<VV> Air vs Water HP

[Dave Morris]

I admit I've often wondered why one couldn't use ram air when the car is 
moving, and just use an electric fan when sitting still idling.

Dave Morris


At 04:04 PM 7/8/2005, you wrote:
>I've pretty much bought into this reasoning...until recently.
>
>Rich and I assembled the bits to put together a vertical fan for my track 
>car (using items similar to how other Corvair racers do it).
>
>The fan that's most often used in this application is the 11-blade plastic 
>Austin America fan.  Now this appears to me to be a pretty standard fan 
>and not
>one particularly suited to building up a head pressure to push air through 
>the engine. (And it's not even particularly powerful.... and is often 
>replaced with a
>metal fan with fewer blades for "tropical" applications despite the 
>greater noise.)
>
>And beyond that,  in it's original Mini/America application (where it 
>pushes air through a sideways radiator) it is very often replaced with a 
>standard 1000-
>1100cfm electric fan which is seen as a performance upgrade since it pulls 
>less HP.
>
>So my question is... what makes the vertical fan assembly as used by 
>Corvair racers cool the engine when it uses a fan most often replaced with 
>electric in
>its original application, yet the same electric fans can't directly 
>replace the Corvair fan?
>
>I'll admit I haven't sat down and thought this carefully through, but at 
>first blush it doesn't make much sense. What am I missing?
>
>Bill
>
> >Here are some things Rad Davis had to say about the general topic:
> >http://www.mindspring.com/~corvair/RadFAQ/ElectricFans.html
>
>
> >>Well.....
> >>
> >>A Corvair fan, no doubt, uses more HP than a water pump, there can be no
> >>doubt. Given that electric cooling fans can cool waterpumpers just fine,
> >>with
> >>reasonable amounts of power, but NOT a Corvair engine, it's pretty clear
> >>that
> >>the Corvair has the more HP intensive cooling solution.
>
>
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