well, as my prior post mentioned, i am replacing the rear main on my BB '95 extended van. so i broke down and decided to finally fix all the misc things that have been bugging me. when i got my van i was designing car audio for DEI. so the van got multiple different audio and alarm pieces stuffed in it over the years. made for a messy scene. plus i have installed all sorts of things over the years... point is that the van esp the electrical system is multiple layers of ca-ca.

this all started with a busted muffler which led to wrapping headers which led to better fix the oil leak which led to let's just fix it all.

COOLING SYSTEMS and ELECTRIC FANS (disclaimer: just my $0.02 posted here):
vans do not take kindly to the removal of the stock mechanical fan. vans need the constant flow of air over the engine that the stock fan provides, esp if you have headers. one of the bad side effects of no mechanical fan is the toasty warm floorboards i have been enduring for the past year...

i pulled my stock fan two years ago and installed 2 16" permacool fans rated at 2500+ cfm. since then, perceived cooling system performance has been substandard. long pulls up a grade drive drive h2o temp up to 240deg. i can see where i could hit 240deg and not know it... but i would still be in the NORMAL range on the ford gauge...

i installed a mechanical temp gauge about a year ago with the sender installed in the intake manifold next to the t-stat. indexing my ford temp gauge shows 190deg when the pointer is aimed at the middle of the O in NORMAL. 200 points at the R, 210 points at the M, etc etc. so when the h2o temp hits 240deg, my ford gauge is still in NORMAL. well that's not normal to me.
so i purchased a 2002 Expedition aluminum rad - 2 row, 1" tubes, plastic tanks, requires diesel van expansion tank (but no problem there - we got boneyards). rad is the same width, but 8" taller. hmmm, what to do?

it is my belief that one of the issues with electric fans and vans lies with the fact that they move small amounts of air very quickly to achieve their cfm rating whereas the ford fan moves large amounts of slowly. that gives the air some time to find its way out of the engine compartment. plus it gives a lot of eng/exh sys cooling as a side benefit.

as i have chosen to stick with electric fans, here is my solution. i am installing the expedition rad slanted back, well actually kicked forward on the bottom tucked in behind the bumper. this mimics the 2008 superduty F350 i drove for work. that truck had 6 or 7 radiator/intercoolers mounted to the core support. and they were angled back. that was one packed engine compartment! i think ford did that to allow an airspace between the bottom of the rad and the bottom front of the engine in order to give hot rad air a place to go w/ little resistance. so i cut my lower core support out last nite - i drew a line out and down from the rad mounting bolts and made my cuts. that removed the lower core support section behind the bumper from frame rail to frame rail. i have bent the a/c condensor brackets so that the condensor top is in the same spot but the lower portion is now about 3/4" from the back top of the bumper - of course all front end sheet metal etc is out of the way right now, but it looks like i will only need to trim about 1" from the back of the lower portion of the valence - that piece of sheetmetal just below the grille and above the bumper - to make everything bolt back up. i have lost two mounting points for the valence in the middle and can't remember if i have lost any for the headlight piece. still i don't believe it will make anything floppy or weak.

i am building a cradle for the new rad and condensor that will also support the new electric fan package out of 1" box tubing. it looks like i will have about 12" between the bottom of the rad and the crank pulley as the space for hot air to exit. of course the fans will be at the rad angle which will be somewhere around 60deg so that should help air exit as well.

for cooling fans i plan to run the 2x16" permacool fans on the bottom of the rad and i am adding 2x9" Zirgo 1000+cfm to the top corners. might install three... i use a two stage fan controller. but i am planning to run the 2 9" fans constantly as well as installing them in a manner as to allow them to blow air back and over the engine - trying to get the airflow over and past the headers. the 2x16" fans will be set up initially in a two stage setup. one set to 200deg and the other set to 210deg. that is likely to change.

ISSUES:
the Expedition rad is 1 3/4 inlet/outlet - my t-stat housing is 1 1/2
the Exp rad has inlet /outlets reversed from my rad
have to install diesel expansion tank
fabrication - cradle and fan shroud
more fan wiring

FWIW, i am also installing 2 200A alternators, the wrapped headers, fixing the oil leak, installing the BBk t-body with the water injection setup and ported upper manifold, adj fuel pressure regulator, E4OD O/D controller, and a host of electronic/electrical upgrades this week. i will keep posting and i am taking pics.

best to all
neil

 

neil,

looks like your really busy! I saw your post in the classifieds... do you still have the velvet rides?

I have a 1995 f250 that really needs a pair of those shackles...

cheers,

chip gibson

 

chip, as there is no selling in the forums, please contact me directly. sorry, i didn't think to put contact info in my post

esteyesATcoxDOTnet

neil

 

another thing. i know louvers or vents in the hood have been discussed. i am against it in general except for the ambulance type rig - one that spends long hours siiting at idle or fast idle. i have worked on many ambulances as well as a ton of fire trucks and i agree they have excessive underhood temps due to just sitting at idle.

i raised the back of my hood to allow the electric fans to push air more easily out of the engine compartment. three things i noticed:
* i had a lot of hot air coming in my two front door windows
* the a/c-heater inlet was getting a lot of the hot air coming from the engine dept.
* my doghouse and floorboards got hotter than before.

these are some of the reasons i concluded that airflow over the engine is mandatory.

neil