Ford Contour fan installation thread

[Tinker]

Wenge -
Could you post the Bosch phone #?

My Dorman has the "Made in Taiwan" sticker & OEM Ford female plugs, unlike Spook-a-Dook's double pigtails.

I don't want Chinese crap, either, especially if it's a fire hazard. I'm trying to REDUCE under-hood temps!

 

[Spook50]

Wenge -
Could you post the Bosch phone #?

My Dorman has the "Made in Taiwan" sticker & OEM Ford female plugs, unlike Spook-a-Dook's double pigtails.

I don't want Chinese crap, either, especially if it's a fire hazard. I'm trying to REDUCE under-hood temps!

"Spook-a-Dook" Awesome

Mine actually did come with the OEM Ford plugs. I had pulled them off so that I could cut the connectors off the wires and solder new wires in place. It's possible we may have the same motors.

 

[wengejor]

Bosch Customer Service:

888-715-3616
(Monday thru Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm CST; for U.S.)


I think you can call this number and tell them what you are looking for. They will give you the online vendor options. I think rockauto is the one they recommended to me before when looking for rabbit parts.

 

[Elbert]

you can order the motorcraft part from Roack Auto..... That's what I did.

 

[Spook50]

Posting up another quick update before hitting the hay (gotta work the night shift tonight):

I wired in my connection for the A/C trigger by connecting the signal lead to the A/C's spade terminal near the compressor. Unfortunately after 21 years of engine heat, the plastic around the connector disintegrated in my hands, so I just cut the connector out and replaced it with a single lead Weatherpak connector that has both the factory wire and the (in my case, green) A/C signal lead crimped in place. These hold very well and have a good strong, sealed connection so I don't bother soldering them. I have a pic here for a visual reference for the location of the factory terminal:

Also I included a couple pics of the complete fan assembly, with attached brackets. I used nyloc nuts to make sure things wouldn't rattle loose. Also, just in case they do start to back off at all, I installed the bolts with the nut on the outer side of the brackets. This way I can easily give things a quick look to make sure it's all kosher whenever I'm under the hood.

 

[Elbert]

here are some pics of what I did... I like the square bar better, I could not find any when I was ready to start on mine. I've yet to adapt the reviver / dryer. Once I get through my other project stuff I'll get around to that. Certainly by next summer Would be really cool if someone adapted the OME mounts from the car, that thow two large "ears" set in to hol the radiator fan assembly.

 

[Spook50]

here are some pics of what I did... I like the square bar better, I could not find any when I was ready to start on mine. I've yet to adapt the reviver / dryer. Once I get through my other project stuff I'll get around to that. Certainly by next summer Would be really cool if someone adapted the OME mounts from the car, that thow two large "ears" set in to hol the radiator fan assembly.

I initially tried to utilize the mounting ears so as to have as little modification of the assembly as possible, but I couldn't figure out any way to do it, so off they came. Looking at your pics, it looks like you've got Bosch motors on yours, though I'm curious as to why one of them has what looks like an aluminum cover on it.

I did some searching around on the web and it looks like the Bosch part number for the motors is 3137227744 and the actual nomenclature is "BOSCH GPB Motor". This was the best I could tell by looking at the image shown on a website that listed a ton of Bosch motors (and this was the only one even close to looking like the correct motor):

I couldn't find anywhere on the web to order the motor though, nor did I see it listed on Rockauto (it seems to be limited to the Dorman fan assemblies now and that's it). I'm going to call a couple local auto electric shops and see if maybe they can get their hands on them. If yes, I'll go ahead and swap out my motors for the Bosch ones before final installation.

 

[boots4]

... I'm curious as to why one of them has what looks like an aluminum cover on it.

The cover was a heat shield for the motor that was closest the exhaust manifold. I took mind off since I have no exhaust running near it but you can leave it on just as well.

 

[Elbert]

yes...I assumed it was some type of heat shield. I just left it the way it came. I think on a V-6 car there's not much room between the radiator and the engine.... kind of like the cruiser problem. I've neve seen under the hood of the contour, but I'm guessing there are probally some rubber lined type mounts that "receive" the tabs on the shroud. Maybe someone can scavange something out of the junkyard?

 

[wyomingben]

If you don't mind me asking, why are you doing this mod?

 

[Spook50]

If you don't mind me asking, why are you doing this mod?

Several reasons. The main two being to free up some power that gets eaten up by the belt driven fan (for long hauls uphill when driving through the passes), and for quicker warmups in the winter. With the factory clutch fan, when you've got the engine warm and it's moving air, it takes quite a bit of oomph to get it spinning (add that to having the A/C on and in hot weather, it eats up a lot of power when it's locked up). I'm hoping this will free up some high end HP for highway driving (and maybe net me an extra mile or two per gallon). Even when the engine is cold when you start it up, the fan is still moving a bit of air as well. With the electric, no air is moving through the radiator until the engine is warm and the fan starts coming on.

 

[wyomingben]

Thanks for the reply, be sure to post up the results and if you get better MPG's.

 

[lehiguy]

Spooky -

I love SS fasteners, too. But there's one thing I learned on my '56 F100: if you use air wrenches to tighten them up the heat generated causes bolts & nuts to fuse together & strip. Dunno if you should use anti-seize & whether it would foil the NA feature (Nylon Aircraft "locker").

I too learned this the hard way. I used SS fasteners on my headers where they connect to the collector pipe. Bad idea. I could have just welded the stupid thing together for all the pain I went through getting them off. Now I just stick with grade eight and torque 'em down.

 

[ntsqd]

I too learned this the hard way. I used SS fasteners on my headers where they connect to the collector pipe. Bad idea. I could have just welded the stupid thing together for all the pain I went through getting them off. Now I just stick with grade eight and torque 'em down.

