Electric fans

[Shift]

Alright since it winter, ive been saving my money and thinking of upgrading from a belt driven fan to an electric fan. i wanna see what you guys think about the subject. i have heard, installing a fan would free up some hp, offer better cooling, and make engine operation a little more quieter. also would it be better to run one big one or have to smaller ones, a pusher or a puller, and if i should have it professionally installed. thanks for your insight:badger:

[Supra5MGTE]

I've done a lot of E fans on multiple vehicles. all being toyotas. Tacomas, 4runner, and mk2's and mk3's. Here is the ultimate set up:

-Ford 2 speed (SHO) Fan. $30 from Bone yard. SHO's and some V6 Taurus have them. This fan is GREAT!!! I use low speed and it's more than enough. It has OEM quality and reliability.

- Flexalite's auto fan controller box. Roughly $100, but worth every penny. It varies the fan's speed and doesn't just "turn it on" all of a sudden. so it's easy on the electrical system. It has options for manual overide for on/off. it has a variable temp setting, a/C input signal and everything. a MUST HAVE for electric fan install.

Don't mess around with those Haydens fans, they suck. they don't push enough CFM to cool. All you need is the 1 SHO fan pulling. it'll be FINE! That is the way to do a Electric fan install. I've been debating doing it to my stock '85 for better MPG. but I just put a new fan clutch on it, and don't want parts laying around; won't get rid of OEM parts. And after it, I'll be itching to do a 105 Amp GM CS series Alternator Like I did on my other yoters.

[suprablazed]

two fans pulling thats the set up im working on. anything that frees up resistance on a pully technicly will give you more hp, but i doubt it would be noticeable without other things done or maybe it would? i dont know but i will find out

[ABUSEDDOG]

I'm presently working on the thermoststic controls for a dual electric fan of a 24 valve probe,for 9.99 on half price day at local pick a part.

The hardest part was finding a temp switch and mounting point. I finally decided on a temp sender out of, I beleive a 84 tercel located in the bottom of the rad.

The second problem was where to mount sender, supra wes mentioned an allen key bolt in the thermostat housing( although, I think he was referring to a different switch) that makes a direct bolt in, but it would key off the themostat housing temp and not the rad temp.

The second location, I pondered was the drain plug, I could just remove plug, drill out hole and tap a thread or braze sender on.

The third option was a 1.25 inch plumbing coupler with a tee in it(think it was 4.98 at home depot) that I could splice into lower rad hose, sender fits almost perfectly into the tee. I think either of the last two options would work fairly well. The relays and wiring were supplied from a mid 90's lesabre.

I would think it makes sense to remove rotating weight from your engine and stress of the water pump. I found it rev's a little quicker, a little better gas mileage.

I'm not sure there's any weight difference. I removed clutch fan and shroud, but gained dual fans.

I tend to be kinda of cheap though, if I can't figure out a improvment from junkyard parts, it tends not to get it.

Hope some of this helps.

[Supra_devil]

i spent the money on the FAL 210's. for the temp sensor i just used a thread in sensor on the thermostat housing.
i previously used an adjustable fan controller but if screwed up and was stuck on its lowest setting.
there are a few different options.
the screw in sensor in an unused spot on the thermostat housing,
sensor in the upper rad hose,
sensor that pushes through the fins on the rad as close to inlet as possible.
Dogstar and Canuck_Dave both used 14" fans and never had any cooling issues while driving through the mountains in 30C+ degree weather

[Shift]

thanks guys. with a flex light fan could i do it myself or get it done professinal.

[turbogoo1]

Solo1supra(Joe) Used Hayden fans on his hill climb car and I believe never had a problem with them.

Summit makes a single pole temp switch that works great. I think it was 30 bucks or something, and you use a relay system and it does the trick. Turns on at 180 off at 170.

[ABUSEDDOG]

I think supra wes did a flex a lite in his car. tcsperformance.com. Judge for your self if your up for the challenge!

[SupraWes]

How comfortable are you with electrical? Puller is the way to go in my opinion but you need to get whatever fan you install flush with the radiator fins. If you opt for the flex a lite 210 this will require some fabraication to make it fit. Other than that you will want to create a new circuit directly off the battery, it will need to have a fuse and be on a relay to be safe and reliable. You will want to think about what kind of shape your alternator battery and ground wires are in also as the fans will be drawin a lot of current, at some times even when the car is not running. I also recommend installing an aftermarket temperature gauge to get your trigger temperature dialed in, on my car the fan does not come on until 200 degrees, if you set it to cool too much you will hurt your fuel mileage. The cars were sent from the factory with 192 degree thermostats.

