Plastic Racing Fan Housing Update
Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:08 pm
Plastic on the left, steel on the right.
Plastic Racing Fan Housing Update
After extensive on-track testing, we can announce our center-mount fan housing insert to be a success, and our 36hp design to need slightly more refinement. The 36hp design is not an insert, but a blower housing body unto itself.
Curved ducting inside our fan housing distributes the cooling air in a more uniform way than factory, and this is not to say the German engineers had it wrong. They were designing for the lowest cost vs the highest efficiency. Even so, the factory compromises for cylinder #3 are well know, and at no time did they anticipate the engine temperatures of the custom made, high performance engines we run today.
The 36hp design is different from a steel housing first in that is made of ABS plastic, and is a true racing part, not a modified street part. It is not designed to last for decades. It purpose is to save weight (on the heavy end of the car) and provide uniform cooling airflow to both cylinder banks equal to or better than its steel counterpart.
Top view of the 36hp housing shows it has no top strip. It doesn't need one as the ducting is completely enclosed. The housing is strong enough to handle generator or alternator vibration, but does not support mounting an ignition coil.
The primary refinement we discovered necessary for the 36hp design was an increase in clearance between the lower air ducting and an oil cooler blockoff plate or an oil in/out adapter. Which requires a re-curving of the ducting. Luckily, our computerized CNC machine can handle this.
Bottom view. The lower ducting curves are being recontoured without loss of air flow.
Our plastic ducted insert for the center-mount aluminum fan housing has performed without trouble through several serious races now.
FJC