Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:30:39 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Water Cooler System Design Flaw Workaround?
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hi David, I'm not advocating manual radiator fan control especially,
it's just a nice feature to have.
I suggested it 'in addition' to the already-there automatic control.
I haven't put a switch on a rad fan in years and years.
laser cannon ?
and ..in a vanagon you can hear when the rad fan comes on .......'hey,
what's that dull roar ? "
and - techno heads might find this interesting ..I read about a radiator fan
control set up on a Jeep once...
Chrysler engineering .....early 2000's era.
The radiator fan was run by a hydraulic motor that was computer controlled.
The idea was that there was infinite control of fan speed.......so they
would always only power the fan as much as needed an no more.
In the interests of fuel economy.
or how about this one - Saturn car. No signal to the rad fan to run it
...and it wasn't a sender issue.
Turns out the ECU tells that rad fan to come on. And there were no rebuilt
ecu's for $ 295 or anything either ...
the real official repair was a very expensive new ecu. No wonder they are
out of business now, and I thought the Saturn was a very good attempt to
produce a Honda like car for a lot less money.
and ....vanagon people might find this useful - for that Saturn car I got a
50 dollar rad fan controller kit at a FLAPS...
a probe goes in the radiator fines......a nice little stand-alone circuit.
But the vanagon automatic system works just fine, pretty much.
My personal vanagon is stock in that department. Haven't found a need to
change anything in that system.
( I suppose some may not see how other cars' rad fan control systems relate
to vanagons. To me, knowing what is possible or available or other ways of
doing things adds to our abilities to understand, care for, and modify our
wonderful vans. )
Scott
turbovans
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
To: "Scott Daniel - Turbovans" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Cc: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: Water Cooler System Design Flaw Workaround?
> At 04:35 AM 4/25/2010, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>>If you turn on the fan manually, the light is on to remind you it's on, in
>>case you can't hear it .
>
> Dear Scott,
>
> Why on earth should the Vanagon be the only vehicle on the planet with a
> manually controlled radiator fan? I've been struggling to understand this
> for a decade or more. And I think the light would be better employed to
> remind you that the laser cannon are still powered up. ;-)
>
> Yours,
> David
> ps -- on an automatic I'd use the spare position in the light panel for a
> green/yellow/red LED monitoring transmission temp. On a Westy I'd run a
> flame monitor up there for the fridge. If the OXS light had to go, tough
> toenails.