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:Had some time this afternoon to put into the fabrication of the fan shroud for my radiator and electric fan. Made a trip up to home depot (this is where you can get the best aftermarket performance mods, BTW ;-) and picked up some 1/4" construction ply, epoxy, 1/2" square stock, sandpaper, superglue, polyester resin & MEK. I gave up on the idea of using sculpting foam for the fact that getting a symmetrical part with that method is quite challenging and there are better ways of doing it. I went with a process I have seen before that is used in the car-audio industry for making custom enclosures, paneling, etc. It basically is a process of building a frame and using a cloth material to build the body of the part, which is then resin coated and usually glassed. This process has worked quite well and has allowed me to hold tighter tolerances with the part. Only difference here is that the final part will be used to produce a mold whereas the audio folks typically build the part, finish it, and it becomes the final piece. A mold will be created from this part so that it can be easily reproduced as part of the cooling system kit I am working on making available.
:Here is a gallery of images of the build up to now. She is ready for a final gel coat, some finish sanding, polishing, and then the mold will be created from this pattern.
:The biggest problem with all of the electric fan setups I have seen so far is the fact that the fan itself is mounted directly to the radiator core itself. I recall a toy that we bought for my son when he was about 2 years old that had various shaped blocks and a case with corresponding ports for each shape. He learned pretty quickly that a circle wont fit properly into a square port, but apparently, some radiator/fan manufacturers never got one of these toys as a child. So, let me politely school those of you who dont understand this concept.
:The radiator core is 18"X18.5", which is a total of 333 square inches of area. The common electric fan is 15" in diameter, which has an area of 177 square inches. Divide 177 by 333 and you get a factor of 0.531 - multiply that by 100 and you get 53%! With this setup, you are only effectively using 53% of the core's cooling capacity (give/take a few percent due to some other factors) You may as well just have left the OEM radiator and mechanical fan in place - it may only be half as thick, but you are only using barely over half of the upgraded radiator. Not to mention, an electric fan wont reasonably move as much air as the mechanical fan. Simply put, a circle (fan) doesn't fit into a square (rad core).
:(p.s. I send my apologies to you if I took this explanation a little on the goofy side - just trying to make it entertaining. The polyester fumes may be affecting me too, LOL)
:Solution: Spend a little bit of time and a little bit of money and make an appropriate fan shroud to allow you to take advantage of the entire area of the core. Not terribly difficult to do, and a good bit of fun. :)
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:So, tomorrow I'll finish the pattern and crack a mold from it before this time tomorrow evening. I've tested the radiator in the car - fired the engine off for the first time this past Sunday and let the cooling system come up to pressure. I also had an opportunity to test the electric water pump to see if there are any initial fouls with it and I happily report that it appears to be working very well. It is sloshing some serious water through the radiator when running full duty.
"Count your blessings not your problems"
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13:16:30 01/19/06
