Ok guys. Here is my challenge to you! I know many many of you have already ditched the mechanical fan and switched over to an electric fan of some kind. However, after my several hours of searching and reading, I have found no suitable how-to's for the Taurus and Fiero fan projects.

I have decided to take the 2 Speed Taurus fan route because of the cost effectiveness. I can't convince myself to dish out the massive cash for the high dollar fans. I have already purchased my V6 Taurus fan and am ready to install it, but have run into a problem. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!

I have been able to find several how-to's for the Black Magic fans, and other expensive types. But alas, there are no effective writeups for the smaller spenders such as myself.

Here is where the challenge comes in. I am challenging all of you that have completed the fan swap to post your pictures here along with what you did to complete the swap. If done correctly this would make an excellent addition to our 1st Generation Archive. I have noticed that there are numerous ways to wire the fans to come on as well. I have heard of using a switch inside the car, and also a thermostat for the fan.

So here is what I'm hoping all you Pioneer Taurus Fiero Installers will include:

1) Pictures of your installation.
2) A step by step instruction set to complete the install.
3) A shopping list with what you needed and where you got it at.
4) How you wired your fan (i.e. regular switch, thermoswitch?)
5) How you mounted your fan.

I am confident that I can complete this project with a little bit of help from others. But for the most part I am completely incompetent when it comes to electrical stuff. So... LET'S MAKE A GREAT THREAD FOR THE ARCHIVE AND START POSTING OUR RESULTS!

Thanks in Advance Everyone!

 

Allow me to be the first to add something to this thread that will be so glorious soon.

Here is what the the Taurus fan looks like. You can get it from any late 80's early 90's 3.8L V6 Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable. I was looking at the fans in the 3.0L cars and they look different so I would stick to the 3.8L's.

I will admit it was nice to go to the junkyard for once and they actually had what I needed!! I had about 35 Cars to choose from, so you shouldn't have any trouble at all finding one of these fans. Should be fairly cheap as well!

 

Get the relay also its hooked on the harness on the radiator I think.. (above the fan) wire the fan to the batter and the relay to the thermoswitch) (put fuses on both 15 or 20 a on the fan I think)

 

...or you just buy a 20Amp or 30Amp relay from Autozone like I did. They're pretty cheap.

 

I did this using that exact fan and i had problems with overheating at high speeds, I was told to cut out the shroud around the fan so that at high speed air simply travels through instead of slamming into the shroud. I ended up putting my stock fan and shroud back on because i like how cool it keeps my car, but i'm sure cutting away the shroud would have made a difference, maybe i'll try it again.

 

Dude, get yourself a Fiero Fan. Build a couple of really simple aluminum brackets. Buy a fan wiring kit from any auto parts store ($25) you can use a $8 30 amp and wire it yourself, but the kit is much easier and cleaner. for a max of $60 your car will run cooler and smoother than ever!!!

 

putting rubber flaps on the openings you cut, like VWs have, to act like check valves to keep the fan from sucking air through the holes at slow speeds would be a good idea.

 

I always wondered WTF those were for every time I worked on a VW or Audi.

 

Sounds like you mounted it on the wrong side. It should be set up as a puller fan, so you don't block airflow at high-speed.

 

don't forget Fudds Law, "what goes in, must come out."

if you obstruct the flow OUT of the radiator, less air will go IN to the radiator.

the fan and shroud pictured earlier looks to be fairly restrictive no matter which side of the radiator it is mounted on.

 

I have seen that many people recommend using an electric fan installation kit. Where have you guys been buying these at? Do they carry stuff like this at Autozone?

I also found what I believe to be a fan kit on the JCWhitney site. Here is a picture of it. Is this close to what some of you guys have been using?



"MECHANICAL ADJUSTABLE SWITCH
Sensor mounts on radiator core for accurate readings
Turns fan on or off when engine coolant reaches any temperature
from 170° to 240° Fahrenheit. Includes wire, hardware and instructions.
For 6- or 12-volt systems. $19.95"

 

Yeah, I used that when the thermostat died on my old Honda wagon... Shoved a piece of cardboard behind the radiator...

Worked real well till I realized that the wind pushed it back against the exhaust manifold...

 

You guys with electric fans, what kind of current do they use, cause i know my old taurus fan sucked up alot, and that alt used to heat up real good. and that was wired straight to the batt

 

I spent a full day yesterday trying to get a 3.0L taurus fan into my car.... to no avail. I had 2 prelude fans in there, and was planning to put the taurus one in there cause a deer that hit me, somehow busted one of the fan bades.... I absolutly could not find a way to mount the fan in there, and ended up having to put back in the stock fan...

