Seeing how popular this kit (and others) I decided to take some pics of my install. JDM actually had a nice "how to" on their website, but since they remodeled it seems to be lost. So here's my install...followed by a couple questions:

First I laid out the wiring harness to see where everything would need to be routed and mounted. It's all pretty much cut and dry since the wires are all precut and wrapped in loom.

Make sure you disconnect the negative terminal before you mess with any of your electrical systems:

The relays are going to be mounted behind the black plastic cover next to the starter solenoid:

The kit comes with two screws to mount the relays to the firewall, but I didn't really want to drill holes if I didn't have to, so I found a couple existing screws that I could use to mount to. For the black relay I used the screw that holds the bracket there in place and for the blue relay I used a grounding screw next to that.
In that picture you can also see the other connections that must be made. The continuously hot connections to the starter solenoid and the ground connection that I routed thru the firewall cover over to a ground screw closer to the engine.

 

Next I pulled the rest of the harness thru the firewall cover with a straightned hanger. I could have removed it, but once again if I don't have to make extra work I'm not going to.

I covered the green sensor wire with the provided loom and routed it down to where the sensor was going to be in the block. I routed it close to the transmission, securing it with zip ties to other lines coming down the back of the engine.

When installing the temp sensor make sure that your engine has had ample time to cool off as there will be coolant coming out of the block. As soon as I took out the plug, I blocked the hole with my thumb long enough to get the sensor in place and then screwed into the hole. I didn't lose hardly any fluid with this process because I hadn't messed with the radiator cap or hoses that would have released pressure.

 

The fuse box wires were routed next. A small hole was drilled in the end for the wires to pass thru. The red wire (Key on power) routes to spot shown. Then the A/C lead routes to a tap on the top right relay. I wasn't able to accomplish this step (will explain at the end) so I soldered directly to the wire underneath the fuse box.

I then loosened the stock fan assembly from the stock water pump, unbolted the fan shroud, and lifted the whole assembly out at the same time. Instead of removing the tranny line like the instructions said I removed the upper radiator hose (whose coolant drained down when the sensor was installed) without spilling a drop of coolant or tranny fluid. Then the electric fan just dropped right back in its spot and bolted back up.

Then for track use I installed the high speed switch on the starter solenoid cover.

 

Makes for a nice clean location to turn it on and off at the track since I normally have my hood open during cool down periods.

All in all I give the LFP kit a 4 out of 5, with only one point taken away because of the A/C relay tap design.

 

So with all that said now I have a couple questions for those who've installed the kit before.

How did you get the supplied tap to work with the A/C relay? First of all it was a very snug fit to get the relay back in with all the extra thickness. The relay didn't want to seat fully. Then the tapped wire bulged out the box on the side and top. After I started it up the fan automatically kicked on without the switch or A/C being on and coolant being cold. I then noticed an electrical humming coming from my fuse box and felt that the A/C relay was already hot just from a couple minutes of the fan being on. I shut the engine off, pulled the relay and found this:

The post that the tap was on was pushed up into the relay and wasn't making a good connection. I tried pulling the post back out but in the end had to get a new one from the dealership ($10 ea). I then had to fix the female end of the relay post because it was opened too much from all the extra bulk being forced into it. That's when I ended up just splicing from underneath.
Maybe I was just having trouble with mine but how did you other guys get yours in there?

Also what temp is the fan supposed to kick in? I noticed on my Predator that it's in the upper 180's with temps getting into the 190's just from around town driving.

 

I did basically what you did on LFP e-fan. The "clipped wire lead" from the loom was a snug fit on the relay, but the relay seemed to go back in ok. The wire lead going into the fuse box hasn't got any extra length to it and I "notched" the fuse box to accomodate the wire going in. Seems to work fine and I installed mine in about November of last year. Not sure what temp it kicks on, but standard temp gauge looks about the same.

 

I had the same problem with the power leg on the A/C relay! What I did was to open the relay, (remove the box covering the relay) drilled a hole through the cover for the wire, and then pushed the leg that had moved, back to its original position. Solder the wire to that leg, re-installed the cover to the relay, inserted the relay in to the socket, problem fixed!

Usually (I have not found any other) the turn on switch (Block plug) is set to 180/f. I went one step further and installed a 170 thermostat, so what happens is the thermo opens at 170, fluid moves, if you are moving fluid cools below 180 and the electric fan never goes to the “on” mode. If you are stopped the fan will kick on!

One problem however, the fan runs when you activate the AC, and here in Texas is “ON” all the time. What I’m looking for now is something that detects movement, so let’s say if you go above 30 mph, the Fan shuts off!! Ac on or not!!

 

As "OLDFRMTRK" noted, thats one change I'd like to see also; a way to shut the fan off while your A/C is on, at some "safe" engine temp. When it's "hot" out - above 85 or so - and you're cruisng at 50 -60mph, that A/C can be pretty comforting - but at that speed, we don't need the fan running to cool the engine. Maybe some type of a "sensor" that detects airflow could be mounted after the radiator that at some determined airflow point (relative to vehicle speed), would shut the fan off, regardless of the A/C being used or not. There were times I thought about wiring the e-fan so I could activate it or shut off any time I wanted, but I'm sure I'd forget to activate it when I needed to.

 

Since I had my old messed up relay handy I decided to take it apart to see what you soldered it to.

After looking at it, that wasn't a bad idea. I have a question though...why did you go thru all that work to go thru the relay when you could have just soldered directly to the wire from underneath the fuse box?

As far as turning the fan off past 30mph I'm not sure how you would tap into it on your own but, I think if you had something like the Dynojet Wideband commander where you could set parameters for an accessory to come on and off then you might be able to do it. I would still think you would want it to assist the flow of air once the engine is past a certain temperature though. Good luck with that though and thanks for the reply

 

Anyone else?

Also just curious how you guys installed your relays since there wasnt much room between the starter solenoid and main harness? Any pics?

 

~nightcrawler~ the reason I went through the relay was for warrantee purposes, I could remove the solenoid and replace it without any body known about it.. I installed it about 3 years ago, it was my second Mod, first was FVTB. In the one or two days of winter, here in southeast Texas! The “only” days that I do not run the AC. My fan will never come on when I’m moving past twenty mph.
Two days after I got the Lightning (2001) I have been running with a Car Chip. Records all kind of data every 5 seconds. When I left it at the dealer (I could print out how hard she was driven, how hard she was stopped “everything”) How many miles was added to it. How many minutes and hours she was on!!! This is why I can tell when the fan is on, the voltage drops. In addition I always monitor the engine temperature; it never goes past 176/F. Even at 105 (as long as I’m moving) However after the second month I added “Water Wetter” to both reservoirs…

One final opinion, When the vehicle is moving and the fan is running (say past 50 mph) the fan will hamper airflow “will not Assist it” at whatever engine temperature!!!! The reason I say this is because when I’m traveling with the AC on, the voltage will increase (Data logs from the car chip) the Air Flow is actually pushing the fan relieving force from the fan motor (so the fan is actually dragging) This is the reason Propeller air craft feather a dead engine.

 

that is one thing i like about the controller i bought. i used the mad controller, and it has a temp sensor on the condenser, so it only kicks the fan on for a/c when the condenser does not get enough airflow (read: sitting in traffic on a hot 100*F day in TX)

 

Hey “Brain Bypass” can you please provide any info (such as a web page) on the Controller, what kind of $$ ?? Thanks……. (Excuse me ~nightcrawler~ for high-jacking this thread!)

 

Not a problem...actually here you go:

http://www.madenterprise.com/fan_control.htm

 

Sweet! so do you see a difference in power or gas mileage?