Aftermarket Electric Radiator Fan

[Lembomw]

Mike, thank you for the link to HAMB.

I was told that it takes a few hundred miles to break it in. The engine builder ran the engine on his test stand for a few hours, I have driven it for approximately 500 miles at various speeds. I think with all the "touring stuff" that makes up the engine. I do not remember exactly what Dave at Evans said about it but the Evans coolant holds more heat (?) than a water/antifreeze coolant so it needs to get back to the radiator faster. The thermostat was slowing the process down (maybe that is why Model A's did not have thermostats??). It was running lean which I believe also adds to a temp increase. I am going to get a shroud to also assist with the cooling.

Thanks again, Mark

[Ray in La Mesa]

How thoroughly was the water jacket cleaned and derusted, sand blasted, muratic acid washed, etc? Some times the basic is your best option.

[Jim/GA]

Originally Posted by Lembomw

I do not remember exactly what Dave at Evans said about it but the Evans coolant holds more heat (?) than a water/antifreeze coolant so it needs to get back to the radiator faster. The thermostat was slowing the process down (maybe that is why Model A's did not have thermostats??). It was running lean which I believe also adds to a temp increase. I am going to get a shroud to also assist with the cooling.

I don't know what the guy at Evans told you, but I know for a fact the the heat capacity of Evans coolant is a bit less than a 50/50 antifreeze/water mix, and a lot less than straight water. MikeK quoted the numbers in post #6.

That means that for the same heat removal from a volume of coolant, the temperature increase (change from inlet temperature to outlet temperature) will be more, compared to antifreeze or straight water.

So, yes, circulating the coolant faster will help it exit the engine cooler.

You will really notice this effect when you turn the engine off and watch the temperature gauge go well over 200 degrees. Now the waterpump is not forcing circulation of the coolant. It is slowly rising up into the top radiator tank (due to the hot coolant being lighter density) and getting really hot in the process. Start it up back up and the temperature drops rapidly as the waterpump move a lot more coolant through the engine.

You don't see it because your gauge only goes to 190. You might want to get a gauge that reads higher.

I think getting the mixture right by swapping out jets is going to help you the most with coolant temperature. It will also help you not burn your valves from running too lean at high speed.

To help you get the mixture right, you might consider having a bung welded into your exhaust pipe and temporarily inserting an O2 sensor like is used on a modern car. You can get them as part of an "Air/Fuel Mixture Gauge" (or you can use a high impedance volt meter to read the volts coming off of the O2 sensor).

Then you can go out and drive it and see if the jets you are running are too lean or rich. Swap in some other jets and repeat the run. Take the O2 sensor out and screw a plug into the hole when you are done.

This is carb tuning the scientific way. (Google it.)

[George Miller]

In creasing the HP is not going to make more heat unless you are using it. Like driving faster or running with the peddle to the floor. It takes so much HP to go so fast. I think for normal driving it would run cooler. Because it would do it much easier.

[Jim/GA]

Originally Posted by 1930 coupe

Why not put water-antifreeze mix in for a few days just to see if it makes any difference. Would be easy to do and would answer a lot of questions.

Or straight water with anti-rust additive, for that matter, just for the break-in period and when you are tuning the jets.

Then go back to the Evans coolant if you want.

Running one and then the other with no other change will show you directly what difference the coolant choice makes (if any).

[denis4x4]

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I'm running an electric fan with an enclosed shroud. The thermo-coupler is set to come on at 170 degrees. It rarely kicks on and my engine has plenty of go-fast stuff. I also have an aluminum radiator. There are a lot of good ideas tossed out here already. I would back flush the radiator and use 50/50 before spending any more money.

[Lembomw]

Ray, I wasn’t there when the engine was worked on but the block was magnafluxed (sp?), boiled, sandblasted, pressure checked. Al did a very thorough job with it so I think from these basics were done well. When the head gasket blew last month, when I changed it with the coolant drained I looked into the block and it was quite clean. Did not see rust scales or big chunks of it as I had observed in a few other blocks that I took apart. Just for ha has though, this winter I am going to pull the radiator and have it professionally cleaned.

Jim, what you have in your second paragraph is basically what Evans said. When the engine is shut off the temp does go up, but it also went up a few years ago when I drove the car before being rebuilt when I was just using the water/antifreeze mix. Adding a thermostat with a water mix I think would also make the temp rise since there is a restriction in the path of the coolant getting back to the radiator, wouldn’t it? I think I finally got the jets in the Weber correct. I changed them to 145 and 150 and now the plugs have that nice light brown haze on them. So that will also help with the heat.

1930 Coup, switching back to water/antifreeze to see how it works then going back to Evans could be a real pain since I would need to get ALL l the water out of the system first. One of the major things that I liked about the Evans is that it will not cause the inside of the block to rust (any more than it already has). Since they don’t make these blocks anymore Just want to try and preserve the one I have.

George, that is what I found. Driving at 50 -55 even with the thermostat in the engine would run at about 180 – 190, and this was during the summer when it was 85 – 90 outside. If I increased speed to 65 (or was at a stop light) the temp would climb over 190 but go down quickly when the speed was reduced (or began driving after the light turned green). Once I took the thermostat out the temp stays around 160 – 170 at 55 mph. Since the car has the ability to easily go 65 – 70 mph I want to find a way to keep the temp under control if driving at highway speeds when they are 65mph (or driving slowly as in parades).

Denis, I am going to put a shroud on it over the winter, Can you provide info regarding the electric fan you put on such as size (1 big fan or 2 small ones) where you purchased it if you didn’t make the set up yourself, problems installing it, and anything else you can provide. This info will be very helpful to me and probably others who might be considering switching to an electric fan.

Thank you all for your continued input. I find it very informative and I am sure others who have similar questions who read these posts also find them informative. This forum is a great source for very good information.

Mark