E-fan Switch

[Skandocious]

I should have done this a LONG time ago...

So since I've been hanging with Rick-- he has showed me his e-fan setup on his Bronco. He's using the fan from a V8 t-bird. I didn't know but the t-bird is very similar to the taurus fan: 2-speed and pulls a buttload of air. He showed me his setup and I saw that the t-bird has a MUCH bigger shroud and a MUCH bigger fan (the actual diameter of the fan blades). Not to mention that the shape of the fan blades is a better design for pulling air. His shroud covered almost all of his radiator.

I've always been somewhat unhappy with my taurus fan because it didn't cover the part of my radiator where my trans cooler was, so my trans could start to heat up in traffic, etc. So after seeing Rick's sweet setup with the t-bird fan and his custom mounting brackets, I started gettin' ideas

He fabbed me up some brackets like his and I got to work looking for a t-bird fan. Finally found some at the PnP here near my moms house (and they had TONS to choose from). I grabbed two (1 for a spare) and headed home. Took about 2-3 hours to get everything drilled, mounted, and wired, plus that fact that I cleaned up some of my messy wiring from last time (running bare wires through bare metal holes, missing split loom, etc).

HOLY CRAP!! The t-bird fan pulls way more air and pulls LESS power. Before-- I'd flip it on high speed and there'd be an initial surge from starting the motor, but the gauge would not return back to normal unless the engine is turning RPMs higher than idle. Now I've got the surge but the gauge climbs back up to normal even at an idle!! I'm thinking that perhaps my taurus fan had a little resistance in the motor which was making it pull too much power. Either way-- I'm much happier with this setup. Here's the comparison pics that I snapped while there was still some light outside. I finished after dark so I wasn't able to get any pics of the finished product. Those will come later

 

[Skandocious]

Whoops forgot the pics

 

[surewhynot]

Great job Chris. When you get a chance, can you do me a favor and take measurements of each fan? It would be nice to have for future reference for one of my cross bred projects.

 

[subford]

What year (or year range) and engine size(s) V8 t-bird did you get the fans from or will work from?

 

[radialarm]

Looks good! I got another Tbird fan last week to have a spare, but mine are only single speed. I'm working mine into my old fan shroud to use after the engine swap. The whole radiator will be covered.

 

[SuperCab]

Cool man. Looks good.

 

[Skandocious]

What year (or year range) and engine size(s) V8 t-bird did you get the fans from or will work from?

I believe you can get it from any "Twelfth Gen" T-Bird with a V8. I'm not sure if both the 5.0 and the 4.6 have the same fan-- I shoulda checked what engines I was working on yesterday but I didn't I was too focused on the fans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Thunderbird#1989-1997

The fan you want will have a red and white striped WARNING sticker on the top of the shroud (if it hasnt been peeled off).

You can also get the same fan from a similar era Lincoln Mark VIII. I've heard claims that the Lincoln fan is better but I compared them at the junkyard yesterday and they look identical. Grabbed the t-bird fans cuz they had fewer miles on them. If the Lincoln fan IS in fact better, then trust me it's OVERKILL. This fan moves unbelievable amounts of air.

EDIT: Oh and Mercury Cougars of a similar age should also have the same fan.

 

[Skandocious]

Just snapped some pics:


Taurus Fan:

T-Bird Fan:

Notice the difference in bare radiator space above the fan shroud. And the fancy brackets that Rick made for me There are two more fancy brackets on the bottom but I didn't feel like laying on the ground

 

[CaFordDude]

Looks good Chris

 

[big5oh]

So with the t-bird fan you no longer mount to the radiator core? I would consider it a good thing to mount to some kind of bracketry as opposed to the radiator core.

What motivated you to delete the factory fan and shroud?

 

[Skandocious]

Yessir! I no longer need to use those dumb zip ties to mount it directly to the radiator fins. That was a huge plus for this swap.

As for swapping to the efan-- the stock clutch fan creates a parasitic power loss from having to spin those fan blades using engine power, often times with the fan clutch being partially engaged when the engine doesn't need it. The efan swap yields more power and a little better gas mileage by removing that added load on the engine. Some argue that the high electrical draw strains the alternator which also creates engine load-- this is true, but the fact is that my efan only runs maybe less than 5% of the time that I'm driving. And even when it's running it feels more powerful than when I had my clutch fan.

