Electric fan alternative?

[chepp]

I've got a TRAK-friendly radical custom idea that involves a reverse-flow engine with a front-mounted supercharger like the one in the FED pic above. To be streetable it needs a radiator. To be believable the radiator needs a fan. However, driving the fan from a shaft coming out of the front of the blower is not mechanically "kosher." So, what would be a TRAK-able solution?

All that I can think of would be a generator-sized electric motor mounted down low with a V-belt driving a fan/pulley on the backside of the radiator.

Street-roddy electric fans are not TRAK-able: trakinscale.proboards.com/thread/15050/electric-fans .

[spex84]

Hmm, crazy! I've been tossing around ideas for building an engine like this for a while now, but never quite settled on what car to put it in!
The fan issue is a tough one.

I have seen late 50s -mid'60s cars that ran electric bilge pumps instead of a mechanical water pump to circulate water through the cooling system. I could imagine a small motor being used to run a fan, as you have described.
When I was researching I read through this thread: www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/potvin-blower-on-street-driven-vehicles.877856/

This builder made it work, but he had to use EFI to make it streetable:
plus.google.com/photos/104971212334307682869/albums/5552767776876190417

[chepp]

Thanks, spex84. The car at the link has some interesting engineering -- and a lot of photos.

Having an electric bilge pump could be a good choice for my proposed car idea since there wouldn't be any belt-driven items on the front of the engine. My car's alternator/generator could be driven from the driveshaft*. I'll skip having A/C since an electric-driven compressor probably wouldn't be do-able for a TRAK-friendly car.

So, does anyone have any ideas for a radiator fan that isn't spun by the engine?

*When the car is going in reverse, would that alternator/generator become an electric motor?

[reedeezel]

Since it's a radical custom, how about extending one of the rotor shafts on the blower and attaching a belt drive system to that? This is the kind of stuff that custom modelers in the 60s didn't sweat as much as we do today.

[robtrat]

Hey Charley, how about using the small electric fan from the Silhouette show car, this little known part is both period correct and readily available?

[dodgefever]

If it's a radical custom I wouldn't even worry about it. How many of those things were really driveable? On top of that, you have artistic licence, so it would be a non-issue for me.

[chepp]

Oct 5, 2018 14:56:36 GMT -5 robtrat said:

Hey Charley, how about using the small electric fan from the Silhouette show car, this little known part is both period correct and readily available?

That's a great idea -- thanks! I haven't had a Silhouette kit since it first came out. I saw the real car when it was part of the Ford Custom Car Caravan at the Cinerama dome in Hollywood. If I remember right, year later it was lost/stolen and never recovered. I hope that it shows up intact some day.

The wire wheels in the kit are worth having.

[chepp]

Here's a cropped scan of the Silhouette instructions from the Drastic Plastics site showing the fan and radiator: public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/show-rods/amt-bill-cushenbery/ .

I bought a parts-box of this 2162 kit. It had the tiny fan blade but not the motor unit. It will be easy enough to scratchbuild. Unfortunately, my "new" kit didn't include a single wheel nor even the lower body of the car! Oh well, for $6 it was good enough.