| Author |
Message |
froger
Samba Member
Joined: December 26, 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Australia
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2025 4:23 am Post subject: Electric fan for engine cooling |
 |
|
As above has the picture I've added ever become a thing and do you think it would be successful for cooling a type 4 2L engine cylinders ? Has anyone used electric fans for cooling ? Cheers
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
airschooled
Air-Schooled
Joined: April 04, 2012
Posts: 13551
Location: West Coast, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2025 4:50 am Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
That’s really good for drag racing where you don’t run a fan during the pass for maximum hp.
And internet clout.
That’s an extreme performance engine pictured, so it’s likely torn down more frequently than I rotate my tires.
Robbie
_________________
One-on-one tech help for your vintage Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com
Road trip reports and tech blog:
https://www.patreon.com/airschooled |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SGKent 
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 42807
Location: at the beach
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2025 9:20 pm Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
no but they have some that run off pressurized air in a tank. Only issue is that you'd be stopping at every service station to fill the pressure tank. They were designed for deep river crossing buses where the water shorts out the electric fans. Gotta be careful around male hippopotamuses if you are river crossing in Africa. They get confused about it being a bus and not a female hippo in heat. 
_________________
George Carlin:
"Most people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it."
Skills@EuroCarsPlus:
"never time to do it right but always time to do it twice"  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 52511
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 7:28 am Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| One of the great things about the Type 4 engine, is that the fan is driven directly by the crankshaft, no belts and idler pulleys to fail leave one sitting on the side of the road with a destroyed engine, same with requiring no electricity and electrical components susceptible to engine killing failures. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Glenn
Mr. 010
Joined: December 25, 2001
Posts: 79840
Location: Sneaking up behind you
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| Wildthings wrote: |
| One of the great things about the Type 4 engine, is that the fan is driven directly by the crankshaft, no belts and idler pulleys to fail. |
I guess that just means you can drive it till the battery dies from no alternator.
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"
Member #1009
#BlueSquare
עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rsbadura
Samba Member
Joined: November 30, 2009
Posts: 756
Location: Berlin, Germany
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 52511
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 10:23 am Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| Glenn wrote: |
| Wildthings wrote: |
| One of the great things about the Type 4 engine, is that the fan is driven directly by the crankshaft, no belts and idler pulleys to fail. |
I guess that just means you can drive it till the battery dies from no alternator. |
If you push start and don't drive at night not having an alternator would limit you to one trip across country.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SGKent
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 42807
Location: at the beach
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:42 pm Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| Wildthings wrote: |
| Glenn wrote: |
| Wildthings wrote: |
| One of the great things about the Type 4 engine, is that the fan is driven directly by the crankshaft, no belts and idler pulleys to fail. |
I guess that just means you can drive it till the battery dies from no alternator. |
If you push start and don't drive at night not having an alternator would limit you to one trip across country. |
am available Tuesday if you want to try it but have to be home Tuesday night. Sounds like fun Mike.  An alternative method of starting once the battery has hosed - assuming there is enough to run the ignition. I made it once from Solvang to Anaheim at night when the generator on my 1971 crapped out because I was too late changing the brushes ... It was just starting to misfire from low voltage as I got into Anaheim. Put it on a battery charger for an hour and finished the trip back to Riverside. There I was greeted with a housemate crazed on drugs waving a pistol around at people. Spent the night somewhere else. Drugged crazies are not the best people to be around when they are waving pistols around.
Link
_________________
George Carlin:
"Most people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it."
