ELECTRIC FANS for radiator
 

Getting rid of stock Fan shroud, and looking for the best electric fan out there with the best CFM or best cooling results.


I'm doing a comparison.

Be Cool universal fan
$349.99
pulls 2,360 cfm at only 12 V

http://store.summitracing.com/global.../bci-75033.jpg

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Flex-a-lite Black Magic Electric Fans
$182.99
2,800 cfm of air


http://store.summitracing.com/global...FLX-M150_m.jpg

http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/165.gif

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THIS FAN SUCKS DICK

Mr. Gasket Electric Cooling Fans
$81.95
16 in. fan, 2,000 cfm at 1,900 rpm, 11.4 amps draw
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SPAL FAN

Have seen them as cheap as $79 for 16 inch.

They claim, 2,700 CFM +


Anything else out there? I might try the SPAL fan. I have heard good things about them in the Car magazines...

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Street Rod Stuff has some good Radiator / fan + shroud combos. They have some pictures too.

http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Products/99/

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Anyone have a finger chopper?

Perma cool finger chopper... great price, low amp draw, great airflow...

If you can find one not on backorder that is.. *sigh*
Still waiting on Jegs to get some....

anybody know how much does stock fan pull?

Enough.

I'm happy with my Flex-a-lite Black Magic Electric Fan #150. If only It covered more Radiator surface. It covers about 70% FYI.:)

I heard the stock fan + shroud cools the best than any other E-fan out there. Is this true?

*****anybody know how much does stock fan pull?****


yes

The Flex-a-lite sucks like Star Trek V but it is LOUD AS FUCK. Once it kicks in you cannot carrying on a normal conversation beside the car...


Save yourself some cash and grab a Fiero fan from a scrapyard. I've yet to hear one complaint from an RX-7 owner about it. I've got one in my own 7, connected to a Flex-a-lite temp switch, and it works perfectly and isn't too loud... Installation is relatively easy and straightforward.

Check it out:
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=29465

goto to the junkyard and get one off a Saturn works just as good, fits, and i only paid $10usd!! hehe!!

I've also heard that the stock fan is best.

i've seen it.. yes its a bit loud.. especially with the hood open.. but at least you know it's doing it's job right?

personally i have a e-fan from a 88 2.0 OHC gm car.. they used the same shape/mounts on about.. like.. well almost all their cars.. lol..

it covers (roughly) the same as the flex-a-lite. 70% ish.

it was cheaper, and the car runs nice and cool with it.

if i didnt get the scrapyard special, i would have gone with a flex-a-lite after seeing it in silverrotor's car..

btw - a heads up on the junkyard fans - have fun making proper rad mounts for it! lol :) takes some fabrication, but you can make decent brackets..

yep, as long as you're sure it's working at 100%

but the electric fans definately compete well with the stock fan.. some fans are better than the clutch fan, but at the expense of power (amperage draw).. since FCs have crappy alternators to begin with, i STRONGLY suggest upgrading your alternator or at least making sure you alternator is in good shape before you do the e-fan mod.

personally (since the e-fan cools just as well) i chose the e-fan mainly to open up the engine bay..

What's with the electric fan bandwagon? I see a new thread pop up every couple days.

SUMMER IS COMMING! =)

I am mainly switching over to an electric fan because I hang around 4K + RPMS all the time in the canyons.

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll order a black magic fan and do my best about covering all the surface area on the radiator for the pull draw....

My FAL BM fan keeps the opposite side of my radiator ( just the area that the fan covers on the opposite side ) cool to the touch pretty much all the time. Its an awesome fan.

I am personally partial to the setup found here.

http://unorthodoxracing.com/projrx7.html#cooling

That's what I am going to look at when I get around to installing an E-Fan.

I got my fan yesterday out of an escort (91+)
It has 3 wires.. ground, low speed and high speed. I'm going to hook it up here in a bit. It seems to flow a lot of air!

That's the wrong reason to change to an e-fan. The fan is only there for low speeds when there's not enough airflow to cool the radiator. At the sort of speeds I assume you're driving at to be at 4000rpm the fan will be doing little if anything. An electric fan will make no difference.

