Electric fan inquiry in this area also...

[O'Rattlecan]

Chris mentioned he had one out of a taurus and I've seen some very expensive fan kits online. I'm looking for one on the 351w on a 1994 F-150. I just want to be sure I have adaquate cooling for the vehicle. I tow occasionally, but not often. The usual worst is a few hundred pounds in the back from a dirtbike, mound of dirt/mulch, etc.

Would the taurus fan do it in the 100* heat in the summer? Do I need a bigger fan? I really would like to do it "Right" if at all possible. A shroud or some kind of device to help pull air from the entire radiator would be preferable.

Not looking for any completely specific stuff, I'm just throwing out question to see what kind of replies I get.

Ryan

 

[blacksnapon]

There is some very good aftermarket fan kits out there. My opinion would be to go that way before going to "I wonder if this one will work". The kit will supply all the wiring and sensors needed to do the job correctly. In the long run, it would be less hassle.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

I saw some of those. I will definately have to save up for a while to make that one work. The "good" kit out there by PermaCool (I think) was upwards of $400. I'm just wondering if it's $300 less hassle than a junkyard.

Ryan

 

[surewhynot]

I used electric fans out of a Dodge Caravan on my Isuzu/Lincoln car hauler. It has a 400 out of a lincoln continental and the whole truck weighs 11,oolbs empty. The mechanical fan wouldn't line up in the right spot for the radiator when I swapped in the engine so I did some junkyard searching and grabbed the biggest fans I could find.

Loaded down in the middle of the Florida summer heat, it doesn't run over 205. I have a 195 thermostat in it. It is hooked into a sensor I bought from Summit, but I forget what temp. it turns it on and off.

Here's the truck I'm talking about.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n146/i_call_me_Tony/Current Vehicles/2006_0225Image0003.jpg

 

[blacksnapon]

You will have to get a wiring diagram of the ect to see if your fan choice is compatible with the total system. Some work by simply grounding the sensor. Others work with a rheostat.

 

[Skandocious]

I used a Hayden adjustable temp switch with a temperature probe that you shove in the fins of the radiator near the coolant inlet, it works flawlessly. You can turn the dial on the switch to make it come on anywhere from 32* to somethin like 242* F. I'm SUPER happy with my Taurus fan. We get some pretty hot weather out here in California too (often triple digits in the summer) and the fan kept up with the truck most of the time even on low speed. If I run the AC and I'm driving in stop and go traffic, I'll switch it to HIGH manual override.

R, run a google search on "taurus fan" and you'll be amazed at how many forum threads you find about people doing this swap. Some of the die hard guys wired up two next to each other to get near full coverage of the radiator, I think that's really only necessary if you're doing off-road or racing stuff... People have thrown around numbers in the 3000-4000 CFM range for the high speed on the Taurus fan, although none are confirmed. I have seen countless posts of guys who trashed their $300 Flex-a-lite setups for a $30 Taurus fan and LOVED the difference afterwards.

The next step up from a single Taurus fan is a single Mark VIII fan (also from the 3.8L engine) which I hear has a 2" larger diameter. Let me know if you wanna do this and I can help you with the wiring. I wired mine up in a pretty complicated way because I like to have everything MY WAY, but if you're not good with wiring you can do it probably less than an hour or two. Here's my wiring diagram, LOL

And here's some pictures of the final install, you can see that it really only covers about 1/2 to 2/3 of the radiator:

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the one downside to using this fan is that, because it pulls such an incredible amount of CFM, it obviously needs to pull a lot of amperage to power the motor. People say that it spikes up near 70-80 amps on startup and settles down around 40-50amps constant on the high speed, low speed is about 20-25 amps less on both of those numbers. This is only what I've heard, have not tested it for myself.

Needless to say you're going to need at least a 95amp 3G alternator to power this thing even on low speed. When I flick mine on high I can see my battery gauge dump about 15-20% (depending on engine RPM), but I seldom need to use high speed, its kind of like an emergency only thing...

 

[O'Rattlecan]

already have the beat-yur-ass alternator installed, so I may call around some junkyards to see if there are any lincolns or taurus's laying around with an electric fan.

I can't really see, but was curious how you decided to mount yours to the radiator.

Ryan

 

[Skandocious]

The stock fan shroud drops into two small metal tabs at the bottom of the radiator, and is cradled there, no screws/rivets/etc. Then the top of the shroud is screwed to the chassis in 2 places. Remove the 2 screws and the four bolts holding on the stock fan and it all just lifts right out.

The shroud on the Taurus fan has some odd shapes to it, which result is lots of open slots and cracks around the edge where it mates with the radiator. I used some dense outdoor weather stripping from the hardware store to fill the holes and also applied a layer of stripping all the way around to prevent the plastic shroud from rubbing the metal on the radiator (also to prevent chatter/squeaks). Then I dropped the Taurus fan right into the same tabs where the stock shroud sat, and used a radiator fan mount kit (PN 226201) to fasten the top. These straps are made for PRECISELY this purpose. They are essentially just zip ties but they are cylindrical in shape, with a half-dollar-sized flat spot on one end and point on the other. Fish the zip-tie thingy through the loop in the fan shroud and through the radiator, then zip another flat connecter on the other side and sinch it up real tight. Works fantastic, and very cheap:

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=IMP&MfrPartNumber=226201

The part number on the fan controller I used is 226203, sells at Kragen for $12 IF!! you can find it. I believe this part has long since been discontinued so I had a hell of a time finding one. Some of them have the brand Hayden and some of them have the brand Imperial, although they are all manufactured by the same company.

