40,000 miles ago, Water/Coolant = 70/30.

I think the automatic transmission is partly to blame fr the heat build up. I notice the coolant temp rise in the following situations: mostly at highway speeds/RPMs, and secondly during stop and go traffic (especially with the A/C operational).

The solution has been to run a higher concentration of water-to-coolant, and check the level more often. I also opened a panel in the wiper area to allow more airflow across the engine during Summer.

To get ready for Winter, I'll probably have to increase the coolant ratio to prevent freeze-up.

RH77

[meanjoe75fan]

I'm bumping this because I have more info to report.

First, I got a setup. Purchased a washer bottle, pump, and attached hose for $25 from a auto salvage site. A bit high, IMO, but they did at least let me test it (place on batt. terminals and listen for noise).

Got it home and used 5' of 1/4" O.D. copper flex tubing for the sprayer. First I notched the metal with an angle grinder, then drilled holes using the smallest bit I had. To close off the end, hammered last 3" flat, then bent it over on itself twice. Tested and worked just fine.

Tonight I removed the shroud and fans. Only two bolts holding it on, though I did have to remove the battery to get at one.

Results from removing the fan: as expected, car runs cooler (~10F) without the restrictive shroud. As it turned out, I never hit the fan's operating temp of 212F...which was good, seeing as I didn't have the sprayer installed yet.

On the downside, the car idles rougher...the ScanGauge reveals: fuel burn similar to stock, load up 10-15% (to 40%) at idle, and RPMs drop from 900-1000 to 500-600! Timing unchanged, and no CEL. I am uncertain why this is happening, as the fan is supposedly "out of the loop" until tripped by the temperature. (The only thing I can think of is some sort of "start-up diagnostics" that checks for fan status. I will be interesting to see if the washer pump motor is a sufficiently good stand-in for the fan motor to "fool" the test, if applicable.)

[Christ]

If not, resistors will.

[MadisonMPG]

I take the fan off of all my cars in the Winter. Makes them 10x quieter on startup and pretty quiet all of the time.

[meanjoe75fan]

Well, sorry to say that the experiment was a failure... The spray bar only provided modest cooling, and--for practical use--would require a resevoir the size of the gas tank! This really surprised me, considering how much better water is than air at quenching metal, for instance.

Oh, well...can always find a use for the pump, and it won't be too much work putting the shroud back on. I think my next move is to close off from the front bumper to the rad bottom, to get the air to go through, rather than around.

Just wanted to report the bad news, in case anyone else was considering travelling the same road...don't bother.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by meanjoe75fan

Well, sorry to say that the experiment was a failure... The spray bar only provided modest cooling, and--for practical use--would require a resevoir the size of the gas tank! This really surprised me, considering how much better water is than air at quenching metal, for instance.

Oh, well...can always find a use for the pump, and it won't be too much work putting the shroud back on. I think my next move is to close off from the front bumper to the rad bottom, to get the air to go through, rather than around.

Just wanted to report the bad news, in case anyone else was considering travelling the same road...don't bother.

Appreciate all the grunt work to flesh out and test your idea.It's a bummer when things go south but the consolation is that you are one of the few with a first order reality experience with this,and now you really know!
And thanks to you sharing the data,so do all of us!

So a big thumbs-up and thank you! Never regret trying.We need lots of that.