electric cooling fans

[jodadair]

G'day,

Does anyone know of a good aftermarket or stock electric cooling fan set-up to replace the stock belt-driven fan ? Seen a friend of a friend use a late-model dodge truck hemi electric fan that was almost a drop-in (he put it on a '95 chev truck). He just bolted it to the shroud and added an adjustable thermostat. looks pretty sweet and he got it off of a wrecked truck.

Acclereration is definately improved (i'm not sayin' whiplash better, but noticable), so does anyone else have any experiance with electric fans ?

 

[treepete]

Welcome to the forum.

yeah I did an electric fan install with 95TwinTTs help. ( amongst other guys, too )
you can read the thread here.

I did notice a gain, but not so much in accelleration, but rather in engine temps, and also in mileage for sure. just for my normal put-putting around i used to get 325, now its more like 360. if I hang out on the expressway for a whole tank, I can get 400+ miles.
I kinda watch how I drive though, which might inflate the percieved results.
but yeah. electric fans are far superior cooling wise, and reduce parasitic loss from the engine having to turn that big-ass fan/clutch assembly. It make more room under the hood and looks waay cooler. On Del's advice, I went with the Perma-Cool, but flex-a-lite also makes a drop in unit.
Install is easy, and generally speaking, Im mechanically declined.

hope that helps you,
Pete

 

[qlc1964]

the only draw back with the elec fan you will need the charging system to handle

the current draw from them.

 

[treepete]

good point. I think mine slaps an extra 19-20 amp load on the system when it runs. Dont over-tax your alternator.

 

[JennaBear]

Just get an overdrive pulley and problem is fixed. I threw in a larger fuse too just in case.

 

[qlc1964]

you mean a under drive pulley? it will be smaller than the stock one is thus making it

spin faster while idling. the alt bearings will have a shorter life plus it will make a
almost a whistling sound. i know!!! i did this to my alt

 

[treepete]

can we talk about this a bit more, im interested in understanding the pully thing more in detail. you actually add another pully, or change the size of one of the pullys?

 

[JennaBear]

you mean a under drive pulley? it will be smaller than the stock one is thus making it

spin faster while idling. the alt bearings will have a shorter life plus it will make a
almost a whistling sound. i know!!! i did this to my alt

Nope, the one I am using is an overdrive pulley which is smaller than stock, making it spin faster. This is the one we sell with our e-fan harness.

An underdrive pulley is bigger than stock making it spin slower (underdrive's the unit).

 

[JennaBear]

can we talk about this a bit more, im interested in understanding the pully thing more in detail. you actually add another pully, or change the size of one of the pullys?

I just changed out my pulley, quick and simple.

 

[treepete]

please forgive me, but what pully? the alternator? what is the gain then if it spins slightly slower? Since Jodadair isnt coming back or something, Im just stealing this thread.

 

[JennaBear]

Yep, it is just the alternator pulley.
There is no gain from spinning slower (underdrive pulley). The overdrive pulley spins it faster to boost amperage at idle and low rpm.

 

[treepete]

ahh I see, sorry to ask that simple question.

 

[JennaBear]

Not a problem! That is what we are all here for!

 

[qlc1964]

yeah!!!! reading that overdrive pulley is what it's doing to the alt instead of under drive.

mi bad

 

[bobas]

Will you not need a smaller belt then?