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=IMP&MfrPartNumber=226203

By the way, here's a really good writeup that helped me a lot:

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40564

 

[surewhynot]

Looks like a good install Chris. You should do a tech write up on it.

 

[Skandocious]

Another added benefit of this mod: notice how much extra space I now have in the engine compartment forward of the engine

 

[Skandocious]

I would consider a tech writeup Tony, but there are SOO many floating around the net that are much better than what I could do anyways that it would be pretty pointless...

EDIT: Ryan, look in my 1st photo to see the end of that zip-tie thingy sticking out the top of the fan shroud right where the wire loom ends. I also zip tied the wire loom to that thingy to keep it from falling in front of the fan.

EDIT2: You can see the other zip tie thingy on the driver side of the shroud in the 2nd picture.

 

[surewhynot]

B.S. Chris.
Never pointless. I got some good info from your post. Never sell yourself short. I did a write up an an SAS. It wasn't great and there are better write ups out there, but it might help somebody.

 

[Skandocious]

Well, even still. I didn't take enough pictures during the install AND my install is WAY more complicated than most guys would want for their trucks, as you can probably tell from the wiring diagram that I drew and followed

 

[surewhynot]

Maybe so, but I found it informative and I'm sure others would too.

 

[surewhynot]

Did we just hijack another one of Ryans threads?

He really must hate us lol

 

[Skandocious]

LOL! I think we did, but I gave him so much reading to do he can't complain

 

[Bob Ayers]

I used a Hayden adjustable temp switch with a temperature probe that you shove in the fins of the radiator near the coolant inlet, it works flawlessly. You can turn the dial on the switch to make it come on anywhere from 32* to somethin like 242* F. I'm SUPER happy with my Taurus fan. We get some pretty hot weather out here in California too (often triple digits in the summer) and the fan kept up with the truck most of the time even on low speed. If I run the AC and I'm driving in stop and go traffic, I'll switch it to HIGH manual override.

R, run a google search on "taurus fan" and you'll be amazed at how many forum threads you find about people doing this swap. Some of the die hard guys wired up two next to each other to get near full coverage of the radiator, I think that's really only necessary if you're doing off-road or racing stuff... People have thrown around numbers in the 3000-4000 CFM range for the high speed on the Taurus fan, although none are confirmed. I have seen countless posts of guys who trashed their $300 Flex-a-lite setups for a $30 Taurus fan and LOVED the difference afterwards.

The next step up from a single Taurus fan is a single Mark VIII fan (also from the 3.8L engine) which I hear has a 2" larger diameter. Let me know if you wanna do this and I can help you with the wiring. I wired mine up in a pretty complicated way because I like to have everything MY WAY, but if you're not good with wiring you can do it probably less than an hour or two. Here's my wiring diagram, LOL

And here's some pictures of the final install, you can see that it really only covers about 1/2 to 2/3 of the radiator:

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the one downside to using this fan is that, because it pulls such an incredible amount of CFM, it obviously needs to pull a lot of amperage to power the motor. People say that it spikes up near 70-80 amps on startup and settles down around 40-50amps constant on the high speed, low speed is about 20-25 amps less on both of those numbers. This is only what I've heard, have not tested it for myself.

Needless to say you're going to need at least a 95amp 3G alternator to power this thing even on low speed. When I flick mine on high I can see my battery gauge dump about 15-20% (depending on engine RPM), but I seldom need to use high speed, its kind of like an emergency only thing...

The only problem I see, if your switch is in the "OFF" position, neither the temp sensor, or AC will turn the fans on, which can cause extremely high head pressure on your AC compressor, if the AC comes on, and you have forgotten to turn the switch to "AUTO" or "HIGH".

 

[O'Rattlecan]

lol, leave it to the electrical engineer! ha!

Chris, we'd love a writeup if you get around to it.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to call around to get some prices on fans over fall break.

Ryan

 

[Skandocious]

To be honest Ryan, even though I'm real good with computers and I'm majoring in computer engineering, I knew very little about electrical circuits when I started this e-fan project. I learned A LOT just through reading people's tutorials and playing with the electrical circuits program. You should see all the different circuits that I tried before I finally decided on that one. I love to learn, and working on my truck is a GREAT way to do it. That circuit that I posted above is 100% original and 100% my design, there were none other like it that I found on the net.

The hard part about designing the circuit for this fan is that you need to make sure that you don't send power to both the HIGH speed and the LOW speed at the same time, never ever! Some fans only use one electrical coil for both speeds with a resistor to change the fan speed (like the blower motor for the in-cab vents), but this fan has 2 separate coils (so I've been told) and if you send power to both speeds, they are both going to pull amperage from the alternator. This is where that electrical program came in, it shows which speed is getting power at which time.

I've got three relays in there and they are used as follows:

-one high amp relay (75A) to switch the high speed on and off, a typicaly 30 or 40A won't cut it for this, they will burn up
-one 40amp relay to switch the low speed on and off
-a second 40amp to switch BETWEEN the 75A and the 40A relays. Have a relay to switch from one to the other ensure that they can never have power at the same time unless that relay magically grows another switch inside

 

[6L PWR]

The hard part about designing the circuit for this fan is that you need to make sure that you don't send power to both the HIGH speed and the LOW speed at the same time, never ever!

The Tim Allen school of electrical engineering theory. ROFLMAO