Crank cooling fan?!?

It's done because it's cheap and reliable. An electric setup is better in just about every way but those two points.

 

Just my $0.02 I would prefer an electric fan.

Electric fans "can" cool better in situations (at low idle) when a mechanical fan can not. So if you have been running hard, and then suddenly find yourself in heavy traffic, an electric fan would still be able to cool quite well. So it's possible that you may overheat sitting in traffic. Mechanical fans "may" cool better at higher RPM. But an electric fan can still do the job none the less.

I believe that our mechanical fan is driven off of the water pump? If I'm correct, then our water pump is doing double duty.

 

No such thing as over cooling an engine. They would just make the fan smaller if that was the case.
Flex fans are lighter, and more aero efficient at high rpms yet still cool instantly at low rpm. So efficiency wise, they are better than clutched. The clutch has all those fins on it for a reason, to dissipate heat, also known as herspowrs.

Although I've cut my hands/arms so many times on flex fans, maybe thats why they dont use em. lol

 

Engine would take longer to reach optimal temp. and modern engines need to run a little hotter than normal for engines to meet emissions standard(195-210 normal range I believe). Oil also needs to heat up properly for all anti-wear additives to activate.

 

If a Flex-style fans worked as well as people claim for everyday use, you can bet you’d see them fitted to vehicles from the factory because they are cheap as hell to make compared to a clutch and blade.

 

Ya'll are dumb.

Aircooled is the answer.

 

Coming from Alaska, i can inform you that is absolutely wrong haha
- there’s a reason most of the diesels up here cover the grilles in the winter

Also, had my taco in Phoenix, it was 116*F, the fan was locked up, loud, and definitely sucking away power. Made the anemic v6 even more so. A/C barely worked at idle too.

In my old discovery, i had electric fans but replaced them with a “heavy duty” fan clutch - lost 2mpg, power, and could hear it blowing air constantly. I could blow rocks at people behind me though, so that was cool