Electric fans?

[Cecil14]

What's the current favored electric rad fan? I want to say it was the mid-90s Taurus (and similar) last time I looked...like 10 years ago. lol


aa

[racerx12003r1]

I'm not really sure myself, but there is a post from alittle while back from bigj200 (I thinks thats right) and he was using multi-speed fans from some sort of Volvo. He had some pretty good pictures of it. The page is under Wilderness Gladiator on page 5 is where the fan pictures are.

[TrenchFoot]

There was a post a while back on IFSJA about using a dual Contours fan shroud. http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthre ... ght=taurus. It looks like running a Taurus fan can be tough with a simple relay because of the amps they can pull. I aspire to buy Flex-a-Lite stuff, but their radiators and fans are crazy expensive. Summit sells their 45 amp variable speed controller at a fair price http://www.summitracing.com/parts/flx-33054/overview/. It's still real expensive, but has more features/options than then typical relay or high-amp controllers.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Fleg]

Im half way through a contour fan install. The taurus fan takes a lot of hacking to get it to fit. The contour is almost perfect. Use a volvo relay, bmw dual temp probe and inline probe holder from ebay and your set.

[Cecil14]

Im half way through a contour fan install. The taurus fan takes a lot of hacking to get it to fit. The contour is almost perfect. Use a volvo relay, bmw dual temp probe and inline probe holder from ebay and your set.

That's the info I was looking for. Definitely not looking for anything super high tech or fancy. That summit fan controller is way too rich for my blood, I just want something to free up the motor a bit and maybe drop the noise level a tad.

Fleg: Do you happen to have sources for any of those parts (year/model?) or maybe even a link to old auctions?


Thanks,


aa

[Fleg]

Yes I do. Let me get back to the garage and I'll post what I've done.

[Cecil14]

Most appreciated.


aa

[serehill]

Interesting thread no doubt. I've thought about this a million times just never done it on my Honcho with the 4.2. Please follow up on results Cecil14. I actually have the Taurus fan assy. I did the Cherokee with the 360 @ first I put the Taurus set up on there & it wasn't enough. Now I have a Silverado fan set & a pusher on there with a single temp probe. I have the high side connected to a switch on the dash & the A/C compressor. It works really well. The Best functioning FSJ A/C I've ever seen.

[Cecil14]

Will do if I get anything to fruition. Sounds like Fleg is probably going to beat me to anything approaching results. I want to redo all my wiring at the same time this goes in, gonna be a little by little project. School keeps me busy most of the time.


aa

[Fleg]

I started my efan project with a Taurus fan. What I found out is that I would have to do so much cutting to get it to fit that there wouldn't be much of a taurus fan left. The contour fan required minimal trimming but I did fab four brackets to get it to fit. I'm sure there is probably a easier way. Would just require7more head scratching.

[Fleg]

Here is my fan mounted to the radiator.

[Cecil14]

I really like the way you used the deep rad sides for the fan brackets. That's really clever, actually, and super easy.


aa

[Fleg]

Let me preface this by stating that my install isn't complete yet. I have one issue that I know of that I need to figure out so this is not a how to.

The fan came from a 2000 Ford Contour. I guess the Mercury Mustique is the same? Some coumtors had a single fan so you may have to search.

I'm using a fan relay controller from a 1996 Volvo 850.

I ordered a new dual temperature probe from RockAuto that came from a BMW. Part # 61311378073. Cost was about $12

I found a 38mm (1.5") radiator hose inline temp sesor housing for $8 on ebay.

Again, this is a work in progress and I'm to the wiring portion of the project. The end product I hope will stagger the fans based on temp and activate one fan when the A/C is on. I know I'll have an issue with mating the temperature probe to the housing due to the probe being metric and the housing being 1/8 NPT.

[Fleg]

This is the dual fan relay that came from the volvo.

[Cecil14]

Very awesome, thanks for the info. It's a good place to start, if nothing else.

I guess that does bring up another thing to be considered...what exactly do I want this fan to do? The stock fan clutch (when functional) is heat sensitive if I recall. It would definitely be nice to have the run in a similar fashion. Simplest form would, of course, be on at x temp and off at y temp. I don't have AC or an auto so I don't need those additional switches, though others do so that functionality would be cool to build in. I would also definitely like to have a manual override (on and off) in the cabin. Not mandatory I supposed, but good to have nonetheless. Anyone think of anything else?

Hhhmmm....more research to do.


aa

[Cecil14]

This is the dual fan relay that came from the volvo.

So what, exactly, does the Volvo controller do?


aa

[Fleg]

In a nutshell, I am duplicating the stock mechanical fan operation but more efficient. The temp probe has two temperature set points. Whrn the coolant reaches the first setpoint it sends a closure to one of the relays in the volvo relay and that is what passes the power to the first fan. If the temperature continues to rise then the temp probe will hit its second (higher) setpoint and sends a closure to the volvo fan relay that send the power to the second fan. What I've read is that with both fans running the contour fan setup can pull 4500cfm of air, way more then the mechanical setup. The other benifits to a efan setup are less parasitic drag on the engine (more available horsepower) and faster warm up time. You could also wire in a override switch to shut off the fans for deep water crossing.

[Fleg]

I didn't explain the reason for the relay. No switch that you will find for a reasonable price can pass the current that even the cheapest coolant fan will draw. These fans have an initial hit near 40 amps. The relay is the switch that passes that current from the battery to the fan and the temp probe is the control that tells the relay when to do that.

[Cecil14]

Yah I understand the basic relay concept, absolutely mandatory in this case. Even if you did find a switch strong enough to handle the load you do NOT want that much current coming all the way into the cab then back out to the fans, absolutely crazy. My early plan was to simply use standard bosch style relays (the cherokee PDC has nicely setup relay slots) to control everything. From the sounds of it the Volvo relay really just does the same thing, a sort of 2-in-1 combo relay? Sounds more like the temp probe is the real key to the setup.

Looks like the BWM probe you're using (61311378073) has set points of 195*F and 210*F. It also looks like they have another probe (61318361787) with set points of 176*F and 190*F. This site has details on both probes and the connector specs/sources.

Next question I have is where to mount the probe? Most of the computer temp sensors I see (thermostats, as well) are in or very near the head. I believe the idea here is to give the most accurate representation of internal engine temps (the temps that actually matter). Is there a benefit to running the probe in the radiator or hose? I suppose if you put it inline in the upper hose that would see essentially the same temp as the thermostat anyway....


aa

[Fleg]

From what I've read the higher temp probe is best used before the radiator. The lower temp probe is best used after the radiator. My gut says post radiator is not the best indication of how the engine is running and pre radiator is about as close as you can get without being on the actual engine.