It does if I have a front mount intercooler.

I was also thinking of getting a bigger radiator. That might be my main problem that needs attention.

with the huge radiator I have, my black magic never has to kick on unless I'm sitting at idle for more than 5 min. but seriously, if you can hear your fan over the exhaust...you need a louder exhaust :D

cbrock. What radiator are you running? I think I might upgrade the radiator & Efan at the same time.

I'm running a Howe double pass 28x19x3 with the inlet and out let on the pass side. Won't work with AC though...and barely has enough run to pass the oil cooler lines and wiring harness on the drivers side. It was 269.00 (summit) and I had to have a nipple welded on the tank for the heater core return and some L brackets to the sides for support. Here's some pics

http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...iew&car_id=307

wow. cool. I'm gonna post your pics. Looks good.

What kind of temps do you see? How difficult was the mounting? What kind of radiator hose bend is that?

I think your setup looks like it would performe the best overall. It's artwork! That radiator is huge!

http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...hp?img_id=2209

http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/member...hp?img_id=2211

The hose is that stainless flex hose in summits catalog. It's rather expensive at $90.00. But that includes all your clamps and adapters. You could do it with rubber hose if you like. The mounting was easy. Have the tabs welded on so that it sits on the frame rail. Drill and tap frame rail for some nice stainless cap bolts and you're done.

Temp on the highway is between 165 and 175 (uphill) at idle at a light it might climb to 180 and if it idles a really long time, it'll kick up to 190 at which point, the fan turns on. Mind you, I have a stock thermostat :D

All of this is preparing for the greddy front mount that's on the way.

Very nice. Are those Magnecor wires I see? I'm running the 10mm Magnecor. Big difference over the MSD 8mm I was running. ;)

To all you guys leaving the front of the radiator open, it's important you close it off so the air gets pulled through the radiator and not over it. I noticed a lot of guys taking off the plastic covers in the front.
The under pan and front covers aid in cooling.

Yeah, I'm still working on mine and just slapped the lower pan on for now. After the FMIC is installed, I'll either put the stock pieces back in or buy/make a new panel. And yes, those are magnacor 10mm's

Stock wires are more than enough.

Also, im running an 18in Thunderbird fan.

I dont think those covers are all that important... With the Koyo I have and a crappy Autozone Imperial E-fan, I rarely got to 180...


I also have neither the top or bottom cover on...

A fair E-fan will overcome the lack of ram air ducting, but it will run longer duty cycles, taking more power over time from the alternator.

The covers and undertray significantly increase the efficiency and capacity of the cooling system. Air always follows the path of least resistance. Without them there the easiest path for the air to take is above and below the radiator, not through it. The more air that's being forced through the radiator, the less work the system needs to do at light load and the more heat it is able to remove at high load. Simple physics.

I don't understand why people take them off in the first place. It's not like they weigh anything. :confused:

I don't understand how you guys are running like 160-170...

it should never be below 180-185 with a stock thermostat... (in the water pump housing)

I don't know what problems I have. but my setup is just not working... with the k2rd rad (looks the exact same as your howe) and peramacool 16" 3000CFM fan

I run 190-195 on the highway. and when I come to a stop at 190. it'll idle up to 200. my fan turns on around 190 and it'll never turn off while I drive. and when I stop it'll stay running for 10 mins.

mazda thermostat and coolant have been changed twice in the last year with no change. as well as the water pump.

I'm still on the stock motor with 109k so maybe it's just getting cloged up on the inside... I don't know. I'm not losing any so I don't think it's a coolant seal. that's normaly alot worse overheating wise.

I pulled my e-fan off last weekend and put the stock one back on with *no* shroud (so the fan sits 4-5" away). and it's a bit better I think then the e-fan... which shows you how much better the stock fan is. I should have a custom shroud on by the weekend which I'm hoping will make it much better.

and then I'll have a big post about how much better the stock fan is :)

last year with my stock fan, rad, and shroud. it would idle at 185. but it would get hoter then now climbing hills on the highway.

