Lightweight Fan Question

[Venkmen]

I searched around and couldn't find any info on these for a KA.

I am just about to start my build and am planning on staying NA for at least the near future. I have a buddy who is an old muscle type of guy and he swears that the 11 oz. ultra lightweight fan is the way to go instead of electric fans on the radiator. His reasoning is that the 11 oz. constant drag will not create as much drain on the engine as the electrical fans kicking in. Clutch and stock fan will be removed.



Fan is by Flex-a-Lite and can be found for $20 or so at alot of places on-line. Just looking for some opinions from people that might have used them on a KA

[Shabbernigdo]

i honestly think the power lost to a clutch / belt driven fan is so minimal its not even worth mentioning specially for a dd or a weekend track car.

The reliability factor for a clutch / belt fan far excedes any negatives it may have imo.

so personally ide stick with the stock fan / clutch fan.

[gumby74]

For the record, an electric fan kicking in poses no drag to the engine what-so-ever. The electrical current draw is also irrelevent because last time I checked, the alternator is equiped with a voltage regulator whose sole purpose in life is to insure a constant power output regardless of the alternators rotation.

For example, when helping a buddy jumpstart a car, someone always has the great idea to rev the engine to under the assumption that it will help charge up the dead battery faster. It does no such thing. What was I babbling about? Oh yeah the fan. No offense to your friend, but ask him what his opinions are in regards to backpressure in the exhaust.

My point is get more information to make a sound decision. Me personally, I went electric. It is a more efficient setup than stock, it removes that bulky shroud making everything much tidier and very easy to get to. And it helped eliminate some minor load on the engine. Also a good thing.

[liquid_cool]

gumbys rite in a way...electric add no drag on the engine at all....it is a proven power gain over the stock clutch type fan...5hp is 5hp man...with modifyed cars..you scrape power from anywhere you can...fans being one area most racers nab the easy gain from..there is allso another bennifit...you can leave the electric fans running even after your car is off...you can allso choose to run them at start up in hot wheather or not to run them in colder wheather for a faster warm up..the point being..is you..not the clutch or ecu..has direct controll of how much cooling you will have..hope this clears this up for you....another way to look at this is...imagine your in a pool of water..standing..you experince no drag if your standing..but if you suddenly start to tread water..you feel the sudden drag produced by the motion..and the amount of effort it takes to continue the motion..thats what happens with an engine that uses the clutch type fan...good luck..what ever you choose.