I went shopping at the junkyard today. After a couple hours I came back with a steel fan and a flex fan (I couldn’t decided between them), a transmission cooler, some brake lines, and some other parts. Yes, I had fun as usual and was only out $15.
I tried mounting the steel fan, but the bolt holes weren’t quite right. I tried the flex fan and that will work, but I am worried about the integrity of it. So, I decided to get online and learn more about fans. One bit of info I ran across concerned horsepower vs. different types of fans. Here’s the info from the site.
“Was reading the May 2000 ‘Car Craft’ and I came across something very interesting. They did a dyno test on a 496 horsepower chubby, {yes, I know — but we can still get some useful info on this…} and they tested different cooling fans to see what kind of drag each different type has.
Alternator, no fan: 496 hp
Black Magic electric fan:494 hp
Thermal clutch fan: 487 hp
Nonthermal clutch fan: 485 hp
Heavy duty thermal clutch fan: 476 hp
High performance flex fan: 476 hp
Stock four blade fan: 473 hp
Low profile flex fan: 466 hp
One piece plastic flex fan: 460 hp
OE replacement six blade rigid fan: 449 hp
They found the alternator alone, a 63 amp unit, only sucked 1 horsepower.”