Mike,

I am running a 180° thermostat in my F-150 with your E-fan kit. If you recall I was chasing a Cylinder Head overheating problem and in an effort to help minimize the effects I truned down the temperature settings on the E-fans and I installed a 180° thermostat. Well, I want to keep the 180° Thremostat so I am wondering if I should use the temp setting in your instructions or do you have another recommendation?

BTW the Cylinder head problem turned out to be the rad. The top 5 rows were plugged. It finally started leaking so I replaced it with a 2 row rad and now the highest temp I have seen is 88°C on the cylinder head. It seems to run at 82-85 when driving normally.

Thanks

Jean Marc

 

Hi JMC,

Ahh, so it was a radiator problem - thank goodness, I know you went thru quite a lot of diagnosis & sweat on this one, so I'm very glad to hear it was "only" a radiator - that's excellent news!

The temperature setting in our instructions is an example that is based on using the stock 192 F factory t-stat, but it also gives you the way to figure out those temps with *any* temperature of thermostat, which varies only based on where & how you are measuring the temps - either with a scan tool to read the actual ECT sensor output, or via an infrared point & shoot thermometer.....

What you'll want to achieve is to set the low-temperature fan to come on not less than 10 and not more than 15 degrees above the thermostat threshold - and then set the high-temperature fan 10 degrees hotter than wherever you set the low-temp fan.

So it depends on what method you are using to calibrate, specifically, how & where you're actually measuring those temps - it you are measuring the temperature by using a scan tool to read the ECT, then with a 180 t-stat you would set the low-temp fan to come on at somewhere between 190-195 degrees. Now if you are using an infrared point & shoot thermometer to measure the temperature at the actual temperature *probes*, then you have to subtract the 20 degree differential between ECT output & the actual temperature of the probes as located in the fins of the radiator - I.E., to calibrate with a point & shoot measuring temps at the actual probes, with a 180 t-stat, set the low-temp fan to come on when the temperature at the controller probe is not lower than 170 and not hotter than 175. This will (roughly) achieve the same end result in terms of the actual coolant temperatures regardless of which method you use - either a scan tool to read the ECT, or an infrared point & shoot to measure temps at the probes.

In *either* case, you will set the high-temperature fan to come on 10 degrees higher than *wherever* you set the low temperature fan.

We give specific examples based on using the stock 192 t-stat, but you can use that same formula to determine the turn-on temps for *any* temperature of thermostat - depending on how you measure the temperature, either with a scan tool to read the actual ECT (engine coolant temperature sensor), or by using an infrared point & shoot device to measure the temperature at the *probes*, which are mounted in the fins of the radiator.

I may have just confused you here, and if so please just give me a call & I can go over that with you, OK?

Congrats on the good news!

 

Mike,

I get the drift of what you mean. I will borrow a friend's point and shoot thermometer and set the fan temps accordingly. I have them set so low now that they cycle on and off too often. Thanks for the encouragement on the over heating. It usually is the simplest things.
To remove the fans from the old rad I cut their wires at different lengths so the splices would not line up when I installed them on the new rad. I had the rad out so might as well install the fans off the truck. Wouldn't you know it, I put the left side fan on the right side and the right side fan on the left. Now none of the wires line up.

Thanks again

JMC

 

Hi JMC,

Sounds good, & let us know if you need anything!

Good luck & talk to you soon,