hey guys........i bought 2 electric fans at a garage sale over the weekend. 12 inch 10 blade fans. don't know how much cfm it pulls. should i make a fan shroud or just mount with no shroud. i was going to mount it on 2 metal horizontal strips instead of using the nylon wire push through the radiator mounts. is 1 16 inch fan better than 2 smaller fans. as far as wiring goes i wanted to wire it too the ignition so when the key is on/off the fan won't be left on and kill my battery. i also saw a thermostat that would be pushed into the radiator fins to turn the fans on/off with a relay and in line fuse with an extra wire for the a/c unit. does anyone have pics of your electric fans mounted and how it is wired. does the bolts for the water pump pulley need to be shorter since the fan won't be mounted to it anymore. i did a search on this forum and didn't find much info except that how much more power and mpg could be had.......any info on this is apprciated...........thanks............

 

You will still need a shroud for an electric fan(s).

Here are some writeups from another forum:

Electric Fan Install on an 86 Ford Bronco

Electric Fan install. 1989 460 EFI

Electric Fan Wiring

 

sorry the pics are blurry the camera had a finger print on it but anyway as u can see i used the factory fan shroud mounting locations

 

I don't think that you need a shroud, the fans are encased in their own...I took an old alum street sign, I cut it to length and width of the rad, and then cut the holes for the two 14 inch fans that I mounted on a diagonal, along with two 1 inch holes for the twin rad thermostats up by the top rad hose. You can get a retired alum sign at your local highway department yard. To cut it, I used a hand grinder with a 4 inch, thin cut off disc. I then ran double therms and relays, in case one of them fails out in the boon docks. The alum mounting plate fits nicely at the bottom, sharing right into the twin rad lower retaining bumper clips, the top was drilled and bolted to the former shroud mounting location with just 2 bolts. She is very ridged because of the alum mount. I also bolted the fans directly to that plate, and used the nylon type lock nuts, to keep the fans sound from road vibrations. If you go this route make sure that you mount the plate butted to the rad which would give you the desired 1 inch sweet spot between rad and fan blades...the old fan clutch studs should be fine, just put your finger behind there to make sure there is clearance after the install.

 

hey guys..........thanks for the helpful info on this subject........i will get on this project this weekend. i can't wait to see how it turns out.............

 

subscribing. i have an electric fan but its only a single fan on a relay to a switch. id like to get a second and wire it up to go on with the engine running to blow air on the engine at all times and the second to come on for ac/and heating up tho ive never had mine heat up too hot

 

There is no advantage to having the fan run full time w/engine on. I would highly suggest a thermostatic controlled relay with the added feature of full time operation w/AC on. It would be easy enough to do with a diode or another relay in the AC control circuit.

Just be aware these electric fans will draw a lot of current. Use the proper size wire as well as verifying your alternator is up to the task. The old 2G alternators were pretty puny. A good 130 amp 3G will insure your fan(s) will be supplied with enough current as well as your engine and other accessories.

 

i just figured keeping temps down under the hood might make for happier everything. heat does ware on stuff i mean think about it, no point in getting things super hot under there? the mechanial fan always was blowing as long as the engine was running. im not trying to start an argument i just think a little air flow all the time could never hurt. im set on powering pretty much anything as well

 

I'm going with rla2005 here; you don't need to and you shouldn't run the fans all the time. With the fans off, the alternator will undoubtedly live a longer life and you'll warm up a little quicker every time.

Kudos for the electric fan swap- that's a great mod that will pay dividends with a longer water pump life, longer serpentine belt life and all kinds of other joys, like quicker starting too. Just use a Perma-Cool relay (cheap and good) or any others like he described and you'll be surprised how rarely you actually need to run the fans at all. In my old '77 with a high-compression engine and a single electric 16" with no shroud it only kicked on when I was crawling through traffic!

 

you not going to warm up quicker because thats controlled by the thermostat the only thing e-fans do is take drag off the engine

it isnt going to help with starts if ur having slow starts u have another problem....

as far as what they do do they do free up maybe a few horsepower and increase fuel economy by like 3 miles per tank might be more they do make it quieter and it does help increase the pick up and deceleration of engine rpms

as for warm ups... i cant tell a difference in warm up time and before i put my e-fan on my fan clutch was pretty much seized so it was always turning the same rpms as the engine and it still takes as long to warm up....

if u have a small alternator like less than 75 amp ur screwed and every time the fans come on it will stall the engine.... so i suggest upgrading to a 130 or higher

i have mine wired in with a thermostatic sensor and relay... and its also wired into the plug on the A/C compressor to come on when the a/c is turned on

 

whats up guys..........thanks for all the helpful feed back. i will look into a thermostatic relay with a temp sensor that i could push into the radiator fins with an a/c wire hook up. i also read about proper gauge wires. what size should it be for the electric fans?? i will be looking for a 130 amp alternator. do any of the explorers, t-birds, aerostar, taurus, have these alternators and will it fit. i don't want to see my belt flying off on start up. do you think maybe more than a 130 amp alt to run this setup or is that more than enough............again thanks everyone for the feed back...........it was very informative and good to know.................

 

my 75 amp runs it so i know a 130 amp will do great but i also dont have a amp and subs or auxiliary lighting pulling from it either

uhm 14 gauge wire comes on the relay i think... so thats what size i used

one question tho. before u buy anything... what year is your truck and what engine is in it and how many core radiator do u have?

ok that was three questions lol

 

I was talking about electric vs. mechanical; it really should make the engine turn over with a little more pep because that mechanical fan makes for more mass to turn over. It's just a little something I noticed when I did it on my old truck, and the faster warm-ups weren't dramatic, but it did seem to warm up a bit faster when it was really cold outside without the giant fan blowing full speed on it all the time.

 

boy if only i could do the conversion to find out for myself.... wait i did....


its not going to make the engine turn over with more pep if ur talking about turning over when starting because it will only turn over as fast as the starter can turn and that little 3 pound fan and clutch isnt going to slow it down

now if ur talking about throttle response yes it helps with that

and warm ups... its a steel block
if it was aluminum then it might make a difference on warm up...

but u said if its really cold so on that note ill say this u will see a gain here because the thermostat wont be opening and closing as much....

any way....

 

to hitokori.............i have a 94 f150 step side with a 5.0L/302 and it used to have a single core until it blew, now it has a 2 core radiator with a 195 temp stat in it. i was thinking of running 2-12 inch fans. 1 for the radiator and the other wired for the a/c when its on or just 1 16 inch for the entire cooling system.............thanks for all the help on this subject everyone.................