has any one of you 04-05 owners added these fans to their truck. I have been wanting to add one of these but not sure how well they will fit. the 290 is a universal fit one but I am not sure if it has a shroud to it and how it will fit. the 270 model was designed to fit the 97-2003 F150's but it might still fit our trucks. has any one on here mounted this up? if so did it fit fine?

 

anyone?

 

just fyi, i used a fal-210 dual fans on my car and they vibrated like crazy when they turned on. On my 97 pickup i used troyer's fan kit utilizing derale fans it they were quiet and smooth.

 

I considered the fans from troyer but I did a little looking arround and found the flexalite duals. I like them better for a number of reasons. first they have a built in shroud. second they are rated for a higher cfm rateing. and third they have a lower start up amp draw. and they have a start up thats starts both fans at 60% and goes up gradually to 100% as your coolant rises over 10 degrees. in other words if yo set the fan to come on at 190 deg it will gradually increase the power to the fans untill it reaches 200 deg at which it will be at 100%. I believe this is a more efficient way of cooling.

 

your reasons make some sense but I ran Flex-a-lites on my car for some time and finally replaced them. The shroud is completely unecessary and useless, especially the FAL shroud. It actually impedes airflow greatly when at cruising speeds. I have a friend that builds nascar radiators and uses SPAL fans. He is constantly telling me that flex-a-lites are overrated from a cfm perspective. my car fans were rated at 2500cfm and he said I was lucky to see 1600cfm out of them. as far as the amp draw etc, i had my truck setup where the first fan came on at 195 and the second fan came on at 205 so it never overloaded the truck. How can you have a such a low amp draw and a highly rated cfm? You can't. That is why all the GREAT fans pull a lot of amps. The motors are extremely powerful, unlike the FALs. in the end you get what you pay for. I have intimate experience with FAL, SPAL, and Derale. I run electric fans on all my vehicles. guess what? the second fan on my Derale setup never came on because the first fan was so effective at cooling. With the flexa-lites, both fans were running all the time and to me that is inefficient.

just my .02 cents. you asked for opinions and although i have notused fal 290 i have used the 210s and 220s.

 

its nice to hear from someone who has alot of experience with electric fans. so you think a shroud is restrictive. I guess I can see how it could be. I like troyer and plan on buying a af1 intake from him soon. but I am not convinced he is selling the best fan though. maybe I am wrong I still have not made up my mind yet though. thanks for the input.

 

I have the Flex 270 fans on an 03 Screw and I like them. I don't know what model F150intally had on his car. The 270 model has a rubber gasket molding around the whole shroud that allows the fans to snug up to the radiator so the fans will not rattle. The shroud doesn't hurt anything in my opinion. The clutch fan that came on the truck had a shroud which is used to direct and concentrate air flow. During testing the truck temp gage was almost on the "h" and the fans cooled it down to midway or normal operating temp in less the 5 mins sitting in my garage. Both fans do run at the same time but I have had no problems with my electrical system at all. The fans only run when the truck is hot so they are not on as much as you would think. The set up looks stock when installed and I would recommend them even though they are pricey.

 

I looked at a lot of fan options too ... Good fans at about $135 each and adjustable controlers at $30-40 per so you can pick turn on temps, plus say at least $25 in other goodies ... you'd be looking at about $365 or more for the setup.

TP's kit is not much more and has good instructions on setting temps and install stuff, specificly for our trucks. Extra parts & options ... totally worth it in my book! My kit fans are quiet when they do get a chance run!

Still waiting for a really hot day to see how well they'll cool under a GCVW load of about 13500lbs? They did good this weekend but it was just a warm, mid 70's, day and I did get both fans to kick on for a max temp of 225 up a very steep, badly washed/rutted switchback mountain access road. On the highway it only got hot enough for 1 fan to kick on near the top of a couple hills.



My F150 Page

 

225 thats pretty hot. I towed on a similar grade for about 10 miles on a day in the 70's and my truck barely edged slightly above the normal running temp. that is with the stock fan. I would have to say those efans of yours must not be cooling vary well. I would be interested to see how well the flexlite fans cooled under similar conditions.

 

Well ... you see ... if you don't have a digital gauge ... you would never have known! ... because that edge over normal that you refer to ... didn't show ... the dash gauge never got above the center line! ... And I've had it above the center line by a couple of needles previously when pulling and the stock fan. The second fan is not even set to come on until 215 so 225 is not really very hot.

 

I have the Flex-a Lite 295s (13.5 inch fans) and I must say that they do the job. It wasn't a simple bolt on job though. The 270s might be a little easier to install, but I don't know for sure...Kevin

 

He just needs to adjust his fans. The turn on temp needs to be lowered. The optimum temp for our trucks is 205 degrees. They perform best at this temp and you want to keep the engine near this temp.

 

mine are set for 200. Without the A/C it rarely comes on though.

 

I do have a digital temp geuge built into the odometer. I have run the test feature built into our odometer. which reads in celsius. my normal running temp seems to be arround 89 deg celsius which is well below 200 deg f. as I know 100 deg celsius is 212 deg f. so slightly above that must be arround 195 or maybe 200 at the most. I plan on running my digital gauge next time I tow so I can really see how hot it gets. I believe your temps are set a little high. are those the temps mike troyer recomended with the fan kit. I think if I get a fan I will set mine for 200 deg f. like kevhunt.

 

Could you clarify that please? Are you talking about one in the information center? If so, how did you get to it?

-PJ