Electric Fan (1 Viewer)

[Jon916996748]

I was taking a look at my engine and my brother(20) started bothering me. I told him of some stuff that I was gonna get etc. Then he brought up replacing the fan with an electric model. I'm not overly concerened with overheating as I have yet to do it yet but is this a worthwhile mod? Man-A-Fre has one for $280 that will move 2800cfm. Just asking wether this is worth the $$$.

http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_accessories/blackmagicelectricfankit.htm

 

[Photoman]

Jon,
I was running two Spal electric pull racing fans and am in the process of converting back to the stock SC engine fan. The setup turned out to cause more problems than it was worth. The plus side was more horsepower and the ability to cool down quickly at idle. The cons were it needs to be controlled by the AC and the rad temp. For example say the rad/engine temp was OK but the AC was running. The fans need to be pulling air through the AC condenser or the compressor overheats and will blow the seal even though the engine temp was fine. In the end I just wired them to run constantly at key on since they were toggling all the time either from the AC or engine temp. Also, the fans drew something like 25 amps constantly. The 97 alternator only puts out 80 amps so that's a pretty big constant hit. I had trouble running the fans through a 12 ga. wire fuse setup. I had each fan wired by itself but the larger (16 inch) fan would cause the fuse to burn where it was plugged in. (Not blow but burn the holder) It was a 25 amp fuse so should have worked fine. The final nail in the fan coffin for me was a comment that Christo made saying that electric fans don't move nearly the air that the motor driven fans move. I always see electric fan cfm's but could never find what the stock or SC stock fans pull so could not make an actual comparsion. I'm going with what Christo said! Hope this is of some help.
Bill

 

[Jon916996748]

Ya, thanks a lot. I guess I'll just keep the stocker one. I didnt really think about the whole fuse connections and the ampage draw and stuff so ya, guess it all makes sense. Also I didn't think that the whole mud/water mix would go over to well with the little motors in the fans.

 

[Jim_Chow]

Here's another recent thread regarding how the flex-a-lite doesn't pull enough air and overheats, in this case, V6 4runner engines...

http://www.4x4wire.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=012146

 

[Lars]

Stay away from Black Magic & Flex-a-lite. Both garbage.


I run a dual SPAL fan on my V8 powered rockcrawler here in Arizona but if I had it to do again I would find a way to keep the engine driven fan.

 

[Hltoppr]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it....

If you start having overheating problems, I'd look at the water pump, thermostat; fan clutch, and radiator prior to replacing the engine driven fan.

Having had both, I like the engine driven fans.

Or...I am a fan of that type of fan...

-H-

 

[Big_Moose]

Electric fans cannot pull enough air to cool most engines on stock radiators. They cannot compete with an engine driven fan with a good / complete shroud on a factory radiator.

Example - my FJ55 with 454V8, aluminum radiator, hi-flow water pump would not stay cool with an electric fan at idle / low-range wheeling. It maintained acceptable temperatures with a engine fan. When I installed a shroud the temperature dropped significantly. When I used to take the '55 to Mexico / Desert areas, I did add an electric pusher fan w/thermostat controls, which generally only comes on in extreme temps.

You could always add a small, electrical pusher fan as a supplement to your factory fan.

I would check your radiator, coolant, and / or obstructions to airflow, etc.

Joe