[DeTomaso] Air Flow

Jack Donahue demongusta at gmail.com
Wed Dec 27 20:03:48 EST 2017


Just curious - I have a front condenser also. I was thinking of installing an oil cooler in the original a/c condenser spot, as I think you mentioned. Where is your second oil cooler mounted? I have to assume you have an oil temp gauge. And the big question was/is - what’s hotter, the oil or the water? I’ve seen pictures of the “water-thru-oil” set-ups whereby the oil/water temps tend to equilibrate. Is the water cooling the oil, or vice versa? I don’t have an oil temp gauge (yet). 

> On Dec 27, 2017, at 4:12 PM, JFFR <pantera at vtc.net> wrote:
> 
> Just trust us and believe that the condenser sucker fan with the trunk liner installed works. Owners have tried all kinds of combinations and the original design is the best. Some owners have tested their air conditioning at speeds around 100 mph and it does lose efficiency because of the vacuum at the rear of the car. You can install a better fan and a larger condenser, but the key is to keep the trunk liner installed to make it work right and let the fan suck and not blow through the condenser.
> 
> Your best set up is a front mounted condenser, but you have to have an engine and cooling system that can handle the restriction to the radiator and the added heat when the air conditioner is on. If you are on the edge with low speed cooling then don't consider a front mounted condenser. I have a front mounted condenser and it worked great at 110 degrees ambient temperature this year and that was even at an idle. I am of course cheating here because I have an aluminum Fontana block with aluminum heads and two oil coolers.
> 
> On 12/27/2017 3:20 PM, Jack Donahue wrote:
> 
>> 
>> As you can see, I’m confused.
>> 
>>    If the original design was to PULLING air IN (with a sucker fan),  it seems to be fighting the vacuum created by the forward motion of the car -  which is PULLING air OUT.  As the speed increases, so does the vacuum - so pretty soon (at ? speed) you have a stalemate - the fan sucking air inward equalling the vacuum pulling air outward. Condenser = no workee.
>> At low speed, with sucker fan on and very little vacuum pulling air out, I can imagine air coming in, going  through the condenser, and either going under the car (and pushed out the rear by the under-car airflow) AND/OR going over the bed liner and out the cockpit screen. Maybe depending on presence the bed liner?
>> 
>>                                     See if any of this makes sense:
>> 
>> Bucket IN - low mph  - low (if any) vacuum - sucker fan on - air comes in, through the condenser - and exits out the bottom and  blown away, or maybe it goes OVER the bucket and out the screen?
>> 
>> Bucket IN - higher speed (60 mph?)  -  more vacuum - sucker fan on - little (if any) air coming in since the vacuum is PULLING against the sucker fan and the condenser getting a lot less air. At this rate, and maybe at some speed, there is NO air coming across the condenser at all - it’s all being pulled away by the vacuum at the rear of the moving car.
>> 
>> Bucket OUT - low mph, - low (if any) vacuum-  sucker fan on  -  air comes in the engine bay, through the condenser, and out the vent screen behind the cockpit.
>> 
>> Bucket OUT - higher speed (60 mph?) - more vacuum - sucker fan on - no air coming through the condenser - at some magical speed(?), the bucket doesn’t matter - it’s the same as Bucket IN (above), i.e. - no air movement.
>> 
>> As the speed increases, and more vacuum created at the rear, would this have a tendency to pull air out from UNDER the engine bay?
>> 
>> It just seems more logical to PUSH the air OUT and INTO the vacuum, and have things working in the same direction.
>> 
>> I NEED A DRINK
>> 
>> #4348
>> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 27, 2017, at 9:54 AM, JFFR <pantera at vtc.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The air flows out of the engine cover screen. Before I went to a sealed air box and side scoops I had a raised engine cover screen. I placed some streamers on it and had my wife follow me in another vehicle. Before the car got up to 15 mph, the streamers were parallel with the read deck lid. The air flows from under the car and out of the engine cover stream.
>>> 
>>> The air conditioning condenser fan is designed to pull air in from the back of the car. As it was already stated here, at high speeds there is a vacuum at the rear of the car that can reduce the air flow through the condenser. The system is designed to have the trunk liner installed. Perhaps if you ran with the trunk liner out of the car and used a pusher fan, you might get enough air flow through the condenser to make it work.
>>> 
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>> 
> 
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