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Expert
Posts: 1348
  
Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | The week before last I was getting ready to do my annual 6 hr drive to the 1000 Islands in upstate N.Y. I had a small leak in my rad. that suddenly opened up on Thursday before I went up and I was leaving Sat. morning.
Friday morning I dropped in the new aluminum rad. and put on a 16" electric fan and removed the water pump fan.
I've always heard that my HP and mileage would be better. My 1960 318/powerglide always ran cool even with low water on warm days but with this set up, it rarely went over 2/3s hot and never above.
The thing that surprised me the most was the mileage. I picked up well over a mile to the gallon. I'm almost positive I got at least 2 MPG more. Haven't checked yet but I was way into the drive when the other car needed to stop for gas and before I was always the one to stop first and driving home, we stopped at the regular stop where I would normally have just enough gas to get home and now I had a little under 1/3! That's a big difference.
The radiator was approx. 1" narrower as far as mounting. One side mounted up but I needed to make a couple short brackets from some old angle iron I had. I mean, this was all done that day just to get me up there.
The fan wiring was easy and very basic. The hardest ting for wiring was finding a keyed on wire. One thing I think would help is a relay with a 10 second pause. When hot, as soon as I turn the key, the fan kicks on. Would be nice if it had a delay because my car turns slower when it's hot and needs all the batteries attention. All together, it took me around 4 hrs to get it all done. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5006
| the regular fan sucks a TON of power..
It one of the easiest ways to gain power. Go watch the engine masters show on it.
It was like 25 hp? with a solid steel fan. |
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Expert
Posts: 3774
 
Location: NorCal | udoittwo - 2022-09-11 2:50 PM
One thing I think would help is a relay with a 10 second pause. When hot, as soon as I turn the key, the fan kicks on. Would be nice if it had a delay because my car turns slower when it's hot and needs all the batteries attention.
Hook an ISO relay, connected to the starter relay, into the fan circuit so that the fan shuts off when the starter in engaged. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 443
Location: Beaumont TX | Very interesting. Had no idea the fans used that much horse power. |
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new radiator and electric fan
