Air cooled engine fan?

[CheapThrills]

I find many threads about keeping the engine cooler with oil coolers, but wondering if anyone have tried adding a fan to cool off the engine directly?


Tips, successes, photos?


Thx!

[Bill Hilly]

Very common here on air cooled 4wheelers. I have thought about it , and have noticed that the small fans are readily available, and cheap through eBay, and probably Amazon. I would think battery drain would be the only down side.

[Biker_Andy]

As long as your stator can handle the additional load. Could always buy a CSC 300W stator, that should have plenty of juice for a 12V fan or two.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Biker_Andy

As long as your stator can handle the additional load. Could always buy a CSC 300W stator, that should have plenty of juice for a 12V fan or two.

Stator... and flywheel, regulator/rectifier, CDI, and a bit of wiring to make it work.

Without directed airflow it's likely going to have very little benefit. This is why mower engines, and aircooled VW/Porsche motors have tins and shrouds to help keep the airflow in contact with the fins, and direct it around. In order to have a sufficient volume of air to actually be of some benefit, the fan would need to be of a decent size, something close to a motorcycle radiator fan, which will draw more current than the charging system on a Hawk can handle, going back to the above mentioned 300W stator becoming a bit of a necessity.

These little engines are pretty cool running anyways. Low compression and conservative ignition timing means that they don't produce too much heat. Lean fueling will be the real contributing factor. I intentionally set my idle mixture on the rich side for that very reason. It's not a cure-all, but it does help a bit.

If the concern is sitting still while idling for several minutes... don't. Hit the kill switch and shut the motor off. The electric start makes the practice of shutting down a breeze.

I have never once felt the need to install a fan on either of my Hawks, with or without said oil cooler, and we get pretty dang hot here in the summer AND I ride primarily in city for going to and from work with my Hawk.

[TheChairman]

I live in Philadelphia and get caught in traffic constantly. I waddled some pretty significant distance on mine last summer on 90+ degree days. I never noticed any signs of overheating. No smells. No leg roasting. No pinging. Nothing. It handled it just fine running Rotella conventional. The only thing I noticed is shifting got a little tougher sooner and as such I replaced the oil early and it was back to normal.