To the People who use mechanical fans

I wasn't going to post this, but I thought it might someone else out there.

I prefer electric over mechanical, and this weekend is probably the best case I have...to stay with Electric fans.

Well this was Gold Cup weekend at Empire...or Nostalgia Racing...plus TNT on Friday....

My cars are down for lack of money and parts primarily, so I have been running my engine builders 69 Dart...

Now the Dart is a street car, we run it in DOT street classes, and its mild, but not a slouch. It has 10x29 DOT "tires" on it, and gets down the 1/4 in 10.9 seconds in full street trim.

We ran it last week in 1/8th mile in the Mopar Day street class at Lancaster and went out 2nd round cause I left it in 2nd gear for the launch and went 7.48 instead of a 6.94 and was off mile dial pretty far. Yet mph was the same...But we had the fastest street car in the class and best reaction times and I was going rounds and having fun until I goofed up.. And that was against some of the fastest Hellcats around. Had a blast racing with all those guys.

Then this week came around, and its my birthday and GF didn't plan anything and buddies all said lets go racing...So I tow the car all the way to work so I can leave right from there for Empire. Get to the track after work about 1.5hrs later and unload and proceed to take the exhaust off. Nostalgia racing does not allow exhaust. So its a full exhaust with X-pipe...came off real easy and I hopped in the car to make a TT.....Was one of the first cars up to the line.

Well, I do my burn out, make sure I am in 1st gear this time and wait for the lights to come down. Well, I think I got 60ft before all hell broke loose, literally....The car under full throttle went hard right, I do not know how I missed the wall..Then it went hard left and I corrected again, and now it was tripodding trying to roll over and was on three wheels, I corrected again and it did it one more time the other direction on three wheels....Used up almost the whole track and idled down to the first turn off all shook up. It was taking me a minute to process everything.

Get pulled over, and the track guy is barking orders at me thru the windshield. I told him I needed a second...I finally get out realizing I saved the car big time, and open the hood. Mechanical fan hit the rad and was pissing antifreeze out...Yep antifreeze...I got a shellacking from the track owner about that when he came down to chew me out....Its a street car I told him, and I borrowed it.

Morel of the story, if your going to race every week, better off with electric fans. eventually, that mechanical fan going to come apart or flex too much, and you gonna have a problem...All the witness's say they could believe I saved it. I cannot find any vids from that night, but I will keep looking.

I was using my wifes Barracuda, it had a supplementary electric fan on the front of the rad which wasn't wired up as it really didn't need it. During a particularly enthusiastic burn out the mechanical fan drew enough air through it to make it explode and take the rad out Just another word of warning

Why did you drive all the way down track, let off and pull to the side! ‘Well the wheel came off but I’m driving it out!’

Only times I've had a fan in the radiator was due to failed engine/trans mounts on a Charger, and an old Ford PU whose water pump came apart.
That's two occasions since 1966...
That said, on the faster stuff - say, into the 10s, or a road course car - I typically run an electric fan for a variety of reasons.
Why would there be antifreeze in the car at a drag strip ? That's forbidden for obvious reasons, and should have been caught and dealt with beforehand.
I'm also a believer that when a drag car gets out of shape, back out of it before the day gets worse...for the car, or you, or the guy next to you, or the guys in line behind you.

Good job on the save, but next time do all the other racers at the track a favor and when something like that happens and pull over instead of going the rest of the way down the track.

You know, I thought about pulling over after the fact, but they would have had 3 gallons of antifreeze rolling down the track from wherever I stopped it, plus it still had to get off the track somehow as that thing pissed coolant all the way back to my pits and then in the trailer on the way home......And I was already more than halfway down by the time I got it under control. So if it makes all you happy, which I know it won't...I will stop right there and get out of the car....Instead it left 3 gallons up on the edge of the return road and a small stream down the track.

So no coolant will go in it this week....Again wasn't my car, and had no idea street cars aren't allowed coolant...Do all the late models remove their coolant?

Good save. It’s easy to armchair, but in the heat of the moment, when you’re sawing the wheel, it’s a whole different ball game.

I'm glad you saved it to race another day.

My Dart is a street/strip deal, pump gas small block that runs 6.40 in street trim. It also has a mechanical fan, about twice a year I go over the car from front to back and check everything. The fan and w/p are part of the checkup. Everything wears out eventually.

Thanks for sharing. I just got back from the Mopar Nats and was complating going electric.. Glad you saved yourself and the car

Locally a guy was using a stock pulley and it broke and he drover over it at about 100 mph , went for a bad ride .. car was destroyed , he got some severe bruises from crotch belt

About 3 years ago, my stock crank pulley exploded on the top end and My slick just caught it on the outer edge. Boy was I lucky nothing bad happened. I do run tubes and luckily it sliced the slick but not all the way through. That could have been real ugly.

One in a million freak accidents, i won’t worry about them.

Thanks. I was so shook up....Never had a car go so squirrely at that speed that I had to wrestle it so much....I wish I could find a vid of it. They say it was on three wheels twice...I am very glad I saved the car, as it was not mine.

Why do modern cars use electric fans?
Quieter
Mileage
Smaller grill opening (lower drag)

An electric pusher fan (in front of the core) is... a mistake.

What kind of mechanical fan was it?

You forgot, no room for an engine fan

...and so many are mounted sideways...

Definitely not the most efficient way of doing it but since we didn't have the space we had to, it works off two temp sensors and brings the 2nd in when needed. To my surprise it's been fine for 15+ years

We've been using a clutch fan for the last 7+ years on the '63.

Lots of street miles and strip passes with zero issues. We do run the Moroso underdrive pulley.

Nope.

The normal procedure is wait until there is a big problem of some kind, then scream at whoever has coolant that they should not have coolant.

And then after the big problem is over with... continue not checking any vehicles to see if they have coolant, but continue being all fastidious about seat belt dates and things like that.

It was one of those stupid flex fans....And it flexed a little too far. It was not a factory fan on a clutch. Ran the weekend before with 6 passes on it and no issues.

I think the tracks realize that if they started asking the people with late model cars to drain coolant that they would quickly run that revenue stream off. That group is also the least likely to put coolant on the track, at least from what I have seen.

Thanks

We have WILD temperature swings here in the heartland. It can be 75 degrees and sunny one day and 30 below the next. If the late model cars can run antifreeze then so will I!

I get what you are saying, but people like you and I are way more likely to kick parts and coolant on the ground than the guy that is racing his hellcat or mustang or whatever. The late model guys are more likely to leave gear oil and driveshafts on the track.