I am looking at electric fan conversion on my 96 Ranger. The fan looks like it is screwed on at the base? what way do you go with this and is there a way of holding this thing on when I loose the mechanical fan and clutch?

 

Why do you want to go over to E-fans? Wendell Borror, a member here, switched to the E-fan then went back after having some issues with it, and it's not like he didn't know what he was doing, he's very knowledgable about it.

The fan clutch is attached via a right hand (reversed) thread nut. You can rent a fan puller from any of the major auto places (O'Reilly's, Autozone, Napa, etc.), a large box wrench is used to hold the fan while you loosen the bolt.

 

The other, surefire way to take it off is to use a chisel and hammer to break it loose, then you can just use the wrench.

I am not impressed with my e-fan. It did not impact mileage (which was the reason I put it on) and here at 6000' it won't keep the truck cool when its over 95 degrees (unless I turn off the a/c, which is less than desireable). Many others have the same Permacool fan and report no problems, so if you are closer to sea level you might be fine. I just bought a Taurus fan and will put that on so I don't overheat next summer. The only thing I gained is less fan noise when the engine is revved higher.

 

The clutch on these Ranger's from my experince is very efficent. It usually freewheels and only engauges when it's needed, like an electric fan. Plus, you get the benefit of factory engineering, which in this case is pretty good.

The only time mine comes on is sitting in traffic in the summer.

 

I had a perma-cool e-fan with aluminum blades, a blade got bent and about trashed my rad, it had also stopped working and caused over heating, so I put the old system back on. However, I'm thinking about trying it again because I do alot of water crossing and the e-fan gives me the ability to shut it off when crossing streams, creeks and even shallow rivers when 4-wheeling down in W,Va. It also does a better job of keeping the truck cool when climbing around in the mountains in low range in the summer. I think I may go with a plastic blades this round, so instead of bending they will just break off, I'm still undecided, but leaning toward trying it again. I didn't see any hp or mpg out of it, but it does have some advantages. I did alot of modifications at once, so I can't say the e-fan didn't help hp or mpg, but haven't noticed any difference without it. My jeep liberty has one on it stock from the factory, it's a nice quality piece, wish I had one like that for the ranger. I heard that the e-fan from a taurus is the way to go as it has 2 speeds, the jeep guy's swear by them, does anyone know if they will fit a ranger, or has tried it?

 

The taurus fan works pretty good. IT draws alot of juice so just any old 30 amp relay will overheat, you have to get a little bit larger, like 45-60 amp. I did the mod to my F150 with a 5.0 in it, and it worked pretty good. I did add an extra pusher fan that i bought at a parts store. Otherwise our 94 ranger has a black magic E fan in it. If it was able to pull some more CFM's it would be fine, but it has the tendency to overheat in the summer with the a/c on. So if thats important to you, i'd stay with stock, or go with the tauraus fan and do some mods yourself. Because it just doesnt seem to cool enough for our ranger.

As far as getting the fan off, your fan shroud should say which direction you need to spin the nut. If it says "left hand thread" then its reversed from the normal way, if its right hand, then its the normal way. The parts stores have a special tool that you can rent, its 2 pieces of steel, 1 is the actual wrench, the other is a wrench made to go around the 4 bolts holding the pulley on the water pump. If you have an air hammer, throw a chisle tip on it and rattle the nut off. This works very very slick.

 

Stay with your mechanical fan!! They are far more reliable, and will cool better than the e-fans.

 

Sound is actually sometimes quite pleasing too. With my F150 that has the 300 with granny gear. I love starting it up in the morning and throwing it in granny gear and taking off with it revving up to about 2500 RPM's and the fan just screaming, sounds like a small semi.

 

The perma-cool did an excellent job of cooling in the summer and with the ac on, that was never an issue, or the amp drawl, I've gone to a 200 amp alt anyway. I don't want anything complcated, if it's not plug and play, I'm not doing it. I've had one bad experience and if I don't feel comfortable with it, it's not happening. Actually, I think I'll just go with the stock set up this summer and see how it does. I'm mostlly concerned with water crossing every since that guy posted about hydro locking his engine. I never had a problem before, even with the stocker, I just cross slow and carefull. I'll probbley just keep the stock set up, I'm getting nerves for nothing, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. The e-fan cost me alot of heartack the first time, I'm not in a hurry to repeat that experience. The rest of my family doesn't have e-fans on thier 4x4's and they live there. Thanks, I've talked myself out of putting an e-fan back on my truck and saved some money at the same time. I over think things sometimes ha ha.

 

If your fan is screaming when cold, it sounds like you need to replace your fan clutch!!

 

Bob, the stock fan (operating normally) will scream when its really cold out because the fluid in the clutch is too thick at that temperature to operate correctly. It takes a few minutes for it to calm down. What he described is normal operation.

Wendell, if you put an e-fan back on, get the fan from a 3.8 Taurus - its a 2 speed job so you can set it on slow speed for most of the year, and only use high when its really hot out, and it is reliable, etc.

 

Good point Ruby! But, it doesn't get as cold here in NC as it does in Colorado, so normal fan clutches release much faster on a cold start....