Cooling fan direction

[Welder Dave]

An electric fan sounds like a good idea. Could possibly use one with less CFM than the original fan to let the engine be a little warmer.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I am normally against electric fans but this sounds like a good place for one.

 

[Tinkerer]

Millions of cars have them.
Keep in mind they can turn on at any given time. So keep your body parts away from it unless the power to it is off.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Millions of cars have them.

Millions of cars have them but they rarely run. And are not usually asked to get rid of the whole heat load of the motor, more for idling. A generator set does not have the benefit of ram air at any time.

 

[Tinkerer]

Very true Birken Vogt.
I think they were designed to increase fuel economy. Like the conventional water pump pulley mounted fans with clutches that came into use many years ago.
I thought in your situation that an electric fan would be a good option. No air flow through the radiator until a temperature rise would turn on the fan when cooling was needed.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Also better take stock of what size alternator that unit has on it and what any proposed electric fan draws. A lot of tiny Kubota engines have an equally tiny alternator and the fan might draw more than it can take, not a 120 amp unit like a car.

 

[hosspuller]

There's 8Kw of electric to tap. Lose the incandescent light bulbs, replace with LED. Now you have a 200 watts to run a fan. Though it might not be enough during the Summer. Does the generator have its own fan ?

 

[Tinkerer]

I thought in your situation that an electric fan would be a good option.

I have to make a correction / comment on my last post.
I meant to say --- I thought in simonrsplant's situation that an electric fan would be a good choice.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Remember we are talking about a genset here. Needs to be bone simple and 100% reliable. Operate unattended for weeks of run time with no down time. Any electric fan that is a one-off 120 or 240 volt or even 12 volts from a car is suspect. It is hard to get custom stuff reliable. I've seen it dozens of times.

 

[repowerguy]

Yeah a generator will have it's own cooling fan, but you have to get the heat out of the enclosure after the generator fan kicks it out. Birken is right, you want stone simple and a mechanical fan is. I think a thermostat change is in order before reinventing the fan system on the gen-set.
I'm guessing the incandescent bulbs are also giving him some aux heat also, so no real issue here.

There's 8Kw of electric to tap. Lose the incandescent light bulbs, replace with LED. Now you have a 200 watts to run a fan. Though it might not be enough during the Summer. Does the generator have its own fan ?

 

[Birken Vogt]

I am guessing that the thermostat is never opening and the engine block is acting as an unregulated radiator here though.

 

[hosspuller]

I am guessing that the thermostat is never opening and the engine block is acting as an unregulated radiator here though.

Then an insulating blanket on the block or diverting the air from the radiator around the block (and to the generator) is in order.

 

[kshansen]

OK, then how about a viscous fan clutch? No external plumbing/wiring or controls.

Or how about contacting the genset manufacturer to see if they have recommendations for extreme cold weather applications?

Or what about Kubota, maybe they would have some information related to cold climate applications of that engine?

 

[fast_st]

If you wanted a reverse, buy another fan. I picked up a reverse fan for my JD 350 dozer, it keeps the floorboards defrosted when running it in the winter time, had issues with ice and snow getting packed around the pedals and stuff when using it as a snowplow. I picked mine up from Jegs, they have quite the assortment.

 

[kshansen]

If you wanted a reverse, buy another fan. I picked up a reverse fan for my JD 350 dozer, it keeps the floorboards defrosted when running it in the winter time, had issues with ice and snow getting packed around the pedals and stuff when using it as a snowplow. I picked mine up from Jegs, they have quite the assortment.

I'm going on the assumption that this genset is not running unattended for long periods of time, say a week or more? If the outside temp does raise to a point the reverse flow of the fan could cause a problem with reduced cooling capacity the need for heat in shop would also be reduced thereby taking some of the load off the engine.

Also as I'd be guessing the stock cooling system is probably designed for temps in the 35-38ºC range if the temps do get up to 10-15ºC there would still be, even with a reduction in cooling capacity from the reversed fan, still a bit of a margin of safety considering the heaters would not be putting as much load on the genset.

I would suggest having the heaters in shop set at two different temperatures a few degrees apart. That way if one heater can carry the heating load by itself the second one would not be called on to add heat and thereby load on the genset.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I have seen a very few generators with a viscous fan clutch but have no idea how it is supposed to work since they are all pusher fans. I think they mount it real close to the radiator but it is a manufacturer known for their weird ideas so I would not put too much stock in it.

One way to do it would be to put a puller fan with a viscous clutch and then duct the air inlet for the cooling of the generator itself to outside air so the generator head does not have to run in hot air if it gets warm outside.

But a viscous fan in my experience still moves a lot of air even when in "neutral" so it might not solve the problem at all.

 

[fast_st]

One way to warm up a sea can without a lot of condensation is one of the diesel fired salamander heaters, you'll need to open the door after a bit to keep the air circulating but they work great when they're tuned up properly so they don't smoke, running on kerosene helps too but less btu of course. Once its all toasty maybe your electric heaters would keep the pace. I've used one as a winter spray booth, pre heat to 110f let everything stabilize, shoot the paint, air it out then fire up the heaters to keep it above 100f for an hour. Its a bit overkill on the insulated containers.

 

[simonsrplant]

Update:
I used some canvas to partially cover the rad cover and the side vents.
Seems to be staying notably warmer...
However
In the last few days the ambient temp has risen above freezing.
I'll keep an eye on things this coming week.

 

[simonsrplant]

Sorry for the late comments here ....
I tried a few things with varying success.
Final deal was pretty straightforward.
I had some covers made up at my local custom tarp shop to clip on the inside of the side doors.
It seems to keep the unit considerably warmer. Not yet had a very cold spell but I'm confident it will work well for what I'm looking for.
The appearance of the machine is factory aside a few rivits as the covers fit internally.

 

[Truck Shop]

you could just make that cover like a weather front for a truck, with two zippers down the middle.