This is true. An upgraded radiator (or any other cooling system mod) should only lower temps from if they were hotter than normal to start with. You're only supposed to increase the cooling capacity, not make the engine run cooler than it's supposed to.

"I don't understand how you guys are running like 160-170..."

I'll put my $.02 in here also. I agree that this is not as easy as it appears. I've been working on mine for a year to get it to run like I think it should. I have a full custom shroud and I know my cooling system is clean. I can maintain 180 - 190 temps but my fan runs more than I like.

Rb

I have a Fiero fan and two bottles of Water Wetter in my coolant mix.

My temps drop as low as 165F travelling at 120km/h in 5th (low revs.)

In traffic she's between 175F and 190F (when the fan kicks in.) My temps are generally slow to rise if she's sitting idling.

Last summer I did the modified coolant flush twice as well as replaced the thermostat in an attempt to deal with higher-than-I-was-comfortable-with running temps. Now I sometimes wonder if she's running a little cooler than she should. :) I'll take cooler over hotter any day.

This is with all of the shrouds in place.

Im not saying that they dont work...and I do understand how they work...All Im saying is that mine are both gone and I rarely see 180/190 with a crappy Imperial E-fan. Now the car has a Black Magic fan on it and no real coolant temp gauge so I cant see what it is exactly anymore.


As for removing them, I didnt. I bought the car with them gone.

Your bigger radiator probably helps quite a lot then. I know that people with stock cooling systms have cured overheating problems by reinstalling them. And that's cheaper than a new radiator... ;)

Now that summer has come to Tejas with a vengence....the water temps tend to run at 195 at 70mph. Not worried. They say that the engine is more efficient at the upper temps. Just a week ago we had a cool spell where the temps fell to the mid 80's and the temp at 70mph was b/t 185-190. Got me a Autometer water temp gauge. It seems fairly accurate. Gonna put it in a pot of boiling water this weekend to see just how accurate. My mechanical gauge(aftermarket gauge) seemed to be off by seven to ten degrees to the cool side.

As a side note, my mechanical gauge is installed in the electric fan sensor location after the thermostat. It will be moved into the water pump housing later if I see a huge difference in temp on the stock temp sendor once the microtech is installed. My guess, it's probably just about right. As increasing cooling capacity to keep temps where they're suppose to be...a radiator can create over cooling. The absolute max that it can cool is obviously the ambient temp and with more surface area and twice the volume...it should be possible to bring the temps WAAAAAY down. Hell, in the winter, I don't think my dad's lightning gets up to thermostat temp and that's with cardboard blocking 1/2 the radiator. Now that's a chilly ride in the winter.

it will bring down temps in the rad and hoses... but when the temp is under 185. the thermostat is closed. and no water is leaving the engine. so the engine side of the thermostat will never be under 180-185. but it will be in the rad.

but you explained it by saying you were on the rad said of the thermostat. that is why you are getting the lower temps.

That's not right. The thermostat's job is to keep the temp within the temperature range that the engine operates best in. If you install a larger radiator, then less flow is required through the radiator to keep the coolant temp where it was before. The thermostat should operate in exactly the same manner no matter what the radiator size, and keep coolant temp reasonably constant. It's not supposed to be way down.

okay, well it should keep it at the point that the thermostat starts to open...hows that. I was speaking in an uncontrolled cooling system. IE..if you have the cooling capacity and the engine runs at X temp, there will be a max that it can cool. That would be your cooling capacity...if it would always stay below thermostat temp, then you can have full control over the temp by selecting different thermostats and not have to worry about it creeping up. In my case, I wonder if once it opens @183, if it's hard for it to shut all the way when it's pressurized? Obviously coolant is running through the system as the radiator gets hot.

"I wonder if once it opens @183, if it's hard for it to shut all the way when it's pressurized? "

The pressure drop across the thermostat is negligable. With the exception of the output pressure of the water pump, it sees the same pressure on the upstream side as it sees on the down stream side. So no it doesn't have a hard time closing.

Rob