My buddy with his 88 GTU put a fiero fan on his car with a switch, so he turns it on when he is in stop and go traffic and turns it off when going above 50 or 60 mph. Keeps his temp very nice and cool and we live in HOT HUMID Florida. The fan was like $15.00 i think at the junkyard. Fit perfectly.

Here's a pic of one installed.

Mike

 

aint that annoying ?
everytime the car stops he gotta turn the fan on, then turn it off once he hit 50mph ...

 

just buy a thermosensor that is what i did!

 

That's a really dumb idea. One day he will forget to turn it on, and that could cost him an engine.

The cooling system should always be fully automatic in operation. It's too important for mere humans to be trusted with...

 

-Markus

"Obviously your not stupid NZ"

 

and I am?
Anyway i totally agree with NZ convertible it is a 20 or so give or take thermosensor totally worth it rather than flipping a switch and screwing up a perfectly good RX-7!

 

you say you have the 16" permacool......what rad do you have with that size fan

 

Stock radiator.

 

Well, a thermostat is a good idea I agree but, they are known to go bad after like a year....

You should be watching your gauges every so often anyways and when you flip a switch you know the fan is on...Another nice feature with a switch is that when you are at the track and you do the 1/4 mile and let your car cool down some before shutting off, you can flip that switch and acutally feel the air change from hot to cold when the car is off.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I don't know what kind of thermoswitches you are buying but spend a little more... if they are consistently dying after a year? they have to be water resistant to work properly! so maybe that is your problem I have ran mine for just over a year now and still works like a charm!

 

I'm not sure which brand the thermostate was, just a "universal" one that I've heard people say on here that it failed after like a year. Even one guy with a black magic fan's thermostate broke after a year. I persoanlly don't have an electric fan, stock fan for me.....keeps temps really kool and I use the moto "if it isn't broken, why fix it"

Post which brand of thermostate you use so "poor college student" can get that one instead of a universal one, if he is still planning on doing the electric fan.

i think the electric fan is nice and frees up the engine bay....I might do one later on but right now I'm kool

Mike

 

Ok this is my tow cents on E fans vs clutch fans. I race or do drift events and Autocross every month......I also drive on the street, to and from work.......the mall and so on. I have had electric fans on my car at 3 different times. Every time was a disaster. once the fan broke apart and it started to over heat but I saved it. The other times the fan seems to work well until you went to the track first of all. The main problem is the shroud......I see pictures of guys with E-fans on there cars here with no shroud and all talking of the massive airflow and how they can hear the fan inside the car so it moves a lot of air.... well experience tells me that these guys are Posers who don't really race or maybe an occasional drag race. Alot of Pro drag cars don't have cooling systems I mean any engine can run for seconds without one right. If you could get a nice fan with the proper shroud it would probably work OK but you are not gonna ge that over night.....it will costmoney and require fabrication. The FC's cooling system is minimal at best and Mazda put that fan and shroud on there for a reason....I would just pick up another clutch fan......four 10mm bolts and you are driving again worry free. If you want an electric fan the take the time and money to do it right and ensure it works properly. Just buying even the largest fan from any company and wiring it to your car will not cool it effectivley especially if you are going to the track. Trust me I like the look of and electric fan and the response gained by using one but don't get caught up in the posers glamour and use what works the clutch fan.

 

in more than one instance i agree with ranzo;
the efan needs a shroud i fabricated mine it too three attemps but now works extremely well, I think that an e-fan isn't nearly as efficient as the stock clutch fan unless there is a good shroud.
If you like the clean and easy access look of the e-fan, then go for it, however if you want 98% reliability go with the clutch fan,
I also autox my car and do solo events and drag race it with my e-fan and have yet to have a problem. this is simply from my personal experience thaugh I am certain there are people that have had nothing but problems with clutch fans! so either way you look at it, it is in the end up to you! Good luck on making your decision!

 

my vote was for Stock. I have a fan. You want it? 30 dollars shipped. BAM!

 

My fan .02 cents.

I would RATHER be equipped with the stock cooling system. With a good running stock fan and cooling system, the drag on the pulley is minimal at best.

However, due to the sheer size of my radiator and my complete lack of fabrication skills, I was forced to go e-fan.

Right now I am running the Perma-cool, unshrouded, against a K2RD radiator. Probably not the best setup out there, but it DOES work(I seriously doubt I would be getting away with this unless I had the K2RD rad). And the fan IS controlled by a thermostatic switch. Seen WAY to many people blow motors using fan switches. I refuse to go that route.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but doesnt this topic come up like once a month? We need to archive a fan thread to refer to.

JArrett

 

agreed,
J-Rat is right this does come up once every few months and the argument is always the same fifty fifty! So I thnkk the one of these should be archived for simple reading!

 

...double post ....

 

E-fan, doesn't rob Hp at high rpms and it'll let the engine wind up a bit quiker. I'd recommend a permacool 16" finger chopper.

 

not the same application but on the same subject, i had a 16" permacool installed on my s-10 4X4. it ran hotter than the stock fan clutch setup and after about 1.5 years started having problems with the permacool thermostat, after a while the electric thermostatic switch failed and the engine kept overheating in traffic, lucky it is a cast iron block and cast iron heads. my rx-7 couldn't handle that kind of abuse...


btw, i now have a stock fan clutch back in my truck. more reliable than anything else if you use it for a daily driver. though i must admit, my elcamino has a dual electric fan but i only drive that on "special" occasions.

 

Neither does the stock fan.

 

ebay has "black magic" type fans for 145. im using one right now....been a few months and havent had any problems. i also use a manuel switch in the cockpit to turn it on after it warms up. came with a little resistor for the battery wire

 

yeah the stock fan worked great until it pops on at the WRONG TIMES... like sitting at a light waiting to race and the fan pops on... oops... and sounds like crap when its on...

 

 

They also have K&N "TYPE" fiters and JDM "TYPE" engines. Research before you buy. Ebay is rampent with lesser knockoff's

 

better track times from the stock fan????????? I dont see how? not to mention with an e-fan you can bring the water temp. in the rad. down while the car isnt running (between passes)