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fans or no fans?

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70
34
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Marietta GA
2020 mustang gt road race car. what's the consensus for radiator fans? 3 row c&r rad with big setrab oil cooler in front all ducted properly. run no fans, small 10" fan for like pits and red flags or big dual fan setup? leave the fans on or off when on track? temps arent super high but more for curiosity of what everyone is doing.
 
2020 mustang gt road race car. what's the consensus for radiator fans? 3 row c&r rad with big setrab oil cooler in front all ducted properly. run no fans, small 10" fan for like pits and red flags or big dual fan setup? leave the fans on or off when on track? temps arent super high but more for curiosity of what everyone is doing.
In my opinion fans do nothing on track except block flow through the radiator. But on grid and after a session in the garage electric fans taking heat out while idling is very helpful and may prevent heat soak and blow off of pressure cap. If you shut and restart the car on grid and have fans in the paddock to blow across the radiator/oil cooler after a session removing the fans from the shroud will reduce weight and open up flow through the radiator. If you remove the fans, programming will be needed to eliminate fan failure related ECU programming/CEL consequences. @captdistraction probably can shed more light on the topic.
 
In my opinion fans do nothing on track except block flow through the radiator. But on grid and after a session in the garage electric fans taking heat out while idling is very helpful and may prevent heat soak and blow off of pressure cap. If you shut and restart the car on grid and have fans in the paddock to blow across the radiator/oil cooler after a session removing the fans from the shroud will reduce weight and open up flow through the radiator. If you remove the fans, programming will be needed to eliminate fan failure related ECU programming/CEL consequences. @captdistraction probably can shed more light on the topic.
I'm currently running just a 10" fan on a switch and only running it when on a long 5 min on grid or red flag/stuck in pits. I have cel issues anyway due to no airbags, seat belts, stock fuel tank (using a cell in the trunk), and other stuff not hooked up so that's not an issue. just trying to bring the temps down a bit when in excess of 85-90 deg F air temp and thought the fans would hinder airflow at speed. If them is in the 70s or less then never a prob with temps.
 
Not on the Mustang but on my club racing 944, ran a single fan mounted close to radiator with no external shroud. Just its own housing to force air to be pulled through the radiator. Switched via a thermostat with a bypass switch in the cabin. Under normal road driving, don't ask how a fully stripped race car still had number plates in Australia, it would hold temp at 1/4 on the gauge. Stop at a set of traffic lights and you could watch the temp climb to half and the fans kick in. As soon as you pulled away and got airflow again the temp would drop back down to 1/4 and fans off. Literally in the space of 30 seconds.
Pretty much exactly the same as @steveespo mentioned. When moving the fans don't do anything.
If you were like me and doing your track days by yourself then run a single small fan, if you have a pit crew who will come running with fans then you can get away without it. I like to do a slow cool down drive around the pits to cool off brakes, diff, gearbox with all sorts of fans and pumps doing their job. The radiator fan is also churning away so i'd hate to run without at least one.
 

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