What are e-fans and how do they help? Where can I find them? How do they work and how much are they? Heard a lot of you guys mention them but I dont know what they are.

 

http://www.troyerperformance.com/cgi...olers%3BEngine

 

That is most of us beign too lazy to type out the full name of Electric Fans.

Pulling off the clutched fan on the front of the motor removes the parasitic loss from the engine.

It will allow the motor to rev much quicker, then turning the 11# clutched fan on the front, as well as allow the motor to heat up quicker in the winter ( fans don't run unless the coolant temp is high enough ) and in the summer do a better job of cooling in traffic, with the fans running at the required RPM independant of the motor RPM. Add to this, one of the fans ( for the Troyer version ) runs when the AC is turned on.

There are a few kits, including the URL above, as well as some have gopne the DIY route.

Hope that helps clean things up, if not let us know.

 

Thanks for your help, Damestic. That pretty much answered everthing

 

From what I have read the flex a lite 270 is the fan for us, not sure who has the best prices, they seem to be around $400.

 

I appreciate this thread. I was considering this route and had no idea an application specific kit for our 150's was available.

The 06 silverado comes with factory electric fans. Looks odd when you open the hood. The left the threads for the fan and the intake tube still has the notch for the factory shroud. This is on a 1500 ext cab 4x4 sb. They come with a class III hitch, so I assume they have the towing package. I can only assume that this is for fuel economy.

It will be a while before I try this. My 06 only has 350 miles on it. It is mainly a weekend driver.

 

i spent 80 bucks on my setup for a shrouded 16" fan and a hayden temperature fan switch... and it works fine in the summer. head just be sure to put it on the hot side of the radiatio which is the passenger side.

 

i spent about $240 for my flex a lite setup and it works great..

Instead of buying the kit i just bough all the pieces of the kit seperatly and it is only like $240.

 

Again, can't say enough for my Flex-a-lite 270's, got them from Detroit Speed Shops for $409. Good price considering I had picked them up in store. All other mail orders have shipping, so it was money saved myself. They kick on with the A/C clutch, which happens frequently, but makes for cold cold A/C. Gas mileage has increased, but I'm still calculating as to how much. They are the way to go! I like both Troyer setup as well as JDM, but I chose these for the same money, again it was easier and cheaper. Or, make your own setup as many do that isn't as efficient, but does the job more than enough for less $$$.

 

I like Bushtree's idea, the most complicated part is the controller, but I guess there's no reason why you couldn't use a commercial ready-made controller with your own fan, I even remember seeing plans for build-it-yourself electronic controllers....

Here's the thing...are we overcomplicating things? Maybe electric fans are more prevalent on Australian models (I just moved back to Canada from there) but I've had electric fans on cars there for the past 20 years, yet my 92 F-150 has a fan clutch thingy...still a slight improvement on belt-driven but I think my 1960 Peugeot 403 had something like that (but it was way ahead of its time)

Anyway, I presume the newer trucks have electric fans, and, chances are, similar if not identical radiators - mine (92 5L v8) has what looks like about a 16 inch fan, if I could get an electric equivalent off a wreck (I know, since most accidents are frontal, fan will probably be toast) and it's a Ford one, the shroud/assembly might almost bolt-on exactly....

I quite like the idea of the thermostats being ones you insert in the fins (as long as there's no corrosion issues) so you don't have to do any drilling of radiators, losing fluid etc...whatever works.

I don't have any idea of cfm or whatever I'd need, maybe you DO need to be that scientific, but I'd assume there'd be a fudge factor once you get your controller right - in the absence of a proper thermometer, maybe you can just aim to duplicate what your temp gauge shows normally (around the 'o' or 'r' in "normal" for me) and go from there? Since an electric fan will deliver full RPMS at the most critical time - sitting still - I imagine it'd be streets ahead of the belt-driven anyway....

Just some thoughts, I'd love to switch over to electric but at those high prices, it'd take a while to break even (although for the HP heads I guess the return's worth it straight away ) and I just have to wonder why Ford waited so long?

Faster150, where did you get your fan?

The Hayden site seems to have everything except where to buy their products....I hate that.

 

check out this site www.jusnesmodified.com they are haveing a group buy on E-Fans untill july the 6th.

 

The best options I've found over the years for a cheap and effective e-fan were just finding one in a JY..that is used for a primary cooling fan. The absolute best one I've seen was on some mid 80's Firebirds that had a 5.0 engine. They didn't have a clutch fan...only a BIG e-fan (16" IIRC, 2 speed, and it flat moves a TON of air). I tried EVERY aftermarket efan that I could think of on my old '83 F100/514" BBF...none moved nearly enough air to keep it cool on the 110+ deg days of Arkansas...in traffic or worse at a drive through sitting behind another car. I put in a Firebird fan..problem solved. Stayed 190 degrees (had a 185 thermostat) constantly. I also bought a controller that screwed into the t-stat housing rather than a cheapie stick on the radiator hose type that usually comes with the aftermarket efans. Does an Efan help? My old Mustang GT (84 model) had a NEW fan clutch on it when I got it. I put in a Taurus efan and controller and instantly went from 18-22 mpg to 28-30...the odometer was correct and I didn't believe it myself until I screwed with timing, carb, and some other things to get 38. BTW, it was a nearly stock 5.0 with a RPM manifold and a 1405 ebrock carb.

 

Thanks Cookiemonster- here's a cookie

That's a pretty impressive mileage improvement, I'd probably be happy with half that!

I don't suppose there'd be any issues with using a temp probe from a multimeter for reading temp and setting an adjustable controller, however, ignoring slightly the literature from the fan sellers, I don't see why you couldn't just note the idle temperature with the conventional fan, and aim for that or a bit cooler with the electric fan... and of course it should cut in whenever the a/c is running although I don't suppose we with clutch fans have that nicety at the moment...

 

Faster 150.
Do you know how many CFM that fan you have is? There are a few 16" fans on ebay with 2750CFM. Just wondering if that we be ample for my 97f150 4.2l

 

Yup, because even the FAL's only run 60% of the maximum, which is around 3300 cfm's, full bieng 5500 cfm's at 100%. Even at 60%, they bring the temp down quick and shut off, usually a few minutes on at a time. So ya, a single 2750 should work. I'm actually going to run about the same for my 650 hp big block and will be ok.