Pusher or Puller

[91five-o]

Just putting the final touches on the winter project. I am now wiring the fan up, which is a black magic 185 extreme. I had a bit of a colloing issue with it before the new motor and now have added a hi flow water pump to go along with my electric fan although to solve the problem for sure I know I should have an aftermarket rad but I am facing clearance issues so I was wondering if i were to switch the polarities of the wires to make my fan push air through the rad from the engine side outwards do you think this might help to furthermore cool the car apposed to the fan pulling the air through the rad? I hooked it up to my battery with my fan attached to the rad and it seems to push more air then it pulls that is why I am asking this question.

 

[Daggar]

Not all fans are designed to operate in both directions. You would need to find out whether or not yours is. Directional fans have brushes that are setup for spinning one way. Spinning it in the other direction will cut the life of the fan drastically.

Pullers are more efficient than pushers. When the car is moving forward, the fan and shroud become an obstruction. You generally get a lot more CFM from a moving car than you will from an electric fan.

 

[criticman]

I'm with Daggar on this one. Pulling will be more efficient and it won't be fighting against the air rushing in from the outside as you drive.

I also agree that at speed you will get more air in w/o the fan running than the fan could pull in on its own. They are great for stop and go traffic and between runs at the track.

A good electric fan controller that operates off of a temp probe would do well to prolong the fan motor's life by running only when it needs to.

 

[HISSIN50]

Another vote for it being a lackluster idea.

I'd put it together as best you can for right now and then report whatever cooling issues you have. We should be able to get things nailed down for ya.

Good luck.

 

[TheBocSez]

Just putting the final touches on the winter project. I am now wiring the fan up, which is a black magic 185 extreme. I had a bit of a colloing issue with it before the new motor and now have added a hi flow water pump to go along with my electric fan although to solve the problem for sure I know I should have an aftermarket rad but I am facing clearance issues so I was wondering if i were to switch the polarities of the wires to make my fan push air through the rad from the engine side outwards do you think this might help to furthermore cool the car apposed to the fan pulling the air through the rad? I hooked it up to my battery with my fan attached to the rad and it seems to push more air then it pulls that is why I am asking this question.

While a puller fan is more pracitcal, and a pusher fan will work, putting a pusher fan on the engine side of the radiator and have it blow forward is the worst idea.

At speed, you will be trying to push air out with the fan, while the speed of the car is trying to push air in. What you end up with is a lot of turbulance and hardly any air actually passing through the radiator.

Like stated, get a good fan controller and leave the fan as a puller as it was designed. Throw in a bottle of Redline water wetter and a 180 thermostat. Upgrading to a parts store 3 core radiator might help to and wont cost as much as an aftermarket version.

 

[iwashmycar]

a puller is usually much more efficient in cooling unless everything as a whole (fan/rad/shroud) was designed for a pusher

 

[86bluecobra]

if you are going to install a pusher it has to be on the bumper side of the rad. I have seen cars with both pushers and pullers installed. i would go with a puller to begin with.

 

[TheUser]

Just out of curiosity, what fan do you have? My 3.8L taurus fan wouldn't clear the water pump snout when mounted to my 3 core, so I had to get a 2 core to get it to fit. The car had been wrecked, but I'm not sure how much that had to do with it.

Just throwing that out there. If I remember correctly, my taurus fan is 5" thick at the thickest point that could rub. My taurus fan is also mounted upside down from what they were on the taurus's (so I could mount my overflow on the shroud part).

 

[Sicarius428]

Not all fans are able to be reversed due to blade design. I would look for a spacific fan for that and you can expect to loose 20-30 percent efficiency from pushing vs pulling.
Kevin

 

[87AODGT]

just based off of my experience a pusher works just fine, I've got mine set up that way because with the supercharger space is limited. Then again I have an edelbrock waterpump, and an aluminum radiator as well