Im trying to find quick ways to add horse power to my weak LG4...i was wondering if putting an electric fan on instead of the belt ran fan would bring more horses...and also taking off the AC and just running water pump, alt. and power steering...how much horse power would i gain??? thanx for any replys...

 

Electric fan is a good idea but as for the rest of that stuff, DON'T DO IT. The small gains from removing those isn't worth loosing the two conveniences not to mention it looks real half-assed after you go hacking that stuff up an otherwise nice car. There are much easier and better ways to get horsepower out of that motor. Cat-back, headers, ignition upgrades, open element filter, etc etc etc

 

An electric fan wont free up much HP, the advantage of an electric fan is that it will pull more air at idle (I.E. stop and go traffic) and keep the engine cool. And I wouldnt reccomend removing the A/C becaus it only takes away power when on. The compressor pulley puts very little drag on the engine when the A/C is off. And it only adds about 100 lbs of weight for the whole A/C system, which if removed will only drop about .1 off your 1/4 mile time. If you really want power from your 305, get headers, catback, cam, intake, and you can modify that quadrajunk carb for decent power. I have a stock Lg4 carb feeding my 400 with a few mods. All I did to it was grind off the casting marks in the secondaries for smoother airflow, smaller secondary metering rods which allow more fuel to go to the secondaries, and I removed the secondary lockout tang which can stick and hold the secondaries closed. You can search the borad for 305 threads, many people post links to sites with recipes for high HP 305 buildups. Heres one I found.

http://www.angelfire.com/nb/thirdgen/400hp305.htm

 

I thought a clutch fan would pull more air than an electric.
In the words of Vader having an electric fan puts more load on the alternator pulley.

 

Maybe the electric fans pull more air cause they spin faster than a mechanical one would at low engine speeds? Just my thoughts.
I guess I should say "pulls more air at low speeds" then to make more sense. Once you're rolling air moves anyway, and since most of the time at lower speeds your engine isn't revving much...

Ok I think I made my point now I'm just rambling. Time to shut up.

 

Car Craft got like 40+ horse in a fan shootout they did about a year and a bit ago.
The lowest rating fan was the stock type, the highest hp improvement was shown by an aftermarket electric fan, and the mechanical fans with the blades that flatten out at high RPM were in between the two. I can't remember exact numbers, but the results were pretty interesting.
BTW, don't tell me that an electric fan is going to use up more horsepower than a mechanical one because of the load on the electrical system. It takes FRACTIONS of horsepowers to turn alternators.

 

40+ HP from a fan swap, I seriously doubt that, unless we're talking about a 900 hp engine.

 

Ummm, well, I don't like to race magazines, but it's right there in Car Craft's pages.
I can find the date, if you'd like.
As far as I remember it was a mild-medium small block.
I'll just find the darn issue, and stop trying to remember.

 

I remember that article. I was thinking that it made 40 hp difference on a 500 hp motor. Anyway, get electric fans. I got one from a salvage yard that came off a dodge dynasty or something like that. It is a dual fan setup and it really keeps my car cool. I also noticed a big improvement on hp. It seems that the car revs so much faster now than before. I'd bet it gave me at least 10 hp. Maybe more. I didn't have a fan clutch either. It was just a spacer and fan.

 

I'd definately go with an electric fan, no question. I'm sure whatever extra drag it puts on the alternater cant come close to the drag the fan causes, think of a boat propeller.

I don't see how you cant gain a measurable amount of power by getting that thing off the front of your engine. You'll probably see alot better gas mileage too.

As far as the A/C goes, if you dont use it and it won't be missed, taking it off is a good way to save weight/space. Just make sure to take off all the related components too. But dont forget if you go to sell your car, you'll probably hurt the resale value.

 

Ah, the car craft fan article is brought up again. On a dyno without a shroud is a poor way to test fan performance. The electric fan gain is much smaller in the real world. Make sure you get about the biggest fan possible if you go electric.

 

if you were only going to drag race the car you could just remove the fan altogether, thats what most pure drag cars do. LOL,

just be aware that the removal of the mechanical fan will affect the perfomance of you A/C system, especially if you change over to 134A. the electric fans don't pull enough air through the condenser to make the A/C (134A) work properly (at least thats what I was told).

 

Hey, if my car had a mechanical fan, I'd swap over to electric, just to avoid one of the metal mechanical fan blades "zinging" off by my head/hand/body. Plus you get to lose that HUGE fan shroud! It'll really clean up the engine bay. You could always nab a fan setup from a later model V8 f-body... maybe you could even find the dual fan setup!

 

Jeeze, I guess I better change to a mechanical fan! I don't want to push my luck, seeing as my A/C has been working miraculously for 13 years! Just razzin' ya, and I don't know who told you that little tidbit, but I'd have to say they were wrong.
I guess I don't need to find the issue, I'm not the only one that remembers it.

BTW, how would not having a fan shroud for the mechanical fan tests hurt the horsepower? I'm not being sarcastic, just inquisitive.