Skills@EuroCarsPlus:
"never time to do it right but always time to do it twice" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 52511
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 3:34 pm Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| SGKent wrote: |
| Wildthings wrote: |
| Glenn wrote: |
| Wildthings wrote: |
| One of the great things about the Type 4 engine, is that the fan is driven directly by the crankshaft, no belts and idler pulleys to fail. |
I guess that just means you can drive it till the battery dies from no alternator. |
If you push start and don't drive at night not having an alternator would limit you to one trip across country. |
am available Tuesday if you want to try it but have to be home Tuesday night. Sounds like fun Mike. An alternative method of starting once the battery has hosed - assuming there is enough to run the ignition. I made it once from Solvang to Anaheim at night when the generator on my 1971 crapped out because I was too late changing the brushes ... It was just starting to misfire from low voltage as I got into Anaheim. Put it on a battery charger for an hour and finished the trip back to Riverside. There I was greeted with a housemate crazed on drugs waving a pistol around at people. Spent the night somewhere else. Drugged crazies are not the best people to be around when they are waving pistols around.
Link
|
Ten'ish years ago I lost the generator on my T-181 Thing in West Yellowstone on a Friday and decided I could just continue my trip through the park and make it to Helena where I was heading on the existing charge on the battery. At some place outside of the park I decide to buy a group 27 battery and hooked it up in parallel with the older one and continued on my way driving only during the day figuring I would be able to get either brushes or a replacement generator in Helena. But it was no dice on a generator in Helena and none of the several VW houses I contacted elsewhere had the generator or if they did were willing to ship General Delivery, the safest way to ship out there  . So I just decided I could finish my trip with the setup I had. From Helena I made a 2000 mile road trip home with included using the starter a few times but never the headlights and only bothered to have the dual battery setup recharge once I got close to home. At that point I ordered a factory new generator and put the Group 27 onto my pickup which was in need of one, so overall it had cost me nothing extra.
The guys at the autoparts where I bought the Group 27 thought is was really cool that I was making up a jury rig to stay on the road and even hung around 15 minutes after closing in case I needed anything else, which I thought was pretty incredible. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jjvincent
Samba Member
Joined: January 11, 2016
Posts: 1444
Location: Bethlehem, PA
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 4:21 pm Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
Looks like for drag racing. My dad drag raced back in the early 70's with a bug and he had no fan. Living your life a quarter mile at a time and back then, no fan needed. I could see that it would be nice to have today as you can cool it off more consistently between runs.
Formula Vees have no fan and they just use ducted air. Plus they toodle around the paddock all day long. They pretty much are pushing very little weight and the engine is small, not cranking out much power.
For everyday use, it would be a terrible idea. You are relying on the fan constantly and would actually need to start monitoring head and oil temp to set up a strategy for it to run at multiple speed and on and off.
Back when we ran a 356 in SCCA racing we experimented with no fan but just used the two headlight openings to catch air and feed the engine. That didn't work. We were pushing that engine way too hard. Plus it had a front oil cooler on it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NASkeet
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2006
Posts: 3225
Location: South Benfleet, Essex, UK
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 10:52 am Post subject: Re: Electric fan for engine cooling |
|
|
| rsbadura wrote: |
| froger wrote: |
| Has anyone used electric fans for cooling ? |
for dimensioning:
the smaller type 1 1600ccm AS engines in-build (behind the alternator) fan generate
620 Liter (or 164 gallons) per second(!)
at 4000 revolutions per minute of the engine.
(Source: page 20 of https://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.com/content/d...en_1_7.pdf)
I have no values for the type 4 engines... sorry.
At a water cooled Bugatti Chiron it is 1000 Liter air per second at top speed.
A mid size industrial vacuum cleaner have only 70 L / second.
Also keep in mind the temperature range is not consumer electronics - it is more expensive automotive.
good luck, |
Be careful when referring to gallons; keeping in mind that there are proper Imperial Gallons as still used by some in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland and Olde English Queen Anne wine-gallons (plagiarised by the USA and renamed US gallons!  )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallon
There was some data for the VW Type 4 style air-cooled engine's crankshaft-driven cooling system, which was cited in one of Peter Noad's Pacenotes articles, in the VW Motoring magazine, which I think I later quoted in Transporter Talk magazine.
_________________
Regards.
Nigel A. Skeet
Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.
Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper
Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)
https://vwt2oc.co.uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