 

I had the same experience as Matty with the Taurus 3.8L fan pictured.

My car always has run with the temp needle in the lower third of the range. I swapped to this fan, made no other changes, and the car ran at 2/3 to 3/4 of the range at highway speeds.

I also had problems with the fan blowing 30A fuses on startup. It moved LOTS of air, but sucked lots of current, like 12A when running, and something >30A when first switched on.

I wound up switching back to stock.

 

yea man thats the exact same situation i am in, what i'm doing now is buying a 70 amp alt, and cutting the shroud off, and just leaving the fan, so that should cure the restriction at highway speeds, I noticed mine also moved alot of air, more so than my sotck, but even at idle, or low speed the car would run much hotter than normal.

 

The electric fan did make the engine rev faster when turned off, but when it was on, the load of the alternator probably took up more power than the mechanical. When switching it on at idle the revs would drop from 900 to 500 or 600

 

Hey I like this thread and after my TII gets installed I'll be doing this also. Right now don't want to make too many changes--an engine swap is a big change, so I'll stick with that for now.

Anyway, some suggestings for you guys.

Gotta keep them volts up--that means a big 70-80 Amp alternator. If your battery volts are low then that means a high amp draw which could help blow the fuse. Look into what size and type of fuse the donor car used. Any motor on startup has whats called an inrush which is usually several times the running load amps. Also, bigger wire size will help reduce the amp draw if you are running undersized wires. Stick to the stock size or greater for your wire runs.

For the running hotter at highway speeds. Make sure you are not blocking the radiator with a smaller shroud, cutout flaps may help. Whatever you do make sure the fan blade tips have some kind of duct around them, it makes it more efficient at moving air thru the radiator. The fan doesn't even have to cover the whole radiator cause you don't need that much cooling at idle/low speeds.

I'll be keeping up with this thread, hopefully it will be archived with lots of good stuff.

Good luck,

Scott

 

the pictured fan and shroud would work pretty good at speed if the assembly was about 5"~ 6" away from the radiator, with a nice sealed duct.

but how close to the engine would that put the fan ?

I'd want another 4"~ 5" from fan to engine, so the air can get out.

speed vents could be put in the duct ?

 

Heres my deal, an alternator draws much more horsepower than a fan. If you have an electric fan wired up it seems that if it is on too much you will be losing power due to the alternator draw. I havn't done this on paper, only in my head. Maybe with underdrive pullys it would work. To me it looks like you should just wire an electric fan up with a switch, when the engine is getting hot flip it on. That way you wouldnt get a draw if it wasnt needed.

 

it'd be cool if you could rig up some sort of electric circuit that could measure the temperature of the engine and have IT flip the switch to turn the fan on when it was needed.

you would want a warning light hooked up to it, so you would remember to turn the fan back off when it was no longer needed.

 

That's what a thermoswitch is for. So it does all of that automatically for you.

BTW, I found the same fan in a Mustang. Looks like one of the first body styles they switched to after the 5.0. It is also a two speed fan. Probably for when A/C was on it would switch to the higher speed.

Haven't put it in yet. Weather hasn't been cooperating and I don't have the extras yet like the thermoswitch, extra wiring, fuse holders, etc. needed to get it all on and working.

 

 

heres my set up , supercuope tbird 2 speed fan, the shruod fit the rad almost perfect, even had a notch for rad hose, (lower) . only use low speed so far . 40 amp bosch relay wired to no 1 fan switch , which according to the manuel switches open at approx 160 degr. since it opens at temp the relay wires a little different .
2 relays
1 relay 85 terminal to water temp swtch below thermostat to white wire,
86 goes to second relay term 87
30 goes to batt+
fan + to term 87a (not 87!)
2nd relay
85 leading coil + (this is how i switch my ign relay)
86 to ground
30 to ground
87 to term 86 on no1 relay
the second relay is needed due to the fact that fan will run all the time if keys off, i chose this route so i woudnt have to fuss with extra temp switch, fan comes on at 160 have only heard it run 3 times but its been cold as hell here, if you draw relay diadgram out it will become perfectly clear. aanother trick i did was modify a gm cs series alt of a 90's park ave with v-6 . 110 amps had to swapp pulleys and cut mount on alt down, works awesome . no mech fan nets 14 horse on dyno . running fan on low cost 3 horsepower . so a net gain of 11 horse, the high setting on fan sucks about 6 horse so you still gain 8. doesnt sound like much but on a stock moter 8 is roughly 10 percent wheel horsepower. that makes a difference! proof in pudding!

 

well I did the taurus fan swap lastnight, sucsessfuly if you call it that. Well its in, blowing air, but man... lots of work. Does anyone have pics of their taurus fan in their car?