As long as we're hi-jacking; SS fasteners are basically a Grade Zero bolt. Using SS bolts & nuts together nearly always results in them being seized unless anti-sneeze or similar is used.
For exhaust I use brass nuts on either SS or G5 bolts. I've never, ever had one come loose. Patch has had 6 bolted together couplers in it's exhaust system for 3-ish years & I've done this on previous vehicles. My theory is that the brass expands more than the steel when hot which actually increases the tension in the bolt. And since brass can't rust to the bolt, the joints always come loose.
Resume Thread?

 

[Tinker]

Wy Ben -
No telling why the Spook is, but El Bert & I have 5.7 Vortecs & it's the easiest way to get (more than) adequate cooling.

El Bert -
I'm with ya on the OEM Contour mounts, but I'm too lazy to go to the junkyard & then fab up something that would be as much or more trouble than the angle you used. I'm going to look for 3/4x3/4 aluminum angle (have the Ron Davis rad like you) tomorrow & mount mine like the Spook, except in addition I'll put the angle on the top & bottom to cover the gaps. Also planning on using the plastic in the tabs I cut off to plug all the little holes (melt it down with a temp-controlled soldering iron). Gonna mount the 2nd controller on the radiator bulkhead, though (1 Flex-a-Lite can only handle 1 Contour fan) & have the passenger side come on at a lower temp.

 

[Spook50]

Wy Ben -
No telling why the Spook is, but El Bert & I have 5.7 Vortecs & it's the easiest way to get (more than) adequate cooling.

El Bert -
I'm with ya on the OEM Contour mounts, but I'm too lazy to go to the junkyard & then fab up something that would be as much or more trouble than the angle you used. I'm going to look for 3/4x3/4 aluminum angle (have the Ron Davis rad like you) tomorrow & mount mine like the Spook, except in addition I'll put the angle on the top & bottom to cover the gaps. Also planning on using the plastic in the tabs I cut off to plug all the little holes (melt it down with a temp-controlled soldering iron). Gonna mount the 2nd controller on the radiator bulkhead, though (1 Flex-a-Lite can only handle 1 Contour fan) & have the passenger side come on at a lower temp.

For plugging the holes, I just used JB Weld. Ain't pretty, but I know it'll never come undone

 

[Moby]

I used adhesive foam to fill the minor gaps between the fan shroud and the rad on my install.

Just a quick update on my setup - I'm currently on a road trip. A couple of weeks before I left we got some 90+ degree weather in Seattle. I've been running my built motor, Ron Davis rad, Contour fan/DCC controller for a year and a half but it had never seen really hot temps so I gave it a test. I turned the a/c to high and drove out I-90 into the mountains. And I hit 215 degrees on my Nordskog gauge (plumbed into my tstat housing). Max I had seen previously was ~200 for short periods. Normally I'm stable at ~190.

I knew that I was going to see sustained 100+ temps on this trip so I started thinking about how to increase my cooling capacity. Waterpump was replaced with the rebuild, all belts and hoses in good shape, but there is my 12x12 tranny cooler blocking airflow to the rad. So I ditched it and mounted a Derale heat sink cooler behind the front bumper (after the in-rad cooler). Not as good as what I had but much better airflow to the rad. So fingers crossed we headed out...

I am not easy on my engine. 12+ hours at 2500rpms (70) with long pulls at ~3300rpms. Worst conditions were probably between Redding and Sacramento - temps over 100. With the a/c on Hi and hauling at 70mph engine temp was stable at ~198. Max that I saw was 207 on one of those long 3300rpm pulls.

So far I'm pretty happy with how this setup is working in hot temps with sustained high engine loads. More in a week or so when I'm back.

 

[ntsqd]

I'm wondering how the trans temp was doing during those times?

 

[Moby]

I'm wondering how the trans temp was doing during those times?

At highway speeds the torque converter is locked up. This reduces slippage which cuts down on the heat. I'm also running a Rodney stage I Extreme valvebody which also reduces the heat by increasing clapping force on the clutch packs and giving me 3rd gear lockup in addition to the stock 4th gear lockup. So while I know I'm not getting as much cooling with the heat sink cooler I figure I've still got better than stock cooling. I do have tranny temp gauge ready to go in though, if I don't like what I see from that I'll go to a cooler with an integrated fan and mount it under the bed.

 

[Spook50]

Aaaaaaaand steering the thread back on track.......time for an overdue update

I finished replacing all the coolant hoses (finally) so I can get back to the fan conversion. I pulled the dash out to install the indicator light for the fan (also ordered from DC Control) and since I had it out, beefed up and repaired all the weak spots with JB Weld (that plastic's brittle after 21 years). The dash is reinstalled and all the interior wiring is finished. I already had a hole in my firewall for the cruise control wiring, so I fed the fan wiring through that and wrapped it all in electrical tape to protect the wire insulation from the metal edge (couldn't get a grommet in there like I would've preferred). I mounted the light right near the temp area of my quad gauge just so everything stays organized aesthetically.

Couple pics of the kill switch mounted in place of the factory transfer button. If I could match the paint color and label it better, I coulda made that thing look factory...

Don't mind the duct tape on the steering column cover. The screw posts are broken and I'm still trying to find a replacement
I'm just down to "de-ghetto-izing" the wiring in the engine bay from when I added the ignition and made some band-aid repairs in the past. Then I just have to add the last of the connectors and mount the fan assembly in there for good. Everything is crimped, soldered and shrinkwrapped, except for the Weatherpak connectors, since they've got a damn good hold on the wiring and are sealed against the elements to begin with.

Really hope this thing works after all this effort I've put into "doing it right the first time"...