Heat exchanger and fan motor in a front wheel drive vehicle

Claim 1

A front-wheel drive motor vehicle comprising: (a) a horizontal engine, said horizontal engine being mounted at at least substantially a right angle with respect to the moving direction of said motor vehicle; (b) an exhaust manifold operatively associated with said horizontal engine; (c) a radiator located adjacent to said horizontal engine and to said exhaust manifold, said radiator being located to one side of said horizontal engine with respect to the moving direction of said motor vehicle; and (d) a heat exchanger unit located adjacent to said radiator but spaced therefrom in the moving direction of said motor vehicle, said heat exchanger unit comprising: (i) a plurality of flat pipes in at least substantially circular form provided with passages for coolant inside thereof, said flat pipes being concentrically arranged, being radially spaced from one another, and having an axial central space within the innermost one of said plurality of flat pipes; (ii) an inlet header connected to the inlets of each of said plurality of flat pipes; (iii) an outlet header connected to the outlets of each of said plurality of flat pipes; (iv) corrugated heat exchanger fins interposed in at least some of the spaces between said plurality of flat pipes, said heat exchanger fins being in thermal contact with adjacent ones of said plurality of flat pipes and being at least generally coplanar with said plurality of flat pipes; (v) a fan motor positioned in said axial central space, said fan motor having a rotory shaft which extends axially outwardly of said plurality of flat pipes and said corrugated heat exchanger fins; and (vi) a propeller fan mounted on said rotory shaft and sized and position to draw cooling air between said radially spaced flat pipes and over said corrugated heat exchanger fins.