The popularity of electric fans is boosted by the transverse mounted engines. I have a Kia with 250K, 3.8 liter, 180F solid temp. Electric fans. They do work.

Peole on here have run with no fan in winter and not noticed a big mpg gain.

If going electric, go large, and be sure your temp sensor trigger is working. And run a 180F stat, to give yourself some margin of safety if you have lower air flow.

 

Already run a 180 stat. Figured 14 and 12" fans will pull plenty of air. If it doesn't work well I'll be out a few hours and 40 bucks. I keep a spare fan and clutch for the hot SC summers

 

They use electric fans because you cant run a clutch fan on a transverse mounted engine.
They also do it for MPG, HOWEVER, you gain so little MPG that even on brand new trucks they use a clutch fan because it is more reliable and cools better.
But they use them because every little bit helps over the average of the fleet, if they can save .5mpg per car and they sell 20 different models thats a 10mpg savings towards the CAFE standards.
I remove my clutch fan in the winter, and I gain almost nothing in MPG.

 

I measured the feet per minute air speed at idle from my D1 fan (chevy clutch and Blazer fan). About 850 feet per minute, 1100 with AC condesnser fans running. So, if going electric, you'ld need to be better than those numbers to keep cooling the same. These were not CFM numbers, and were not numbers based on 0.001 static pressure. Just what a plain old truck does, with OEM shoud.

People have done elecric fans, but the thermal control is a bit of a problem. On vehicles with electric fans built in, the ECU normally monitors the coolant sensor and commands the fan relays to operate. The extenal fan thermostat won't be inside the intake manifold, so there will always be some time lag compared to the coolant sensor.

 

It seems to me a custom all aluminum radiator would still be cheaper than the asking price of a old replacement radiator. The configuration can't be all that odd. I had one in a 53 Kaiser i had and as I recall it cost me about 4-500 bucks. I can't believe the prices of these brass units. I've found entire trucks for that price. It's insane.

 

You can get an aluminum rad new for like $235, several members have posted about it. The odd stuff is the oil cooler and transmission cooler. Pull outs at the boneyard are $49 near me, one from a Range Rover will work. Small rad shops that deal with farm and construction radiators can deal with a Rover radiator and don't care about the MSRP of the vehicle (not even close to the big toys). The plus of the D1 oem rad is copper tanks can be unsoldered for easy rod out.

 

Oh I know all that I'm saying an all aluminum (aluminum tanks too) would be cheaper than buying a replacement brass one and probably better at cooling. I read about the DII radiator being used.

I'm not sure I like the idea of plastic tanks. They cant handle the heat cycle. I know all OEM are now plastic but still rather have all metal. Almost every single radiator I've ever replaced in a newer car was due to plastic tank cracks. I think of stuff like plastic intake manifolds that are famous for cracking. Even the replacement intakes for the ford 4.6 have a metal runner to replace the plastic one that always cracks. That tells me that they KNOW metal is better plastic is just cheaper.

So why not go online to a custom radiator place and build an aluminum one? I don't even need one as my brass one is new from PO but if I ever run into this problem I'm going to seriously look into going custom. Even if its the same money. At least the product would be an upgrade.

 

Most D1s that are old enough to really need a new radiator have lots of other things that money can be spent on as well. You have to love these old beasts to keep driving down the green hole.

 

Haha. Truth. Nowadays you have to except being upside down in the value of your car. Even a set of good tires exceeds the purchase price of most of my vehicles. For me this is the newest smoothest vehicle I've owned on years so I don't mind too much. And so down the hole I go.

I do really like your idea of the remote radiator. Has me thinking.

 

Copper/brass transfer heat better than aluminum. If you can find a well made aluminum then you could get better cooling because of the TIG welded joints. On the other hand if you have a damaged radiator while traveling, nearly anywhere you can find someone to solder yours.

Any radiator shop can recore, with a HD core, a brass/copper radiator for less than a new one, depending on the current market price of copper. But you have as good as new plus a HD core.