why do peeps run electric fans anyway? easy question i think!!

 

The stock clutch fan is a drag on the motor. It's almost the same thing as underdrive pulleys.

 

why not?

clutch fans can fail, plus they produce a steady high air flow, even at idle.

electric fans own dude!

 

so y'all r sayin i should convert? any other pros?

 

the list of pros far outweighs the cons.

just change it - you wont regret it

 

im gonna order the one from vic. brit. catlog does any1 know if there any good??

 

when I first cam on this site people were like the vic brit. one sux ***.

I don't know if it is true but that is what people back in the day said.

Santiago

 

fiero fans own....

 

any GM fans own

GMs use pretty well the SAME fan in everything

but the 2.0 OHC e-fans (from grand ams and such) have plastic tabs that perfectly hug the rad..

just something to keep in mind.

 

Hey I have a 94 Grand AM as a beater it has a 4 cyl. you all think it would fit?
what else would I need?

 

Well they reduce parasitic drag on the engine meaning it will rev a tad quicker. Won't really free up horse since it's just a fan.

Also gets rid of that huge shroud which takes up an amazing amount of space.

Just make sure you make/get a shroud that covers the entire radiator and a good E-fan.

I got one from checker call Imperial and that thing was a 16 inch and sucked extreme ***.

 

I picked up one at the junkyard from a 3.8L taurus. It has a nice shroud and seems to flow a good bit.

 

The stock fan moves more air than an electric fan. If it's not broken, don't fix it. If it is broken, you will find out why people convert to an electric fan when you price a new replacement stock fan clutch.

 

Like Evil said, there's not an electric fan out there that moves more air than the stock clutch fan. Electric fans do have there advantages (less parasitic drag, frees up room) but cooling ability is not one of them. That's not to say electric fans don't work fine, but unless your stock fan's clutch is faulty, an electric fan won't improve cooling.
They also put another big load on the already weak charging system, so make sure it's in good shape or you'll cause alternator and battery problems.

 

i reccommend the dollar store hand held air conditioning fan... They even come in cool colors like neon green!!! J/k My stock fans, and clutches are fine, but i picked one up for a car that had an engine fire, and the shroud for under 10$$ in a junk yard. I wouldnt exactly call that an expensive replacement. And it was a lot better than trying to rig in a E fan not designed for my radiator.

 

Here some quick pix on the relative topic. The fan was an aftermarket. Its wired relay constant to the ignition. Its a pretty loud fan (the fan is louder than exhaust at idle, and I have beat up exhaust)-- Sounds like one mean bitch actually. Pulls aprox 3000, but i think voltage drops a bit at idle, (just below 12v.) Putting your hand below the car makes for an instant hand warmer in winter or hand-dryer. Also in winter it makes for the *fastest* garage/shop heater if you have exhaust hoses.

It loos like:
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM000999.JPG
You get to take out:
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM001007.JPG
and
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM001001.JPG
Before install (with clutch fan removed)
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM001000.JPG
After install (relay functions)
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM001091.JPG

Not the most wonderful pictures in the world, but just the fact you get to actually see your engine is *amazing*!! I wouldn't consider going back.

 

Heh btw, if you don't get one that mounts quite right (like I did,) than you have to make your own mounting plan. I could get one mount to bolt ok. I used a old peice of erector set for the two passenger side mounts, and finaly a piece of hanger on the driver side lower mount. As silly as it sounds, its pretty solid on the radioator and doesn't vibrate at all.

The correct way to wire something like that i suppose would have it temp switched. But being it summer I have it relayed to the ignition. I may move it to a switched this winter. In any case. If you need a quick diagram (i love eletrical diagrams) i'd be glad to help out.

Edit: Actually I just like making the diagrams in mspaint, their is a bit of irony in it. Using such a useless program to make something useful.

 

thanx y'all does anyone have some pics of moounted e-fans, this would be appreciated along with like some model that might fit!! thanx again y'all!! PEACE!!


my stock fan is fine, i just wanted to see if it would be better to run an e-fan!! and its also FYI fer me when my fan ever gives!!

 

 

this is the exact fan i have in my car now.

if you look in the engine bay pic, take the fan and turn it vertically as opposed to how it is now, and the small plastic tabs (which are hard to see in this pic) perfectly hug the stock FC radiator.

 

Thats one off a fiero. Fits perfectly IMO. When it turns on it drops my coolant temperature below normal running temps.

 

Out of ignorance. They believe that the e-fan will free up horsepower, and cools better then the stock fan. They are wrong.

The only reason to go to an e-fan is if you have a custom rad setup and cannot fit the stock fan, or because your stock fan clutch wears out.

 

well my clutch fan was iffy - so i replaced it with electric..

but i beg to differ about how well it cools.. at idle it pulls way more air through the rad, so just at idle i find it cools much better than the stock fan

but thats just my situation. my clutch fan was barely spinning at idle no matter what the temp on the gauge was (and it was getting a tad hotter than it should be)

 

My stock fan whines kinda loud at times. More often when I first start it up till it's a lil warmed up. Or will whine when I'm downshifting to a low gear @ higher rpms. I haven't heard any other FCs that sound like mine and was wondering if it's normal or just going bad

 

If the stock fan was solidly mounted it would be able to do that too. But that's pointless, which is why is has a thermoclutch. You obviously had your thermoswitch set too low, or worse, didn't have one at all. An electric fan is either on or off, and a thermoswitch is required to keeps temps constant. A thermoclutch fan is only turning as fast as it needs to to keep the temps stable. Just because your electric fan seems to move more air at idle doesn't make it any better.
When idling the engine is producing very little heat, so the fan isn't necesarily working that hard. If you drove the car hard and then stopped (no airflow through the radiator), the fan would immediately start working much harder to remove all the excess heat in the engine, then slow as the temp dropped.

Think about this: If electric fans are so much better, why does just about every car with a longitudinal engine still use a thermoclutch fan? Electric fans do free up a little bit of power, but it's a very small amount that few would notice unless the stock clutch had started to seize. The cost of a new replacement clutch is still the only reason why you'd need to change to electric.

Not many people here seem to have a grasp on how and when fans as supposed to work. Worse is that many converting to electric fans don't know how to wire them up safely.