Yes, it's true and possible, better yet, it involves actual Chrysler part!

Parts needed:
1. Electric fan from a 99-04 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a V8 engine.
2. Your stock shroud. I kept it due to tank holders and great coverage.
3. Imperial Thermostatic Fan Control #226204.
4. 4x 5/16" nuts & bolts, basic tools, common sense and creativity.

I chose the Chrysler fan due to it's perfect size and ability to cool off a V8 pretty fast. It draws about 37amps of juice, but hey, it cools very quickly and i dont care about the current draw, i run HIDs and heater and no issues. I'm very sure my A/C will be a lot cooler at idle with this fan due to it's power and flow of air.

If you DO have such issues, first replace your worn battery, check your alternator and clean up your Positive and Negative connections.

So, let's begin.
Take off your stock fan off by putting on a adjusting wrench on the nut, grab a 12" 2x4 and a medium hammer or mullet and start banging on the wrench to the LEFT (fan unbolts to the LEFT).

Then, take off the left and right tanks off of the shroud, take off 4 bolts that hold the shroud, remove shroud.

Take a look at the photos how i placed the fan in the shroud (wires from fan go towards engine).

I bolted the fan from the inside of the shroud using 5/16' short bolts and made a L shaped bracket out of aluminum for the 3rd mounting bolt of the fan. Take a look at the photos and you'll get the idea.

So after drilling and bolting on the fan to the shroud, take your time to put it back into the vehicle, make sure to keep your eyes on the water pump thread, it's gonna be grabbing onto the fan during installation. The fan will be at least 3/4" away from the water pump so don't panic, the engine moves LEFT-TO-RIGHT only. There will not be any contact between the fan and the engine if you install the fan inside the stock shroud.

Once you get the shroud in and bolted back on, go ahead and cut off the plug off of the fan and start making connections from the fan controller to the fan and battery.

Before you wire the fan to anything, take 2 wires and splice them to the fan and connect the fan to the battery directly and check which way is the fan rotating, It must blow towards engine! Failure to do so will overheat your engine!!!

Make sure you put a solid at least 12 AWG wire from the fan Negative to the Battery's Ground. Ground is more important than food, so get it right the first time!

Then cut off the fuse holder from the fan control unit and splice on female plugs that will fit onto a MEGAFUSE of 40A with slightly trimmed fuse terminals. Unless you can get your hands on a 40A regular fuse..

After you follow the instructions on how to install the probe into the fins (best probe location is 2" down & 2" left of the upper hose) TOP-RIGHT of radiator, opposite of the fill plug.
Make sure you DO NOT let the probe stick beyond the radiator fins or it will misread the temp while driving.

The fan controller is factory preset at 160*, so to set it higher, turn the adjuster clockwise slightly. I used a scanner to read my ECT temp and adjusted my unit to that and not the cluster gauge, but if you dont have a scanner, then turn the adjuster all the way clockwise very gently until it stops, start your engine, and watch your inside temp gauge and if you have 195* stat, then when the needle is about to hit the middle, go to the fan controller and turn the adjuster counter clockwise (LEFT) slowly until the fan turns on. Thats gonna be your kick-on temp and the fan controller turns off 10* below set temp. So if you set it to turn on at 200, it will turn off at 190.

So, keep your stock shroud, it works very good with the jeep fan and you dont have to relocate your tanks!

I got my fan from Harry's u-pull it junk yard for $18 and the fan controller for $40 at Advance Auto, so this setup cost me $60 and 30min of fun time.

I did research the forums about this and found fans for ridiculous prices and kits that i would never invest in such an old dodge, so do this setup and you wont have to worry about fans dying on you because you'll be using a OEM Chrysler fan. So check out eBay for the fan and get to work!

Wish i could post better HiRes photos, but the forum has it's limits..
Anything i missed or didn't add or if you have a issue with this, just PM me.

 

Hey, good job on the write up. Lots of questions here about e fans. I paid the ridiculous price for mine, but I liked the idea of a programmable controller and a cleaner engine bay (lots of open space). But I know others are sometimes looking for a less expensive alternative.

 

that's why i made this because many saw and got depressed by the prices. This is simple, it works great, i tested it hard and it's cheap. I'm not trying in any way to take over any kind of businesses that sell those kits, i just give out more options for less money that actually work.

I know what you mean about 'shroud' space, that thing takes up whole 12.5" from radiator to water pump, but with many other shrouds, this radiator just doesnt work 100%. I prefer smaller too, but when it comes to hauling heavy cargo, you def want 100% of cooling power..

 

Very Nice, This may be my next project.
What would be the differance mounting the fan to the shoud and mounting it to the radiator ?

 

I bought a fan kit of eBay for about $80 its dual fan takes a bit more time to setup but hey it works perfect temp controllable on and off and they draw around 20 amps full power.

 

that is a pretty nice DIY. how do you know they pull 37 amp? only reason i ask is i hooked my Mopar dual electric fans up to a amp gauge a couple of weeks ago and the gauge was telling me it they only pulled 20 amps when running with a quick spike at startup.

i also though i would point out that rockauto offers a couple hayden brand controller for about $10 cheaper than places like summit or jegs. they hide under the name Radiator Fan Relay in the Electrical-Switch & Relay section of pretty much any vehicle you look up on rockauto. the hayden ones they have vary in price from $13-$31 plus shipping which is pretty cheap depending where you live.

 

If you mount the fan onto the radiator, then you cancel out half the vacuum created by the fan when using the shroud. The shroud is big, but it pulls all the air through the whole radiator and like i mentioned above, stock shroud has 100% coverage and it was designed by engineers to be very efficient.

As for the current draw test, i used a Klein CL2000 clamp meter and it showed 37A of pure power.

So, trust some eBay kit or trust a OEM Chrysler fan, your choice on the road.

 

good to know. i want to get one of those fancy clamp meters but just can't justify the cost.

i would also not trust those Chinese fans on ebay that much which is why i went for mopar dual electric fans. just too bad they wont fit the smaller rads on the 2nd gen trucks. i know most junkyard only ask about $25-$40 for them.

 

The "ebay" kit uses ProComp fans. and your option would not work for someone who plows with an electric over hydro setup, it also uses Derale Performance parts for temperature controlled fans. (Derale stuff is used in Grave Digger). So Despite your 27 Amps of pure OEM power there are other options.

 

i am now kind of lost. not really sure what you are talking about. i don't understand why the jeep recall fan would not work if you had a plow.