Finally I admit that the electric fan just doesn't do the job that the stock clutch fan does. So out it goes and in goes the stocker. Back to having no space in the engine bay :rolleyes2: So I installed my cooler behind the radiator, I figure that way when warming up it will warm the trans and if trans is hot wont heat up the radiator. With my 56mm radiator the fan is much deeper in the cowling so the flow is now very strong, at 2000rpm it blows up the sand on my driveway heaps. Big difference now, before I couldn't use the aircon as the car would temp rise too much, now no problem runs about 90C with aircon running on a 30C day in traffic. I also mounted a 14 inch electric pusher fan in place of the stock auxiliary fan. It is much flatter so a better fit with my FMIC and filter pod up front.
Calibre 16 inch Was a decent weight max 15 amps I think, good flow but still not enough for the 300ZX than likes to sorta propel itself along by its clutch fan. I didnt run a cowling so ram air was max, front bar too. I must admit the thermo worked ok in cooler days with the SMICs so its not impossible to get an electric fan to work under limited applications (which of course isnt why you drive a 3L TT beast!!!).
How does the weight of a fan and the amps it consumes determine if it's good or not? lol For all you know it was 1000CFM rated and completely inadequate for the job?
amps gives motor power Well weight is a bit less scientific but still a rough gauge. sometimes you get fans and they are so light you just know the rating is BS. I did measure motor resistance to check the maximum amps rated, it was right. I basically posted to counter my earlier posts about electric fans, just covering my tracks if anyone ever does a search (not that anyone seems to) and thinks "hey he used an electric fan maybe I can". I never tried the famous SPAL fan, why? $300 thats why! Forgot to mention, during bleed of cooling system I could run my finger across the top plate of my 56mm single pass radiator and feel a big temp gradient across it. 85C hot at the inlet, 40C cool at the outlet. There wasn't nearly as much difference with the electric fan.
Poor alternator though 50 amps thats huge, I think the clutch fan does a good job it even compensates for temperature and limits its power above about 3000rpm too. The engine bay access was awesome with the elec fan tho, I just made the whole radiator/cowl/transcooler/etc setup as modular as I could so if its gotta move just a few hoses off and out it comes. Not that theres a lot to play with in the front of the engine anyways. :rolleyes2:
i run the 56mm radiator and a thermo and it never gets hot even with air con on , on hot day , i wonder what the difference is , is yours TT or NA ?
What if the motor it's powering is a complete hunk of junk? Or the fan blades are a poor design and dont flow good etc? Amperage draw isn't that accurate for rating the efficiency of a fan at all, CFM rating is what you want.
And no company would exaggerate about a CFM result Ide trust the size of the motor before ide trust the cfm indication.
That's why you buy from a reliable and trusted company, Davies Craig and Flex-a-lite come to mind rather than "noname" brands.
Need curves Proper engineering would be to have a flow / pressure curve for the fan, but not available. CFM is a very tricky measurement, can be a huge rating but as soon as theres any suction resistance the flow drops away. Only really can go on practical reckoning and trials, the deeper the fan the more pressure it builds eg long cowling and screw shaped blade. Most elec fans are shallow cowling and flat blades. Looking at the SPAL ones looks to be deeper cowls deeper screw shape blades and of course more power to drive them. I really don't like the idea of loading the alternator that much, unfortunately its not rated for the extra power needed and expensive to replace. Only guy who seems to run elec fan successfully is ZX2NV but is a race-car (no aircon no auto trans no stereo no etc), most of the time he has lots of ram air flow as car always moving with speed around the track.
Brands Don't mean a lot to me, everything is OEM style cheaper in China these days, sadly. My Davies Craig trans oil cooler the label fell off and hello underneath its stamped PWR.
yeh I had the same dramas as you yeti. I believe the reason thermos don't work is simply a design fault in the z. Most cars have a wider radiator which allows for 2 cooling fans. Also most cars have a far less restrictive air access to the radiator. So I really don't believe its a problem with the actual fans we've been using. I've tried 3 different types and the calibre one was the best.
TT need a lot of cooling To compare when the monster trucks were parked outside auto barn I took a look, 16" electric fan on a large radiator no ram air flow. Huuuuge supercharged V8 engine. I guess having two turbos really adds to the heat the coolant has to take care of. Perhaps the electric fan is OK for N/A cars?
I run a thermo without any hassles, on a stock radiator as well and aftermarket temp guages. With air-con on I'll reach low 90's on the water and high 90's on the oil, on a cold morning I'll struggle to even reach 80. Thats with a 3000cfm screw blade 16" thermo. If it's done right it works fine. Bt 90% of the time it's not.
I'd be interested to see a pic of how your setup looks. Do you have the thermo on all the time? btw I discovered that my folk's BMW 325i has like a 21inch single thermo. Like a jet taking off. Hmm I wish I could use that in the z!
Not if you know where to look, i.e NOT in Australia. I'm sure there are plenty of higher amp alternators that bolt up to the stock location on the Z32.
Yep, I'll try get one on the weekend, although it's nothing special. No cowling, 16" attached directly to the stock radiator. THe fan is super quiet so I have the thermo switch set quite low, about 70 degrees. Keeps it cool on all but the most bastardly summer days. I'm going to put a 56mm twin-pass before next summer tho.
As I suspected, http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.aspx?forum=general&msg_id=1035652&forum=technical&dtSearch=2 You can find them cheap in the states. You've also got to make sure you're using puller type fans, not pushers.
