I also work in HVAC, and have been wrenching around cars for about 40 years.
The clutch fan was a huge improvement over the old fixed fan. The best electrics are made by the car makers and many use a combo of mech fan clutch and electric. The electrics big advantage is lots of airflow not dependent on engine speed which is nice in stop and go driving and plowing. I like using JY fans and usually set up a dual system. The only performance improvement I noticed was with the A/C in traffic.
regards
rikard

 

Most e-fans in cars are because of front wheel drives, and the mounting of the engine prevents a true mechanical fan. I know they tend to be popular as well in cars with the very restrictive grill openings, and high s.p. resistance in the ac/radiator coils, like the T-bird fans.

Most don't realize taking the fan out of those factory cars and putting them into a different vehicle seriously alters the fan performance, I'm not a huge fan of it.

I hope I don't come off as preachy, or a know it all on this topic. Seems what most people know about e-fans are what they've learned from advertising, and it's fake. I do specialized testing and my name and reputation go on 1000's of fan test reports every year, it's all I know. I'm just trying to pass that info on.

 

maybe, but you think if a cold air intake made an extra 20hp and some extra mpg it would be a factory feature? you think if a programmer on a computer controlled engine really added hp and mpg it would be a factory feature? you think if a 4" exhaust really added hp and mpg the factory would have it on their trucks? NO, just cause the factory doesnt install something doesnt mean that its not either a good idea or would give you gains.

 

ok the #1 reasons factorys dont put this stuff on the production cars and trucks is money.

it would cost them more money getting contracts with companiest that made the products.... then all that would drive the cost of the vehicles up and no one would buy them.

u take a top of the line super car like lamborguini look how much they cost.... nothing u can bolt on can improve the performance...

at least thats y i think they dont do it

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the mods you named affect emissions, and you are giving numbers based off marketing materials.

Look, this isn't my opinion, it's something that's been passed on to me by a few honest fan manufacturers. It's shady how they come up with their hp/tq/mpg's. Any gains from an efan in our trucks is minuscule, however as previously mentioned, the ac performance in city driving will be greatly improved. I will add a small efan for that purpose in my F150.

I'll also say this, I see no down side to an e-fan set up as long as your charging system and budget can handle it. I just try to educate as to the real 'gains' to those on a budget.

In case it's not here somewhere, here is the test procedure to verify your charging system performance in order to determine if your vehicle can handle an electric fan:

Hook up a multi tester to the battery leads and take a voltage reading with the truck off. Should be somewhere around 12 volts. Now start the truck, you should see a minimum of a 1 volt jump to show the alternator is working. At idle, start turning on accessories and keep an eye on the voltage. If it holds above 12.8 volts for every accessory, your alternator can handle that amperage load at idle. When you turn on the accessories, do it one at a time, and give the system a minute or two with the voltage test. The battery will take the initial hit of amp draw and won't show a drop in voltage immediately. Repeat the test at 2000 rpm. This tells you what the capabilites of the alternator are at idle and at 'max'. I was able to hook up the leads on the battery and set the tester on the cowl so I could read the readings from the cab, with some craning of the neck.

If the battery is dropping below 12.8 volts, you're charging system could have issues with the fan when you have heat/lights on. (largest current draws).

 

I guess you edited your post , but the thinks you did to your dodge , only to gain 10HP , wont work on a ford either , cold air intakes don't do much of anythig , muffers & exhaust do a little , the bottle neck is in the stock manifolds , long tube headers will give you a big boost . Chips do do much either , you can do the same thing with a timing light for free . If you chose the right bolt ons you will see a good improvmeant...Lew

 

yea i dont remember it saying that last night..... but it was like 3am here.... XD

if ur alternator cant supply power for an efan then u might want to be getting a new alternator.....

pritty sure mine can take the extra power >.> if it cant then ill just take the alternator off my dads explorer motor....

i dont know what alternator is on it now but i know its not the factory one coz its shiny clean lol.....

 

If i ever go to a e-fan setup im going to use two fans and two seperate adjustable contollers so you can make one come on earlier and one later. I would like the controlers to be ones that start out at like 60% and then progressively come on to 100%. so by the time the first one gets to 90% the second kicks on at about 60%. I also thought i would put a switch on them to kick them completely off. So if you wanted to completely turn them off for drag racing you could run them up to the line turn them off for the run and then kick them back on afterwards. And all of this would be wired through the ignition so when the key and switch is on they are on. You don't have to remember to turn them on everytime you start your truck. I think this would be the most efficient system with the most gains. But i am in no way an expert at this. Its just something i thought up.

 

Yeah i have mine wired to a toggle switch so i can shut them off when i don't want them on ...Lew

 

If the clutch only engages the mechanical fan during slow driving when the system is hot, then you only lose HP when the truck is very low on the HP curve.

Therefore there is a cost of 8 HP to spin the mech fan on my 302 during hot and slow conditions, much, much less during cooler or high speed conditions.

The efan is on when the temperature is hot, regardless of the speed. An efan costs about 1 HP (30amp double fan, 14.4 running volts, 750 watts/HP, ~40% efficiency loss on alternator).

I don't need those extra HPs in slow city driving. I need those HP when my truck has extra weight during higher speed driving. During that higher speed driving the mechanical fan costs me nothing (clutch disengaged) and the efan cost me 1 HP.

Why should I spend the $300 for efan, wire, relays and probes with half a day's labor to lose 1 HP when I need it?


Caveats: I know the fan spins at higher RPMs and ground speed, but at a much reduced rate. I did a back of envelope analysis of the HP cost to spin the mechanical fan and clutch based on it being a disk with the weight evenly distributed. I had to borrow my son's physics textbook for that It's probably less than that because my assumptions were biased toward the larger extreme. I picked a double fan, because this is a truck and may need the extra cooling if I were hauling a weight.

 

Last summer I installed a 10" pusher efan that runs when the A/C is on. It dropped the register temperature from 55* to 36* at idle. It probably costs me about 1/3 of an HP. I live in the hot part of L.A. One of the smartest automotive things I have done

 

I have a 460 in my truck though and it always gets hot. Especially when its warm out and your ideling or going slow and the ac is on. So i think this would be a wise investment for me to get rid of that problem. And you can make it so the fans won't run when your up to speed by setting them to come on at higher temps.

 

you have your single or dual fan on a thermostat. it will only come on when your engine reaches whatever temp you set it for. if your goin 50 the fan will stay off unless you start getting hot.

 

Lew, edited my post because I didn't want to change the direction of the thread to bolt on performance products. Save it for another day/night.

I did the electrical test on the system for my truck when I was researching this to find I couldn't sustain an electric fan with my current charging system. It wasn't that the alternator was worn, I had installed an aftermarket stereo system and the amp draw (single 5 channel) was eating up any excess amperage that was part of the original trucks design. Again, as long as a truck pass's you should be fine, but if you do have an aftermarket system make sure you test it at the maximum volume you listen at to get an idea of how it will work. Assuming the original design of a vehicle incorporates a certain amount of amperage 'safety factor' and one major amp drawing accessory is probably going to max it out. I would be curious to check my F150 at stock just for the heck of it since it's about 10 years older.

 

uhm... about how much does the average ford taurus fan cost... i know its the 90-95 yrs i think with the 3.8 v6

i also know the price is going to change from location to location ....

but i am just curiouse as to what the average cost is