Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
What if you're in a situation where you have high load on the engine above 50mph and the temperature gets too high? Perhaps some kind of mechanical issue.
I think you're wasting your time to be completely honest. You're trying to eliminate the waste of an inefficient alternator by changing the operating schema of your cooling fans....
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Good thoughts. I'm not sure that running the fans on the highway would help if the engine is running hot. When I had my thermostat out a couple years ago, I experimented a couple times with turning the fans on while driving down the highway at speeds I don't remember, probably around 60 MPH. Whether the fans were powered or not really didn't seem to make any difference to the coolant temp, perhaps because I have my radiator ducted in so any air that passes through the grill is forced through the rad and can't escape around it. However, I now have a different fan setup with a custom shroud, so I may test at what speed running the fans no longer helps cooling anymore as I have wondered about that too.
There isn't really any practical way for me to significantly improve the alternator's efficiency, so not using it where possible and reducing the load on it when I do need to use it is the next best thing I can do. It seems that since the fans are one of the largest power draws on the car, not running them when there is no benefit to doing so would be a good way to accomplish the goal of reducing the amount of power the alternator wastes.