| LIFE OF A GT |
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 | |  | March 1, 2010 - Despite the huge size of the radiator, it's a bit of a challenge to fit fans.
These are 12" units, and I guess this staggered setup will work. It's either that or one huge 18", and that would put the motor in the worst possible place. Given the fact that there are no heat exchangers (such as intercoolers or AC condensers) in front of the rad and pretty clear airflow, I think even two unshrouded fans like this will do the job. I'm very concerned about the depth of the assembly, as the more I push the rad forward the less hood height I have to play with - and I'm already tempting fate there.
entry 299 - tags: cooling, fans | | |  | March 7, 2010 - As usual, everything's tight.
A bit too tight, in fact. When I had the new frame horns and decided to install the rad to show off to Janel what I'd accomplished, I discovered that the radiator outlet was right into the kink in the horn. Argh. So I cut that one off again, chopped 5" off the back end and spliced it into the middle. You can see the ground-down welds in this shot. There still isn't a lot of room for the radiator outlet, but there's enough. That's all I ask.
On the other side of the engine, the alternator has a massive half inch of clearance. Ha, that's miles of room.
Speaking of clearance, I realized that my thought about using pusher fans and moving the rad back wouldn't work. The coolant outlet on the block would get in the way. So nix that idea then. I've decided I'm probably going to use 11" fans instead of the pair of 12" I was trying earlier, as then I can mount them side by side low on the rad. It'll mean most of the airflow will be concentrated on the bottom 2/3 of the core, but since it's a dual-pass setup it'll still hit all the coolant. This gives me more room.
entry 307 - tags: fans, packaging, frame | | |  | June 6, 2010 - The fans will be mounted to the radiator something like this.
Obviously, I've just laid the fan shroud from a different car on to the radiator, but the theory is there. I'll make a similar shroud that covers the whole radiator, and the fans will be these two in approximately the same place. I think it should cool well.
entry 342 - tags: radiator, fans, cooling, shroud | | | December 26, 2010 - I decided it would be a quick and easy thing to check the fans out by just grounding one of the wires on the relay.
I tried it...and nothing. A bit of probing with the test light revealed there was no power at the relays - and a check at the fusebox showed two blown 20A fuses, one for each fan.
Looking at the fan ratings, they're supposed to pull around 13-13.5A. But that's continuous running. I don't have the specs for a startup draw on these particular fans, but one other Spal I've used in the past has a continuous draw of 12.5A and a startup draw of 18A. So it's quite possible that my fuses simply weren't up to the task. The wiring could certainly take it, so I'll just drop in a couple of 25 or 30A fuses and see what happens.
entry 524 - tags: fans, wiring | | |
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