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Re: Heater control valve and fans and....

To: "murray arundell" <goforit@ecn.net.au>
Subject: Re: Heater control valve and fans and....
From: Jack Emery <jemery@mint.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 17:45:08 -0500
Cc: mgb-v8@autox.team.net
Reply-to: Jack Emery <jemery@mint.net>
Sender: owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net
At 04:16 PM 2/10/01 +1000, you wrote:
>Sorry Jack,
>
>But you are wrong on the electric fans....

First of all Murray, you are absolutely correct that the factory cooling
system in good condition including the 13 row oil cooler will work "ok"
with the 137 hp factory motor.

The reality is that I deal with conversion cars.  A lot more than 137
horsepower, high compression, oxygenated fuel, and no oil coolers.  We are
getting away from the remote filters with expensive and prone to leakage
rubber hoses.  The common method now is the engine mounted filter.  Couple
this with tubular manifolds that dissipate heat much more quickly underhood
than the factory iron manifolds and you have much higher underhood temps to
deal with.


  The traffic that I use for a test bed is Boston or Hartford in July and
August.  Very slow, high density, with the car or bus ahead belching its
exhaust into your grill for an hour.  The little yellow 10 inch fans hum
away but the temp gauge climbs ever upward.  In this case, the 13 inch flex
fan does seem to help.

I do not care for unshrouded engine driven fans.  We have used them  for a
"crutch" to assist the  yellow hummers but I do not endorse or recommend
them.  They are inefficient and waste power.  The problem is that the water
pump sits too high for a decent size fan to fit and allow for a shroud, or
at least a hand guard.  The 2100-2700cfm premium aftermarket fans
incorporate the shroud with the fan so the efficiency is vastly superior to
the little yellow hummers that have only 4 blades and no shrould.  A third
of the radiator core never gets air with the yellow fans, as only the upper
10 inches is exposed to the airpath.  At least the aftermarket fans sweep
the whole core.

I cannot speak for others involved in doing conversions, but I try to
"build a better mousetrap".  To me having a water temp of 210 in traffic is
wrong.  The cockpit is hot, the car restarts hard, and there is not much
"cushion" if piece of paper or other urban debris blows off the road into
the grill.

I want a car that my wife or daughter can drive without having to turn on
fan switches and monitor gauges like a flight engineer.  To achieve this
sort of reliability you overbuild some systems.  In all of my years of
building hotrods I have never heard anyone remark that "it cools too good,
should have used a cheaper radiator".

I guess that for me "ok" just ain't good enough.

Thanks for your comments, wish that I was in OZ instead of the frozen North
today.


.. I raun my Rubber Bar BGT-V8
>with a "warm" Rover motor out here in the Tropical north of Australia where
>the temp sits in the high 90's - 110 for most of the summer with big number
>humidity..... they work ok on the highway and in traffic.  If you set your
>cooling system up the way the factory did and make sure its in GOOD
>condition it will work ok, in traffic it will worf better than an engine
>driven number.....
>
>Murray Arundell


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