How much amperage can an alternator support? no really...

[Vittorio Bares]

>> Um... no. The coolant thermostat will keep the engine at the stats 
>> design temp if it's in proper working order. Granted the engine should 
>> be allowed to run 10 or so degrees above stat temp, but with a 190 
>> degree stat the engine should run roughly at 190 degrees with the fan 
>> full on.

Looks like there is consensus that a properly operating thermostat will keep the engine running at the appropriate temp.

>> Now if it were my car the fan would be on an automatic fan switch with 
>> a manual over-ride. That way if it ever starts getting warm you can 
>> assume a switch failure and flick on the over-ride, voila good to go. 
>> Saying that a manual switch is removing a failure mode is very very 
>> faulty logic...the toggle switch used sure as hell isn't impervious to 
>> failure (in many cases it may be MORE likely to fail), which means you 
>> have deleted one failure point and added another, plus added 
>> additional wiring that could fail.
 
Given that the entire car was re-wired - 'additional' wiring was deleted ;)
 
Your strategy, which would include a temp-switch w/a manual override seems like the best approach - giving some level of redundancy. My assumption is that a good switch should have a very good MTBF compared to a temp switch - esp since its hardly used (switched to off, then on) - but this may also be a bad assumption.

Vittorio -