There are a few other perks too-- such as quicker engine warm-up (fan is COMPLETELY off during warmup), ice cold A/C even when parked or in stop and go traffic, a lot more space in the engine compartment, etc.

The efan is probably my favorite of all the mods I've done.

Oh and welcome to FTF

 

[subford]

Thank you for the information Chris.

 

[tomtoc]

...such as quicker engine warm-up (fan is COMPLETELY off during warmup)

been discussed before, but i'm still not sure how this works. the job of a properly working thermostat is to keep all the coolant in the engine until it reaches operating temp, isn't it? so i should be able to put blocks of ice in the coolant lines and that won't bother anything until the thermostat opens.

everyone says it warms up faster. fact or assumption?

(don't mean to come off like a jerk, just curious. hard to tell what people mean when they type)

 

[tomtoc]

but i'm still not sure how this works.

responding to myself, i don't know enough about how all this works. i guess the water pump is still pumping something towards the engine even though the engine isn't letting any hot water out. so...is that water getting pushed around sort of swirling the wrong way and ending up back at the radiator b/c nothing is keeping it IN the engine?

think of pouring colored water into clear water. it doesn't push the clear to the bottom. it all sloshes around and mixes together.

if all my examples and assumptions are right, i can see where warm water would get back to the radiator and be cooled by a mechanical fan before the t-stat opens.

 

[Skandocious]

been discussed before, but i'm still not sure how this works. the job of a properly working thermostat is to keep all the coolant in the engine until it reaches operating temp, isn't it? so i should be able to put blocks of ice in the coolant lines and that won't bother anything until the thermostat opens.

everyone says it warms up faster. fact or assumption?

(don't mean to come off like a jerk, just curious. hard to tell what people mean when they type)

On a cold morning that clutch fan would still be pulling ice cold air into the engine compartment and past the block, heads, throttle body, etc. Who knows if it really makes a difference-- I never bothered with a stopwatch but common sense tells me it should make a bit of a difference.

If not-- doesn't really matter. Like I said, it's just a perm; an added bonus. I did the swap for the power/mileage gains if nothing else.


And you're welcome Bill You thinking of doing an efan swap?

 

[Skandocious]

responding to myself, i don't know enough about how all this works. i guess the water pump is still pumping something towards the engine even though the engine isn't letting any hot water out. so...is that water getting pushed around sort of swirling the wrong way and ending up back at the radiator b/c nothing is keeping it IN the engine?

think of pouring colored water into clear water. it doesn't push the clear to the bottom. it all sloshes around and mixes together.

if all my examples and assumptions are right, i can see where warm water would get back to the radiator and be cooled by a mechanical fan before the t-stat opens.

This is also quite possible. I don't know enough about the cooling system but it seems to me that the water in the radiator would try to transfer it's heat (or lack thereof) to any coolant that it is in contact with.

 

[tomtoc]

This is also quite possible. I don't know enough about the cooling system

me either, but talking through that last one made me think about how there's only 1 thermostat, not an "in" door and "out" door. so...possible?

 

[Skandocious]

Come to think of it, I do know one thing for sure. If I turn on my heater right at startup on a frigid morning, it's usually blowing moderately warm air by the time I hit the end of the driveway. This never happened with my clutch fan.

 

[big5oh]

been discussed before, but i'm still not sure how this works. the job of a properly working thermostat is to keep all the coolant in the engine until it reaches operating temp, isn't it? so i should be able to put blocks of ice in the coolant lines and that won't bother anything until the thermostat opens.

everyone says it warms up faster. fact or assumption?

(don't mean to come off like a jerk, just curious. hard to tell what people mean when they type)

Well, here is my thought. The t-stat is NOT completely closed till it's rated opening temp. Rather, it slowly starts to open at about 50 degrees prior. So that being said, the collant begins to flow and get cooled at about 120 degrees. With the e-fan, coolant flows at an cooler temp, but does not get cooled....thus a quicker warm up time. The mechanical fan will be spinning at 60% of water pump speed which is enough air flow to cool the 120,140,160 etc. degree coolant.

 

[tomtoc]

The t-stat is NOT completely closed till it's rated opening temp.

i assumed it popped open quicker than that, but have no idea. if that's the case, e-fan makes sense.

FWIW, good info-graphic here
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cooling-system2.htm
make sure you click "start"