Was wondering if any of you have ever put an electric fan on a Ranger. My main reason is simply seeing how much fuel milage I can get out of my 3.0. I'm already getting 22-25 mpg... just curious.

 

Don't waste your money on electric fans. Don't expect a serious gain, and don't trust your engine to one. Sure FWD cars use them exclusively, but FWD cars are also more prone to cooling failure problems. My sister lost her '94 Civic because one simple little relay failed, causing an overheat, which warped the head and blew the gasket.

If you are getting that great of mileage, leave it alone. If you want better than that, get a 2.5L.

 

Great. Was just wondering. What made me curious is when I removed the fan and clutch from a 96 parts truck and realized just how heavy it was.

Just wanting to see if I can stretch anymore milage out of my 3.0.

It already gets better milage than my wife's 2.3L (which only gets around 22mpg).

Stan

 

I've got another car that has both. A fan belt driven fan with a clutch and an electric fan that comes on if the temp gets too high. It seems to work alright usually the electric fan does not need to come on but the othter day the water temp got up to 212F and the electic fan came on.

I think that the engineers at Ford would have considered removing the belt driven fan for an offsetting increase in mileage and decrease in the cost? No matter what the reasons are, the engineers, trained to design cars and paid to design cars and experienced in designing cars, came to the compromise solution that they considered best. I think that's good enough.

Just my thoughts on why stock should remain the most valuable configuration.

 

In electric fans there are a lot of components that all have to work. They aare triggered by temperature sensors. The sensors tend to read on the cool side when they fail. This can mean they let the system get hotter than it should be. There are relays which can fail, which handle the electrical load. If they fail, you get no cooling. The motors themselves can fail, any of the electrical components can fail, etc. There are a lot of points where things can go wrong.

In contrast, a mechanical fan has so reliability strong points. It uses a viscous fluid inside the housing to create resistance so the fan spins. It engages as it heats up, and it gets airflow going at low speeds and idle. There are several ways it can fail, but the great thing about them is what happens when they go. On all the Fords we've owned that had a clutch fail, they lost the seal, and in turn lost the viscous fluid. Without lubrication, the bearing seizes, resulting in a fail safe, the fan is always on. This also makes noise and lets you kow that it has failed. The other option is that the bearing does not seize and it either does not work as well, but still provides some function, which you will detect as higher than normal temperatures, but still within reason, allowing you time to address the problems. It can also fail and the bearing can get loose, creating noise. Then of coarse, the belt can break, but you would notice that too.

Electric fans draw enormous amounts of current. This puts load on your electrical system. So you may trade a slight gain in efficiency with more dead batteries and premature alternator failure.

BTW, your wifes 2.3L probably has something wrong with it to only get 22 mpg. The dual plug setup on that truck should yield as high as 29. I cannot judge on the driving style, but my dad's never gets less than 24, and his has well over 300,000 miles.

 

I'd give my left ******** for 22-25 mpg's out of my 3.0. I get about 15 around town.

 

I am surprise with the mileage that the 3.0 is getting. If I would have known I probably would have found one of them.

Anyway, I am hoping to get 25mpg with my 2.3L in my surburban driving environment. I tried to drive it conservatively. So far I am still on the first tank of gas.

Allen

 

When I was driving to school, I'd get a consistent 22-23 mpg with my 3.0. Now that school is out (less highway driving as a percentage of the tank) and I'm running the A/C, I'm down to "only" 20.

Everybody says the 3.0 is a turd, and really it is, but if I wanted a hot rod I'd get a Mustang and any towing I do with my F-150. It has served my purposes well.

As for the fan, the point seems kind of moot to me considering the alternator has to charge any juice the e-fan is going to use, and running the alternator takes fuel too. Are they just more efficient?