I would look for a small town-to-town 2 lane with minimal to no stop signs and minimal to no traffic to test on.
A 45 or 50mph kind of a road should do it.
First I have 2 miles of dirt/gravel (35 mph max), and then all the 55 mph two-lane I can use
Roads for testing are not an issue.
Drive there. Then take the fan and shroud assembly off and put it in the trunk. Then test. Obviously abort/stop if there's a problem.
Unfortunately there is not room to do that - I just tried (in the garage with everything cold)! I have to remove the radiator/fan as an assembly, then take it out, put it back in, refill, etc. Now I've got the fans loose and the coolant is draining, I'm going to pull the rad and then replace the WP with the Flowkooler high-flow unit anyway.
If it seems to prove the idea the shroud is blocking airflow, then you have choices.
Try to create flaps (rubber, plastic, other) for air to travel through your existing shroud at speed that the fans can suck closed at low speeds, or try to shroud just one fan,
or go back to the drawing board.
I agree, and that is my plan (to prove or disprove the airflow being the problem which some
people are 100% convinced of)
There is already about 1.5" at the bottom and 1" at the top of the core which are not covered by the Contour shroud, too.
It's likely to be a trade between not enough cooling at idle and not enough airflow at speed.
When I ran the HHR fan on my GTX I tried a similar temp switch to activate it, and had a similar high speed issue.
I realized the time I could potentially put into getting flaps and so on set up to my liking, and wasn't into doing that.
Eventually I sold all that and went back to a belt driven fan.
I'm sure you can get it to work if you spend enough time playing with it.
Funny you should mention that. I initially had bought an HHR fan, but discovered it wouldn't
quite fit between the WP and the radiator. I'd considered using it as a pusher but the blades are canted the wrong way and it makes a lousy pusher anyway.
There is not room (the front edges of the fan blades will be way too close to the core) for a fan clutch which doesn't engage until enough hot air comes through the radiator, and that's hotter than I want. Could just stay with the setup I have.
There IS room (just) for a flex fan direct driven. Keeping in mind that they also flex
forward at high speed
(DAMHIK)
As you say, IF I spend enough time playing with it. Thanks for the helpful suggestions!
