Now that the car is running nice and cool, I am going to give it some insurance in that department. Convert it from the crank driven fan that is on all the time and robs the car of power because it has to drive the fan to an electronic fan that is efficient end offers a power upgrade (although slight). Modern cars are now cooled by these electric fans. They require very little power to drive, are quiet, provide lots of cooling and free up the engine from having to drive t constantly. They also provide the car with faster warmups so the car reaches its optimum operating temp faster, and in the winter, the heat kicks in faster. The down side? There really isnt one…except MAYBE reliability. The crank driven fan is turning constantly as long as the engine is. Simple. The electric fan, well it can go out, the fuse can blow, wiring can be bad, temp switch can go bad, etc. So why do it? It seems like it adds a bit of complexity to a simple car. One answer: To run consistently cooler.
The parts needed for this are:
1. Spal 12” Hi performance pusher fan w/ Curved blades
2. Thermoswitch 195 degree
3. custom pipe to mount thermoswitch
4. 30 amp SPST Relay
5. 10 gauge and 18 gauge wire
6. lighted switch
7. Massive Electric Fan mounting brackets
The installation was in 2 parts. The removal of all the old parts, and secondly installation and wiring of the electric fan. The removal of the old parts is straightforward. Drain the radiator, unbolt it and pull it out. There are 4 bolts that hold the fan onto the pulley. Thats it…pretty simple. Now to put the fan in!
The wiring, I used this wiring diagram.
It may look a bit complex at first, but its pretty straightforward.
The Massive brackets are perfect! They mount to the Spal fan and then they mount directly to the same bolts that mount the radiator so no drilling, no extra holes. They simply mount between the radiator and the car. After mounting the fan, I simply had to run the wires.
The only thing I had to decide was where to mount the manual override switch. I got a nice lighted rocker switch from an electronics store and I put it in the dash where the dummy switch is. The switch lights up when the fan goes on with the switch or when you manually override the thermo switch.
The conclusion:
Well it works great! The fan comes on when the water temp reaches 195 degrees and goes off when the temp reaches 175 degrees. Thats a tad high for me, but not bad at all. The fan pretty much does not come on unless I am stopped and idling. It comes on and instantly drops the temps, once cool, it turns off. What I lso noticed was a decrease in temps at higher speeds. Not sure exactly why at this point, if its less effort on the enginges part to turn the mototr with the I would recommend this upgrade to anyone who wants to control their cooling system a bit more than normal.