Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 09:53:54 -0500
From: Brent Kasl
Subject: [imps] Cooling fan
I restored a 1964 Imp several years ago and thought I had gone by the book as far as originality had been.
While at a car show, a passerby asked, while the car was running, why the air from the cooling fan was blowing it towards the front of the car, to just blow the air back into the radiator again as warm road air? I knew the car had potential problems with overheating and that the radiator was in an awkward place for cooling, but is the fan blade supposed to blow forward, or have I completely botched this assembly. I cannot see how else this could be fit.
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 12:20:55 -0400
From: David Oakes
Subject: [imps] Cooling fan
Well, believe it or not (and I didn't until recently), the air is supposed to go from the back of the car through the radiator towards the front. It does seem like it's back to front but according to various people on this list it's something to do with areas of negative and positive pressure.
Certainly it doesn't seem to be the most efficient cooling system. I am - well, to be more accurate - my car is suffering from overheating problems too. I think I'm going to have to invest in a high efficiency radiator.
From: Gary and Carol Henderson
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 21:46:54 +-1200
Subject: [imps] Cooling fan
Dead right, the air IS blown forward from the engine room.
Not alone in this - the Fiat 600 etc did the same, although they had an extra reason - they used this air as the 'heater', blowing it up a big Backbone in place of a transmission tunnel.
David, if a standard Imp is overheating its because something is WRONG. I live in a (mostly) warmer climate than yours; up a hill which would rank close to mountainous in UK terms, and my Mk 1 with its original radiator (including the 1964 core) copes just fine. Can do it with the pressure-cap cracked loose.
Even a beefed engine still has only the same car to drag along...
The original design does work.
Keep looking...