Re: Electric cooling fan

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/8/27 2:16:35

Have to agree with JW above. Four figures to mask a problem
sounds like a waste. In 1975, i bought a couple parts for
the '40 120 i was rejuventating from a 3M engineer in Texas,
who told me about 282-ci Packard One-Twenty engines in recent years working 24/7 irrigation pumps in the Lone Star state.
They were set with a governor at 1,800 rpm and ran and ran,
unattended, week in, week out, without incident.

A friend running a shop catering to Packards often has to
have "the talk" with customers who treat rebuilt Packards
like new Camrys, Accords, Tauruses in today's traffic, having read all this bluster in buff books, insisting on flogging them in today's go and whoa traffic, on idling in half hour conga lines while driving onto the field at the local show and shine, then
act surprised when something goes wrong.

Simply, when our cars were new, domestic population was
a third to at very most 40% of today's nearly 1/3rd billion.
People walked or took ubiquitous streetcars, trolleys, interburbans. City planners today use a mere 600 feet--two football fields end-to-end sans end zones-- as the distance at which Americans automatically reach for their car keys. Obesity was an extreme rarity, not the norm.

When our cars were new, people on a trip pulled over for a cup of coffee or bought some fruit at a roadside stand, stretched.

Automobiles were driven more judiciously over less frenetic, m u c h less crowded roads, and at lower speeds.

There's too much emphasis today on how fast Packards were in the day, too much cowboy mentality. A friend with a '63 Ferrari Lusso reminds me that a decade-old Honda Civic will outperform his prancing horse, an Austin-Healey 3000,
and other once rip-snorting cars.

Because our Packards were, and are, capable of brisk
acceleration, high speed by the standards of the '30s, '40s,
early '50s, doesn't mean they're well served by being
driven like that today, regardless how thoroughly rebuilt,
balanced.

Because a car was wonderful, refined, well-engineered 70 years ago, doesn't make it compatible with today's two-pedal go and whoa concrete conveyor belt.

You'd be amazed at the downright bucolic driving conditions in your own San Diego County when your car was new nearly 64 years ago, Fred.

JW's right. Spend some time, not four figures, to find out
what's really wrong with your car, i f there's anything wrong with your car.

Again, skip the antifreeze.

I installed a Scott's electric cooling fan as described
in my above post merely as protection should i ever get caught in our horrendous 21st Century traffic during a heat wave, but have never used it. The six-volt, positive-ground alternator, which puts out 55, not 20, amps at
idle, was installed simply as i like the idea of brighter
head and tail lights, faster battery recovery and because
i like paring weight from these refined auld road cars.
I don't "need" it, nobody "needs" it.

An electric cooling fan, then alternator, as daily Band Aids, are lost motion. JW's right as rain.