I finished the Flex-a-lite 270 efan kit install last night and wanted to pass along some first impressions.

The install for the kit is pretty straight forward and does not require any serious mechanical skills. The instructions are good, but could be much better. If you purchase the kit, be sure to download the latest instruction PDF from the FAL website. My kit from Jegs must have been in the warehouse for a long time because the instructions were several versions old.

The only problem I encountered (besides the solder gun falling apart, starting a small fire, and roasting my fingers - thank you Sears) was/is the drivers side bracket for the fans makes contact with a coolant line. I need to call FAL and see if they have a suggested fix.

I went ahead and soldered all the connections and shrink wrapped all the wires. I highly recommend NAPA for shrink wrap. I don't know the brand, but they have a shrink wrap that is better than anything I have ever used - shrinks right, seals up with glue, and just works.

The brackets take a little time to install and you don't have much working room on the bottom end. This was by far the most difficult part of the install.
Again, no major skills needed other than patience.

I will try to post up some photos this week. I ran the power, ground, and temp sensor wires along the top of the shroud and tied everything off with black zip ties. The AC wire and Switched 12V wire run straight back off the FAL Controller and connect with the Cruise Control cable. I ran the wires under the air intake along the same path as the cruise cable, to the fender, back to the firewall and up to the fuse box. The install looks very clean. I still need to mount the maxi fuse holder, but it is tied in place with zip ties and secure for now.

I have an Edge CTS, so sitting the temp control was easy. I am still playing with the dial trying to find the exact points I need.

I took the truck for a 150 mile round trip drive today on Interstate, Highway, and City Driving. It was 95 degrees when started and 75 degrees when I returned. I have not wired a cut off switch yet, so the fans ran most of the trip as the AC was used most of the trip. The temp stayed between 198 and 202 on the Interstate running 75 MPH. On the return highway trip at night, the temp stayed at 194-196 running 60 MPH.

I did notice the "free" horsepower - it is not like adding 100HP or something crazy, but the truck is a bit snappier in rolling starts.

My ultimate goal was to increase MPG. On my last trip running this exact route, I recorded 13.9 MPG. The truck averages 13.1. Today, I recorded 16.3. The difference in the two trips included the Edge CTS using the Tow tune, increased tire air pressure, and the efans.
The tire air pressure, 35PSI before and 45PSI now (E load range tires), appears to be accounting for about 0.5 MPG on its own. I do not believe the Edge CTS has provided any improvement in MPG from records of my daily commute.
That leaves the efans and any other "X" factors accounting for about 2 MPG. I do not believe the efans alone produced a 15% increase in MPG, but they definitely accounted for some of the improvement. I track my MPG consistently, so I will make another post in the future when I have more accurate data.

Flex-a-lite makes a good product - it is nice to find a quality product from an aftermarket vendor.

 

sounds good, looking forward to more info.

 

Well done.

Nicely articulate and emminently readable

Keep an eye on any spade connections and the maxi-fuse holder - they have a tendency to develop high resistance and self-heat.


MGD

 

DI electric grease your fuse holder! Mine melted the fuse... didnt blow it, just melted one side off! other than that ive been problem free all summer. knock on wood!

 

Today I noticed a rattle when the fans turn on at the 60 percent speed. I called Flex-a-lite and spoke with Dave in CS/Tech support, and he suggested I loosen and then re-tighten the allen screw that holds the fan in place. This seems to have fixed the problem. Very nice guy, sounded like he knew his stuff, and wore a couple different hats - so far Flex-a-Lite has really surpassed my expectations.

Here are some images of the installation - sorry for the poor quality, I was too lazy to get a real camera out - thanks iphone.

The first image shows the controller mounted in the center of the fan shroud. The AC wire, 12v Wire, (and the soon the override switch) all run back to the cruise cable and route over to the driver's side fender.





This close-up of the controller shows my loom and connections at the center of the fan shroud.





This image shows the cable routing under the air intake, along the path of the cruise cable. You can see the wire is "looped" out to allow extra cable for engine movement and flex.





This image shows the placement of my temp sensor and where I secured the loom to the radiator cover to prevent the fans from making contact with the wires. The fan blades slightly extrude from the shroud, so I wanted to be extra careful to prevent the loom from slipping over the edge of the shroud and contacting the fans.





In this image, you can see where the AC and 12V wires continue to run along the cruise cable and pass in front of the fuse box. I passed the wires to the fender and secured them before routing toward the firewall.





The last image displays my connection to the AC wire at the bottom of the fuse box. The blue connector is a Positap - very useful connector. The taped wire is factory, my connection is the black loom below the taped wire.

 

Very nice...I want to go with Efans when I do my motor swap. Are the fans overly loud or are they more of a subdued "whoosh" sound? Seems like some of the cars I've heard with efans have a pretty loud sound coming from the fans, but they could've been set up with a cheap kit.

 

They move a lot of air - so they make some noise. However, I don't think they are as loud as the factory fan (even at full speed), and they only make noise when they are running. It is nice in the morning when you start up and you can hear the engine, not that monster mechanical fan. Idle seems to be a little smoother also.
I don't like that they run after the vehicle is turned off, but I just put in a new battery, so it should not be a big deal and winter is generally when you have to worry about a battery - and the fans should not be running when it is below freezing.
Maybe my opinion will change down the road, but this is my favorite upgrade so far. The forum is full of meltdowns and other efan problems, but I did not see very many issues related to the Flex-a-lite kit. In addition, an install like this leaves a lot of room for user error - so even the failures could have a specific cause. I'm impressed so far - and I am not an easy person to impress with this sort of stuff.

 

I now have a couple weeks and more than 1000 miles on the road with the FAL 270 kit installed. The kit has operated flawlessly as of this writing.
The engine coolant temp stays between 196-202 according to the Edge CTS, the AC works much better, power from a rolling start is improved, and MPG is up.

This weekend I moved my office and recorded 13.7 MPG with truck loaded most of the time, driving 2-5 miles to and from my new location. A few drives were 8-10 miles at highway speed - but most driving was in town below 40 MPH. Before the efans, I would get 10.5 - 12 MPG with this type of driving. This equates to approximately a 13 - 24 percent improvement in town. The efans are a major improvement by my measurement.

With highway driving I am consistently seeing a 2 MPG increase.

I will be curious to see the MPG numbers this fall when the AC is not running and the fans rarely turn on.

I am still annoyed by the fans running after I turn off the truck, but it is a small detail. If you do a lot of short starts and stops, this could be a problem, however, if you are starting and stopping the truck enough to run the battery down with the fans, I would expect you will have many other serious problems from the starting and stopping - so I guess it is not really an issue unless your battery is ready for replacement.

Very, very happy with the FAL 270 Kit so far.

 

not referring to FAL fans, but with your engine running at idle, unless you are standing 5> feet from the front of your truck, you wont hear them. even then what you hear is the humm of the motors, not the whooshing air.

 

I've had mine for 5 years maybe, they are loud, and I had to replace the controller for a new one which it looks like you have. Nothing but praise from me on this kit. Hp's up a bit but mpg were noticed moreso.

 

I hope my truck is gone before the controller fails. After completing the install, I wish I would have soldered the connections on the outside of the fan shroud, rather than on the inside. If I ever have to replace the controller, I will have to pull the entire kit. It does make a much cleaner looking install though.

I just realized that replacing the controller would be much easier than I thought. Two bolts at the top, disconnect the top radiator hose and there is plenty of room. Better to be lucky than good some days.