[SupraLee]

What would you say about those flex-a-lite 210 fans cooling a 7MGTE swap MA61?

[SilverMk2]

They'll work, but something like the Contour fans are about $200 cheaper at the junk yard and are probably better overall.

[SupraLee]

better overall in that they pull more CFM?

[BillyM]

...absolutely not.

I've got the 210's and I'd suggest them to anyone.

--bilyM

[williamb82]

ive got the contour fans on my 7m swapped mkii. with them running and the hood closed i can put my hand about a foot in front of the front bumper and feel the air being sucked past my hand. they cost me les then $40 at the pick and pull including the core charge. then i bought 2 4 wire relays, small fuse block and wired them up using the stock 7mgte electric fan switch that is there for that small fan in the mkiii. works great. just they pull more current then the fal fans. i run a separate relay and 30 amp fuse for each though one of them will run on a 10 amp and the other on a 15 though once in awhile the 15 amp fuse will blow when the fan initiall starts up. i just stuck 30's in there as i had a full pack of them. i got pics on my car domain page of my 84. page 6 iirc. cant check cardomain from work anymore. lol

[SupraLee]

Those are pretty nice, did you have to mod them to the radiator to fit flush? How did you mount it to the radiator? Might have to look around and see if i can find one, would be a cheaper alternative to the fal fans.

[charles q]

Ditto. How 'bout a pic of them installed

[SilverMk2]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/motorfest07/IMG_3722.jpg

[SupraLee]

The link isn't working for me..

[CJSREDPRA]

Works fine for me, I just opened the link. It will open a 2nd window & show the picture.

(I just tried a copy & paste, and had problems putting img tags on the link).

[SupraLee]

lol wtf, now it works..

[SupraLee]

that's a pretty nice fit, but that's not a stock MA6x radiator though. Would you happen to have an extra set of those electric fans?

[williamb82]

the contour fans fit right to my stock mkii rad. i just used self taping screws to srew them to the 2 bars on the side to hold them in place. look at my car domain page. also, for those that want a radiator fan switch, go to autozone and this is the part number.
SW539 its $24.99 its for a celica camry, etc... should screw right in. just run ign switched power to the coil of the relay that will power your fans, then form that coil to this switch, this switch will ground the line to turn the fans on whe nthe proper temp is reached and turn them off when it has cooled to the proper temp. they sell adjustable ones too but they are much more exspensive.

edit: heres the pics of my setup

the fans secured to the stock radiator.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/williamb82/buildup/b758.jpg

in the car
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/williamb82/buildup/8e6f.jpg

[SilverMk2]

I'd just buy the whole wiring kit from Summit. Comes with the temp sensor, a relay, and enough wire to do the whole thing for $40. I ground ~1/4" off all the around on mine to bring it as close to the radiator as feasible. The clearnace is very tight on mine. Most fans I've tried don't fit.

[socalsupra]

i squeezed in some fans from a subaru 90s somthing. i realy only use the larger one. have only had to turn the small one on 2-3 time on realy hot days climing hills. the large one is temp opperated and the small temp and switch opperated. i had to fab up a shroud to mate it to the rad.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/socalsupra1/09-26-07_0901.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/socalsupra1/09-26-07_0902.jpg

[supergregotti]

The 83 we recently bought has a single electric fan installed (I know nothing about it) and according to the stock temp gauge...the fan must kick on when the needle reaches 3/4 of the way up (not sure what temperature that translates to) but was wondering if that is normal. My 86 with the stock fan never went above half way.

[Donn29]

Look for a sender unit and we can go from there. That is too hot for sure. It will probably be a little probe that runs from the radiator to a relay and some other wiring.
Try snapping a pic of where its located or describe where on the rad.

[StanS]

If you're na don't waste yout time. Theoretical gains are minimal and undetectable by the seat of your pants meter. Make sure that you have your shroud installed.

[supergregotti]

I noticed the fan when we bought the car, and my feeling was there is no need for an electric fan, but if it's an upgrade that has advantages I'd stick with it. When I drove it home, and took it out for a spin last night, the temp gauge seemed to be sitting a bit too high for my liking, so I thought I'd start raising questions.

The fan that is installed...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/supergregotti/Supra/apr32010029.jpg


This pic shows the wiring for the fan, and sensor which is....
a blue wire taped to an orange wire that becomes fused hot to the relay, and black taped to red which becomes a body ground, and the yellow, and brown wires are sensor wires...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/supergregotti/Supra/apr32010028.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/supergregotti/Supra/apr32010025.jpg
*note* from what I've seen so far the yellow wire from the sensor continues on into the bottom of the fuse box.

