Thread: Electric fan?

That would have been a lot easier.

I just cut my shroud down on one side and riveted a sheetmetal piece on so that it fits on my small radiator. It is nowhere near air tight right now, but if it needs it I can do it.

I had a lot of issues with mine when I did this a few months ago. It would overheat on me any time I went anywhere that was hotter then the beach. I found a few things out though that has fixed the issue. First off if you have a skiddy make sure it's either far enough away from the grill to allow for good air flow or put some holes in your skiddy for good ventilation. Second I ended up having a crappy little fan that didn't cool it well enough so I ended up getting a electric fan out of a ford taurus SHO. This fan set up ended up having two fans on it, a smaller one and a larger one. I did buy an autozone thermo switch which ended up not working at all so now I just have my small fan wired up on a relay which runs all the time and the large fan wired up on a switch so if I'm anywhere where the truck is getting warm I turn the second fan on. These fans pull some serious airflow. And lastly because the fans pull so much airflow is basically because they pull so much power which lead to me buying a $200 alternator as well as 10gage wiring from the fans to the secondary fuse box under the hood and 4 gage wiring from the alternator to the battery. Lets just say this project wasn't cheap... I think in all I ended up spending way to much but it was more of a 'i need to conquer this' event. I probably spent 350 to 400 on this project but I was able to learn a lot and it was pretty fun.

Just a few things to think about. The good thing about they way I set mine up is that I have two fans on two different relays which means in one of my E-fans goes out I have a second one to get me home. My new alternator is pretty awesome too because it's black shinny and puts out tons of power, and in the future if I ever redo the engine cage I'm going to put a larger radiotor in it with a legit (not autozone) thermo switch.

Originally Posted by stevyboy

I had a lot of issues with mine when I did this a few months ago. It would overheat on me any time I went anywhere that was hotter then the beach. I found a few things out though that has fixed the issue. First off if you have a skiddy make sure it's either far enough away from the grill to allow for good air flow or put some holes in your skiddy for good ventilation. Second I ended up having a crappy little fan that didn't cool it well enough so I ended up getting a electric fan out of a ford taurus SHO. This fan set up ended up having two fans on it, a smaller one and a larger one. I did buy an autozone thermo switch which ended up not working at all so now I just have my small fan wired up on a relay which runs all the time and the large fan wired up on a switch so if I'm anywhere where the truck is getting warm I turn the second fan on. These fans pull some serious airflow. And lastly because the fans pull so much airflow is basically because they pull so much power which lead to me buying a $200 alternator as well as 10gage wiring from the fans to the secondary fuse box under the hood and 4 gage wiring from the alternator to the battery. Lets just say this project wasn't cheap... I think in all I ended up spending way to much but it was more of a 'i need to conquer this' event. I probably spent 350 to 400 on this project but I was able to learn a lot and it was pretty fun.

Just a few things to think about. The good thing about they way I set mine up is that I have two fans on two different relays which means in one of my E-fans goes out I have a second one to get me home. My new alternator is pretty awesome too because it's black shinny and puts out tons of power, and in the future if I ever redo the engine cage I'm going to put a larger radiotor in it with a legit (not autozone) thermo switch.

its sad how much money you wasted and gained pretty much nothing. SOOO many rangers out there race on a stock radiator and fan and never get anywhere near hot.


Also if the fan was wired worrectly so it only turned on when it was needed the stock alt should be fine.

Originally Posted by stevyboy

I had a lot of issues with mine when I did this a few months ago. It would overheat on me any time I went anywhere that was hotter then the beach. I found a few things out though that has fixed the issue. First off if you have a skiddy make sure it's either far enough away from the grill to allow for good air flow or put some holes in your skiddy for good ventilation. Second I ended up having a crappy little fan that didn't cool it well enough so I ended up getting a electric fan out of a ford taurus SHO. This fan set up ended up having two fans on it, a smaller one and a larger one. I did buy an autozone thermo switch which ended up not working at all so now I just have my small fan wired up on a relay which runs all the time and the large fan wired up on a switch so if I'm anywhere where the truck is getting warm I turn the second fan on. These fans pull some serious airflow. And lastly because the fans pull so much airflow is basically because they pull so much power which lead to me buying a $200 alternator as well as 10gage wiring from the fans to the secondary fuse box under the hood and 4 gage wiring from the alternator to the battery. Lets just say this project wasn't cheap... I think in all I ended up spending way to much but it was more of a 'i need to conquer this' event. I probably spent 350 to 400 on this project but I was able to learn a lot and it was pretty fun.

Just a few things to think about. The good thing about they way I set mine up is that I have two fans on two different relays which means in one of my E-fans goes out I have a second one to get me home. My new alternator is pretty awesome too because it's black shinny and puts out tons of power, and in the future if I ever redo the engine cage I'm going to put a larger radiotor in it with a legit (not autozone) thermo switch.

How did you mount the fans? Side by side? With a divider between the two? If not, then with only one fan one, it will recirc the air through the fan not running. Have seen this mistake on $150,000 Prerunners. Have to keep isolated or run both at once.

GD

84prerunner loves to bash on this subject... rather then try to sway people the other way why don't you just let it be because obviously people have their own opinions. I wasn't doing it as a power gain. I simply had this set up prior to my truck and I wanted to keep it. I did end up over spending on it but thats because I was piecing it together and learning from it. I would say I over spent but I wouldn't say I wasted my money. Also half of the money was for the alternator which didn't need replacing but I'm assuming by the age it looked and living near the ocean it wasn't going to last too much longer. So I will say I really spent 150 to 200 on the project. The alternator was bought for the fan but I also plan on having an air compressor on board and whatever other power supply items I want. It's 4x4 and I like to go camping as well.

And for the mounting of the fans I just trimmed up the factory shroud and used some aluminum plate on the sides to enclose it fully. If I see it getting hot at all I turn the second fan on so it's not really a big deal. My truck never gets hot anymore so I don't really plan on changing anything besides the real thermo switch which I'll add next time I have to take out the radiotor for whatever reason.

Truly though I didn't actually think about that, or I might of when installing it but haven't thought about it since. it does pull plenty of air through the radiaotr though, because you can stick you hand up against where the fan is and it sucks pretty hard, also stuck a piece of cardboard up to it and it holds it just fine. These fans are pretty intense.

i only bash on dumb things. way i look at it is you spend money making your truck less reliable. thats all.

I don't see how have two fans is less reliable then one. I also don't want to jack this guys thread having an argument over opinions. So you win.

Originally Posted by 84prerunner

i only bash on dumb things. way i look at it is you spend money making your truck less reliable. thats all.

lol x2. my truck never gets hot with the stock mechanical fan, and it cost me $0, and it's 100% reliable. IF the fan clutch fails, it fails to locked up, so the fan spins maximum speed...


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Originally Posted by letsgetthisdone

lol x2. my truck never gets hot with the stock mechanical fan, and it cost me $0, and it's 100% reliable. IF the fan clutch fails, it fails to locked up, so the fan spins maximum speed...

lol i pulled the mech fan off and left the stock e-fan since almost all ranger hvac settings turn it on anyway.

im 25 bucks in to this. i picked up the relay block today for 5 bucks and i got the fan for 20 a while back.