Here's my $50 fan all set up. I took the better part of the day figuring out where to run the wires to and whether or not I wanted a switch in the car. I opted against it because I was feeling lazy. It's a 14", so I hope it'll keep the ol' 3.8 cool enough in the summer. Easiest upgrade I've done so far. It seems quite a bit more torquey without that clutch fan dragging the engine down.
i got a question
in which direction does the fan blow right now when you give it power?
where did you mount the Tstat?
I often thought you could use your coolant temp sensor (single red wire on driver side forward intake) as the ground supply for an electric fan.
as the temp increases i think the resistance decreases inside the sensor.
in short, you could supply the fan with power at all times,, then run the ground up to the red wire on the temp sensor. as the motor heats up, the fan gets its ground.
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yeah, i just checked on myself for the temp sensor operation,, it would have worked fine as a tool to kick the fan off and on.
i guess thats why a lot of 4cyl FWD chevy's have the two and three wire temp guage sensor wires.
Going by the way he has that fan mounted it looks like its a puller.
Alot of fans can be used as ether a push or pull.
I use to run fan set up off a ford V6 fwd car.
They have a low and high speed and i set it up on switchs and relays so that i could use it on high wile i was in the staging lains to cool down but use low for normal driving.
You can see the little temperature probe WAY up in the upper right hand corner. That runs to the actual thermostat which I mounted in front of the radiator, just next to the radiator mount.
When mounted behind the radiator (the fan) it's supposed to be a puller and I have it installed as such.
I'm not sure if you could hook it up to the temp sender since the ground would be gradual and not an on/off type of ground. The fan would gradually increase speed as it gets warm, but it may also damage the sender. I dunno... I'm happy with it the way it is.
Put a shroud back around that......
reason why i asked is someone overheated a long time ago. turns out the fan was blowing forward. When the car moved forward, it would stall / null out the fan blades.
Why would I need the shroud?
shroud acts like the duct in a ducted fan jet. controls and increases airflow.
I thought the fans had to be alil bigger then that?? Then again i dont know anything about electric fans.... just seems small. Mine would over heat in a second. Interested to know more.
So u say it feels alittle more peppy?? Having any electrical power loses? Or nothing noticable.... what size alternator you running?
Thanks
The size doesn't matter as much as the air flow. I think mine is a 1200 CFM. Whether or not that is enough, I'm not sure. Maybe someone could clarify the air flow requirements?
I noticed a decent kick on the bottom end acceleration after I chucked the clutch fan. I don't really have any way to measure the difference, but it is noticeable.
As far as amp draw, I think it's only 11 or so. My alternator is stock and It doesn't drag down the motor all that much when the fan kicks on. I think the rear defroster drags it down more than the fan, and you'd probably never use those concurrently
Here's a couple pictures of the brains of the operation. The first is the temperature probe which has a lead to the thermostat (picture 2). I put my shroud back on as well for those who were concerned :D .
You are just kidding, right?
amoost, thats the exact setup i have, except i have a different fan lol.