I was wondering if anybody has done the Ford taurus electric fan swap on thier Ranger or Mazda. I have a 2000 Mazda B2500. My wife is currently using it as her daily driver to Palm beach everyday, which is 50 miles each way. I was thinking of this mod for my F250 mud truck and thought it might be a good mod for my Mazda. Any little bit of fuel economy will help. My wifes daily driver is an 05 Grand Cherokee with a 3.7L. We were spending nearly $800.00 a month in gas. Now with the Mazda, our fuel bill for her is $600.00, a nice $200.00 savings. But, if I can get a few more miles per gallon, the swap would be worth it. My main question about the swap is the alternator. I havent checked the amperage on the O.E. alternator yet, but Its at least a 3g or higher alternator. Are there any known problems or tricks for this swap for the Ford ranger/Mazda. Thanks Rich2000 Mazda B2500 daily driver1990 F-250 7.5L 4x4 44 inch TSL monster mud truck

 

Kunz Korner At The Ranger Station
This is one source pretty good. Google around. Read a lot of such projects and form your own assessment before yanking the clutch fan. Ford's alternators seem to be losing quality steadily, but 1 good electric shouldn't really pull much more than your vent fan on high. Just get the biggest battery that will fit. As a good thermostat will switch fan(s) off much of the time, esp highway, you should get the results you're looking for. Also, don't remember seeing a Ford fan that would fit on my Ranger n the junk yards. found a nearly perfect fan out of a Cavalier though with a shroud that cut up. Try Summit for the thermo.

 

IMO, the drawbacks of converting to an e-fan outweigh any benefits you might get.

Living and working in a a warm-weather state like Fla., someone like you especially needs peace of mind when it comes to proper cooling system performance. Over the years, I've read a lot of posts regarding problems with e-fan conversions and I am aware of several Ranger owners who have dumped the e-fan and gone back to stock. Think of it this way: you wouldn't want your wife stranded on the side of the highway with an overheated engine, would you? Is that scenario worth the extra 1/2 mile per tank you might possibly gain (personally, I've never seen any real proof that an e-fan helps to save fuel).

I realize that some people have had good success with the e-fan mod and will defend it, but that's only because it worked out for them.

 

I think the chief problems with the conversions are the thermal switch. Few aftermarket versions are decent. And wiring in to coolant sensor still needs a brainbox of sorts. Other than that, picking an efan easy. OE types from junk yards is an outstanding option as long as it fits close to rad fins with a half inch or so of clearance. As for a front fan, I'd want to make sure any shroud doesn't impede incoming wind or the fans would need to run too much. The main should also be chosen to cover the rad width & height well. The junk yard OE fans should be more dependable than a fan clutch over 10 years old IMHO. There again, it's only as good as the thermal switch. Meet all that, and as long as the cooling system is in good shape, it should realize an overall noticable efficiency gain. Lead foots would not notice any mpg - only slight power boost. Make more room for CAI snorkel on a mudder too. OTOH, some guys disable the efan when fording streams & such. Not sure about mud. I think Ford should put more R&D into efans on basic rwd rigs. I think clutch fans are probably cheaper to manufacture than a good efan setup.

 

Not sure about your 2000 but my 2003 w/ac already has a electric fan in front of the a/c condensor (which sits in front of radiator). The radiator fan has a fan clutch which free wheels the fan at highway speeds and when the temp of radiator is lower. Not sure you would gain that much with your changeover to an electric fan.

 

I put a Flexalite 295 in my 1991 F150 , I gained 2mpg in 4 hours. It WILL pay for itself. With the stock altenator, you can tell there is significatn draw when both fans come on, but I haven't drained a battery yet. This truck is mostly driven on hwy, and I haven't come close to overheating yet. Granted this fan is expensive, ($495) you can get other aftermarket temp sensors, and adjust the temp & duration that the fan cycles.

With K&N intake, JBA shorty's, straight dual & glasspacks, TB spacer, Bosch platinum plugs, and Flexalite 295...18MPG out of a 5.0L...now I have to drive it for ten years to pay for all the toys, it has been fun boltin everything on.

BMB

 

Look on this forum;www.ford-trucks/forums/752325-electronic-cooling-fan-install.html
It will tell you every thing you need to know. This post is on the Big Broncos Forum.



Kenny

Lost your job yet?
Keep buying foreign.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...n-install.html
Fixed the link - was missing .com. Now i get to read it & perhaps do one again myself.

 

Hmm, yeah read that thread & a couple others. Results WILL vary for each example. I think Floridians should have it easier than some of us up here... Humidity has a lot of water in it. Granted we get humidity too, but from what I understand, less water for a given ~86 to 110 F day. Southwest should be harshest. Then the vehicle variables. Mine is a simple small clutch fan several inches from the fins with a mere finger guard. Any halfway effort of an efan would be about double or better than this stock fan. I think my temporary install verified that. I really should restore it assuming this rebuild goes well. Might last longer. Given all those details, the cost of a premium thermo control is cheap. My Fiero has one not much smaller than a Taurus unit & is pretty strong. This on a car with a hot-running 4-banger mounted in back cooled by front rad. If a mild fan can tame an Iron Duke's heat in a Fiero, a big one wouldn't have any trouble with a truck. That being said, my Fiero has a gelled fuel screen and rusty oddball tank straps. We need the truck, so Fiero sits waiting.

 

Thanks for all the info and input. This will definately be done on the mud truck. As for the Mazda, Its definately a possibility. South Florida is hot and humid. It was a concern on my list of reasons why not. But then, I went and saw a customer of mine the other day. He had a crown vic police car on the lift, and behold, no fan or clutch, just a big electric. So here is a rear wheel drive electric cooling fan from the factory. This is for a municipality that has a huge fleet of these cars using this same setup. Front wheel drives have always used this setut due to the transverse motors I also know that this setup is used on mustangs and I believe some Thunderbirds too.

So, my next step is to measure my radiator and engine compartment for fit. Then, present it to the wife. I will need to switch my alternator too with this install. Being that I manage an auto parts store, between the alternator, relays,fan blade/shroud combo and other misc. parts, I figure it will be between $275-350 my cost. This is about the same ammount of money she wanted to waiste on one of those hydrogen setups. I think the fan conversion will work to raise milage .

 

So what's wrong with hydroxy? Other a than poorly understood tech being resurrected with very poor controls. Nobody's all that sure of long-term life of an engine with the best setups but any ICE engine can be run on straight hydroxy on demand so it can easily ramp up mileage & even trounce the hybrids for a bit less than the efan rig. If you can build circuit boards and skip past the water4gas boards. I'm considering building a test rig on something before building my brother one for his Corolla. He's not technically oriented, so I'd want to prove it out on my own stuff & pretty much fool-proof it. If you want the best info I've seen, search Bob Boyce in a browser sometime. With a sane build, it may improve longevity of overall engine due to de-carbon effect on valves and such, but injectors can still clog, so cheap gas could still screw up the engine. As I said, this tech still has very poor control for blended mix...

 

Here is the catch, there are no failsafes on an electric fan, and FWD cars, which relay on electric fans, have much higher failure rates do to overheating. While there are a lot of factors in this, part of the problem is that the components of the electrical fan fail and either cause or amplify other cooling problems.

The major points of failure are the fuse, relay, temperature sensor (these failing reading colder than actual temperatures), the temperature controller, etc. If any of these components fail, the fan will not turn on, and the engine will overheat unless you can keep the car moving.

I would go for a flex-a-lite fan instead, those produce less drag than a regular fan, and are known to increase economy. Chances are it will cost less too.