Hyundai H1 Starex

[pcp]

HELLO everybody,
I live in the UK and own a Hyundai H1 van. It has a 2,5 liter turbo diesel .
If I remove the belt driven fan will it improve FE. prices here are at ?1.30 a liter about 2.60 in dollars . thanks

[Fourthbean]

Usually disabling a fan that is direct drive will improve economy, HOWEVER it is dangerous if you do not install an electric fan to take it's place. I took the fan off of my car that was direct drive, I did not install an electric (temperature controlled) fan to take it's place but watched my temperatures very close. If I idled for more than 40 seconds or so I would start overheating. This includes moving in a traffic jam at 5 miles per hour. You need air moving across that radiator.

This is based on a gasoline engine but I trust a diesel would be pretty close in cooling needs. Try some searches on installing electric fans, I am pretty sure it has been talked about here.

I feel for you, gas has been rising here the last few weeks but we haven't broken 3.80 a gallon where I am (~0.90 Cents a liter) yet.

Curious, as someone that pays over 10 dollars a gallon for gas how many miles a month do you travel?

[pcp]

Gas prices here are at ?1.15 a liter or about $2.30. Here its a lot more expensive than the US. I drive about 200 miles a week. I am thinking of putting an electric fan in, I just wanted to know how much fuel savings without the belt driven fan.

[Fourthbean]

I did not notice a difference in economy when I took the fan off of my 63 Chevrolet, however there have been people on this board that have replaced the static fan with an electric one and have realized better gas consumption. Try a search or look under experiments and see if you can find someone's thread on it, they will likely have a writeup including what their improvements came out to.

[fumesucker]

I suspect that what sort of driving you do is going to influence any fuel savings.. At highway speeds the fan is basically doing nothing but absorbing energy since the radiator gets an adequate flow of cooling air simply from the motion of the vehicle, so your fuel savings might be significant with an electric fan to replace the mechanical one.

If you are doing mostly stop and go type driving then the electric fan is going to be running a lot and will offset some of the potential fuel savings by putting a heavier load on the alternator.

[pcp]

I mostly do highway driving, is it worth removing ? the van is rear wheel drive and its a 4 cylinder diesel. I can do about 580 km with a tank full , 60 liters I don't let it go all the way to empty . If I fillup right after it will take 54 liters. Any help in better fuel economy?

[Fourthbean]

Try a search or look under experiments and see if you can find someone's thread on it, they will likely have a writeup including what their improvements came out to.

Quote given.

[pcp]

I'm going to pull the fan this week, then I might put in an air dam up front.