The relay is bolted to the inner fender skirt. The blue wire is hooked to nothing, the orange wire is hot to the fan, red is a battery hot, brown is a sensor wire, and green is tied in with a wire to the ac compressor....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/supergregotti/Supra/apr32010024.jpg

[StanS]

What you have is lower cooling power than a stock setup. Stock cooling is much more than adequate for an na engine operating without other failures. How did you arrive at the conclusion that the temp guage reading is too high? Engine is designed to operate at 195 deg F for max reliability. Running at lower than design temp may give additional power but you don't burn off acids that eat away at cylinder walls shortening block/compression life. Save your money and effort for a resl performance upgrade.

[supergregotti]

How did you arrive at the conclusion that the temp guage reading is too high? Engine is designed to operate at 195 deg F for max reliability. Running at lower than design temp may give additional power but you don't burn off acids that eat away at cylinder walls shortening block/compression life.

I was comparing the reading to my 86 with the stock setup which was much lower.
If halfway is too low, maybe I should think about changing the thermostat?


Save your money and effort for a resl performance upgrade.

The previous owner was the one that must have seen it as a performance upgrade.

[Donn29]

You should be able to get another fan switch that triggers at a lower temp.
Do you know if the cooling system is low though? Could be a problem with the actual cooling system itself.

[supergregotti]

You should be able to get another fan switch that triggers at a lower temp.
Do you know if the cooling system is low though? Could be a problem with the actual cooling system itself.

Ended up having air in the system. Topped it off, let it run til thermostat opened (temp gauge at just over the halfway mark, and fan started shortly afterward) topped it off again, and replaced the cap. Ran it for a little over a half hour, and the gauge remained at a bit over halfway while driving in town.

[StanS]

The guage can be wrong. Measure the fluid operating temp with a tc in radiator slipped in under the hose clamp. It should be very close to 195 deg F. If not inspect the themostat to make sure that you have correct temp thermo. Clogged block or rad can cause over temp operation. The fan should not have to operate when the car is moving over 5mph. Determine if there's a problem and fix the problem. A mod is NOT the way to fix a problem on a stock setup. In fact, you should make sure that your car is operating normally before you make any mod so you can determine if the mod gives any improvement. I'd get myself a stock fan (clutched at 2700 rpm) and a stock shroud (very important) and throw away the whole ef setup. It should be more reliable and cool better.

Setting the fan against the rad fins is exactly what you're NOT supposed to do. That way the fan only sucks air through the rad fins that are in the projection of the fan diameter. The rest of the fins are not used at idle which is the only time that the fan should operate on a na setup. Setting the fan against the rad fins drastically REDUCES the heat transfer efficiency of the WHOLE rad since most of the rad is unused at idle. Air thru the rad on a stock setup is much much higher when the car is moving than any fan can supply, even without a shroud. When you use a shroud the fan creates a weak vacuum in the volume between the shroud and the rad. This vacuum causes air to be drawn through all of the rads cross section. Without a shroud and without any fan I drove my na setup for close to a year, including a hot summer, with what appeared to be normal operation per my dash temp guage. No overheating except when I got stuck in traffic sitting at a stop for more than 5 minutes on 90 deg days. If you can avoid stopping for more than 5 minutes you don't even need a fan.

Turbo setups are completely different since there is much more airflo blockage due to all the extra equipment stuffed under the hood and the additional power the engine is making which is very significant. Typically, 1/3 of the energy generated by the ignition is mechanical (moves the car), 1/3 goes out the tailpipe, and 1/3 is dumped into the engine bay via the rad. So doubling the hp will double the heat dumped into the engine bay.

[mavrick666999]

I finished up my install today of the twin contour fans. If you have the upgraded alt. Your car doesn't even notice when they kick on. If your looking for a set of good relay and mounting look on crown vic ( the police model body) look for three relays sitting on the driver side inner fender works great. As for cooling i can feel them sucking air with the hood closed sitting still and when the hood is open there's enough air coming off the front of the engine to move my wifes long hair all of it. My buddy will be installing them on the drag engine in his mud truck

[Donn29]

Ended up having air in the system. Topped it off, let it run til thermostat opened (temp gauge at just over the halfway mark, and fan started shortly afterward) topped it off again, and replaced the cap. Ran it for a little over a half hour, and the gauge remained at a bit over halfway while driving in town.

AWESOME! Good to hear it was an easy fix.