Electric add-on radiator fans

Fans

I have been doing some serious investigating during the last year, regarding installing a fan in my '60 Eureka, which has factory a/c. In my case, the engine doesn't tend to run hot, but I'd want the fan to augment the air movement past the a/c condenser in city traffic, or parades, or other slow moving circumstances. I would set it up with a heavy duty toggle switch and relay, so I can choose when to run it.

I'd like to recommend that, with hot summer months approaching, if your a/c works well while on the open road (lots of air passing over the condenser), but warms up while creeping through traffic, you shut OFF your a/c completely, as the pressures in the system are getting very high and could possibly rupture a weak hose or a safety blow-off on the old GM A6 compressors (1962-1978 or so). Some A6 and R4 compressors have high pressure switches built into them that automatically open the circuit when pressures are high, but you really have to know your system, compressors, and switch color codes to know which switch you have (if any). Tom
 
Tom Hoczyk said:
if your a/c works well while on the open road (lots of air passing over the condenser), but warms up while creeping through traffic, you shut OFF your a/c ). Tom
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A/C works fine but car heats up on the open road going to 220. According to the manual the 1982 Vettes they installed electric fans and they would kick on when temps got to 238. Perhaps this is just the way it is.

Kenn Evans II said:
Double check your fans installation, Just in case it got put on backwards.
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I checked my fan last night and it is on correctly pulling lot's of air through the radiator.

Next step, as suggested by Steinberg, is to run the temperature up then do an infared temperature reading to see where it really is. I do not want to replace the radiator only to discover that's not the issue.
 
don't trust the gage in the car to tell you what it is doing. before I did any expensive swapping do like Paule suggested and check all the connections on you r electric gage. I would change the sending unit before I did the radiator. the work off ground and a poor ground will make the gage read inaccurate. they had that car running hot. if it only climes up to 220 and stays there it's running right at the temp of my Yukon going down the road. it's not if it climes to 220 but if it stays at 220. you getting a drop in temp when you shut off the ac? bet not.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
don't trust the gage in the car to tell you what it is doing. before I did any expensive swapping do like Paule suggested and check all the connections on you r electric gage. I would change the sending unit before I did the radiator. the work off ground and a poor ground will make the gage read inaccurate. they had that car running hot. if it only climes up to 220 and stays there it's running right at the temp of my Yukon going down the road. it's not if it climes to 220 but if it stays at 220. you getting a drop in temp when you shut off the ac? bet not.
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I changed the temperature sending unit but temps are the same. Doesn't make a difference if I have the a/c is on or off, temps still goes up.

I cruise around town and the temp stays below 200 with or without A/C. I get on the freeway and it climbs to 215 to 220 but goes down again to 200 or below when crusing again. Strange.

I'll buy a temp reading device and drive it hard then take a reading to see if it really is that hot. Then I can decide if my gauge is acting up.
 
sounds like your Ok. the lower thermostat will let it drop down at the lower speeds. if you had the 195 deg in it like GM wanted it would stay at 200. your worrying about nothing here. if it goes up to a temp and doesn't go any higher. it doesn't need to run any cooler if it stays there. scary but that's what they want it. by having the lower temp thermostat in it you get the up and down reading as you slow down and it can pull more air threw the radiator. doesn't make since I know but the angle it sits at is why. the faster you drive the less air goes threw the system.
 
On the '60 Flxible Buick ambulance, we did parades and had big problems with it overheating toward the end of the parade. Of course, most of the parades are in the summer. The car is fine when we drive, it's only in parades with the slow driving and hot temps that we had the problem.

We had the cooling system checked out, to no avail. Finally, we installed an electric fan. It simply turned on with a switch under the dash.

And guess what? It still overheated.

The solution now is to use another car in the parade. :657:
 
Running Hot

Richard,
I don't know what year your Vette is but a friend of mine has a 71 that he has had for twenty plus years. He opted to go back to all stock components on his 454 and still had overheating issues. He recently took it to a vette specialist and quickly realized that there are many pieces of foam type insulation surrounding the radiator openings that are required for cooling. After replacement of these he has had no problems with overheating without doing anything else. I'm sure an Eckelers catalog would be a nice guide to reference if you have all the necessary insulation.
 
Russ Austin said:
Just to stir the pot. Adding an electric fan is modifying the car, as in no longer stock.
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I "modified" my car to keep from having to put a $3,000 engine in it again. It is not a slap in instillation job ether, it was a very clean non attention getting installation.
 
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