one quick thought on alternator loads [Archive] - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums

: one quick thought on alternator loads


wayne grauel
07-22-2008, 10:12 AM
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With my research on cooling issues and electric fans.. One other brief observation and note...

i see a lot of people who are on both sides of the fence with HHO injection. I'm neither republican or democrat on this one.. but very objective..

The common complain is.. that these suckers draw anywhere from 20 - 40 amps.. typically somewhere in between depending on the design...

and yes.. it does make sense that OK.. an alternator is cranking out lets say 30 amps. and thus a significant induced load on the engine...

Now... in the same breath.. I see people who ditch their fan/clutch combination and install 2 "Really nice looking" fans from a high end European car. ( nice job dude.. that should do the trick)...

but.. the logic here is that ok.. its saved the engine pulling the fan.. what what about the 30 amps it takes to run those puppies.. and i don't know about you all.. but my AC needs a fan to work??? so how do we really blow off any benefit from hho induced load ( thus creating some energy).. vs electric fan load ( thus saving some energy)

just a devil's advocate here for an argument that seems to work "FOR" one system and "AGAINST" another.. all things being equal???.. are we approaching a double standard??

I'm not trying to troll out some big argument.. its just a thought that runs through my head and thought I'd like to share it -- for those who are thinking about electric fans or hho.. or both!

schiker
07-22-2008, 12:17 PM
Its been somewhat argued and discussed.

For the elec fan vs the mechanical clutch yes; you loose the drag of the mechanical clutch but replace it with the alternator drag. Its not free to run the electric fans and I don't think many are saying that. The main benefit argued of the electric fans is that the cooling is independant of crankshaft speed. And thus elec fans could be cut off such that little or no power is used vs the mechanical fan which always has some drag even when "slipping". This may be possible lightly cruising on highway or down hill etc etc. And or it can be independant of air temp across radiator stack and clutch temp lock-up if so wired.

HHO generators are claiming more power is obtained from improved combustion effeciency vs the alternator drag to make the current for the HHO generators.

Kinda sorta similar but different arguements.