Minimum distance from heater core to fan?
 

I’m making my shroud and was wondering what the minimum distance and optimal distance is between fan and heater core to best eliminate the center dead spot on the fan.

I have a BIX and 2 120mm fans that i want to set up as a push pull.
but am really tight for space.
your comments would really be appreciated

Go for all pull setup and you'll be rewarded with MUCH better performance and saved space (well, depends with this space saving - you'll save on lenght and increase in width. My ballpark figure would be anything between 200mm and 400mm depending on fan's power and construction (focused flow Deltas are different kind of animal for example)

Mine are both 3/4``from the rad on each side, in aluminum shrouds I made. I cant tell you if that is the best for cooling but its enough distance that there is no noise from the blades being close to it. I dont hear that HSF kind of whine you would expect if they were too close, even if I turn them all the way up to 2800RPM from their regular 900RPM

I can embed one fan right in the front bezel, then case frame, shroud, BIX, shroud, then Fan,
the fans i will be using are
Evercool Chrome 120mm Fan
80 CFM 2000 RPM 30Db 0.38A

i think i have enough room for 3/4"
I'm also making them out of aluminum. I made one already but not quite happy with it... i start my design with cardboard.. then draw it out on aluminum once i get it shaped right.
thanks for your help.. hopefully i'll get time to work on it tonight :p

I made my shrouds by cutting out the shape of it in 1/8" aluminum, then I folded it to make the shroud. Along the lines where I was going to fold it, I used my dremel to etch out about half of the material. This made it so I could bend it right over in a straight line. Etch out the lines on the inside of the shroud and you cant see the cuts when you fold it up. Fast and easy.

1/8" is overkill, easier and cheaper just to buy some thinner sheet and bend it by hand.
I'd say 1-2" for a shroud in general, mine's made of 1mm Al sheet and seems to work fine.

I bought some al sheet metal that would be used for air ducts.
not to had to bend or to cut... as long as I have a straight edge to bend it against...
for a fold 120mm wide i find a CD jewl case works great...
I made a shrowd last weekend... but i made the distance from rad to fan 1-1/2"
i didn't like exacly how it turned out... and I thought the distance could be shortend.. by how much i didn't know... so I started this thread..
made a new design last night.. with the distance set to 20mm. a bit over 3/4".
I have one more small change to do to it then it will be ready to trace onto the metal and cut & bend. I'll let you know how it worked out...

Actually I was just guessing at the thickness of the Al I was using, it may be a bit thinner than that. I can get sheets of it for a dollar a piece at a surplus store. It is thick enough that its hard to bend it by hand evenly, thats why dremelling helped.

I am now thinking that scoring the metal with a knife at the bend spots may get me a cleaner bend. thanks for the idea....

I have some 1/8" Al and you can't bend it by hand. You may well have 1/16"...

I bought some .4" aluminum and you really need a vice to make tight corners with it. Lookie what I made though!

http://webpages.charter.net/msull/Shroud3.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/msull/Shroud1.jpg

WOW :drool:, looking at that makes me feel bad about my own cardboard shroud

Thats inspiring
 

Pythagoras would be proud! I love this site, people show off some quality stuff here.

Yay! People like my work! BTW, if you don't have a dad that helps you out, I feel sorry for you. I would have never figured out the dimensions for that shroud w/o his help. Crazy engineers...

I've got about 2 inches on mine. Constructed out of fiberglass and finished with bondo/black mirror paint:

Fiberglass
http://members.arstechnica.com/subsc...oodshroud1.jpg

Painted:
http://members.arstechnica.com/subsc...oodshroud2.jpg

The mold form for the fiberglass was made out of MDF and then covered in turtlewax to keep it from being stuck to it.