hey guy! i got a modded 350 engine with a aftermarket fan blade, mine is the older style not electric. anyway i was just reading some posts and someone said someone about swapping to electric fans will add 8HP, is this true????
i knew it made some what of a diffrence because its one more thing to turn but always thought it was next to nothing.
whats the real deal on these fans and HP gains?

 

I dont know about 8 hp or not, but when you remove the fan off the water pump, that reduces the drag. That reduced drag allows the water pump pulley to turn with greater ease, meaning less torque (rotational force) is needed from the crankshaft pulley to rotate the pump. The less power is needed to turn the water pump means the more power to turn the wheels.

 

Not to mention the elecrtics do a much better job of pushing air!

 

thank for your help guys i have decided to change over to electric. now i just gotta figure out how,what,and were to get one lol, i am gunna do a search on here but if any of u guys got a link to a post with info let me no, thanks.

 

you should mean pulling air

 

There are electrics that can be rigged to push ...just not stock ones

 

I don't know if that's always true... my '79 blazer with the factory mechanical fan and easily "outsuck" my '91 firebird with (what I assume to be) the factory single electric fan. Although maybe it's not running at 100%, it blows plenty strong.

Firebird wins at idle, blazer wins at anything above 2000 rpm's or so, by far....

But maybe there's a difference in f-body mechanical fans, or dual electric potential....

Laters,
Scott

 

yeah any electric can be rigged to push, but theyre only 80% as effective that way

 

On my Camaro, is what i have setup is i have a normal fan running off the water pump. I have a Nordskog/Intellitronix water temperature guage that monitors how hot im running. A feature with their gauges, and maybe some others, is that they have an ability to activate an electrical device as a warning. Ive rigged it so with a relay, when the needle hits like 225-230°F, it activates a second pusher fan te help cool things down even more. it is also wired to a small light so i know when the fan is activated. it is manually turned off.

 

No I Just ment that that an electric cam "MOVE" more air, I know oures Pull and some designs Are pushers

I connected both My primary and secondary fans to run off of the primary relay (I never run my a/c anyway) works great pulling down temp muich better

 

Electric fans don't "add" HP like a new intake or headers do... they free up more power. Thats because it takes quite a bit of HP to drive a mechanical fan, and takes none at all to drive an electric one. Less HP wasted on accesories means more will get to the street.