This thread is to explain how I did my eFan upgrade and to share my experience with the rest of you. This was all completed on a 2004 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 3.7L V6.

Tools Needed:

1. Large Wrench ($11 from harbor freight)to remove the clutch fan nut behind the fan)
2. Vise Grips/C clamp ($2-3 from harbor freight, but I already had these. To help hold the water pump pulley in place)
3. Sockets with mild extensions (You should already have these! For reaching some of the hard to reach bolts)
4. Wrench Set (You'll mostly use the 10mm wrench and ratchet wrenches are helpful. You can get a set for $10 from Target)
5. Saw of some kind to cut the plastic and the metal mounting brackets (I chose to use a dremel with cutting discs on it. I also chose to use the flex hose attachment to aid in reaching into nooks to cut with it)
6. Drill (to drill your holes into the eFan assembly to bolt your mounting brackets to).
7. Wire stripper/crimper
8. Rubber Mallet (to hit the large wrench if necessary, but it wasn't necessary for me)

Materials Needed:

1. Haynes manual is always nice for reference! It isn't necessary if you just use what is described here.
2. Wiring/connectors/electrical tape/wire loom/zip ties/etc (Mostly butt connectors for all powering current lines, but you'll use a quick splice to tap into the positive of the stock efan pig tail as the remote wire to tell the controller when the a/c is on)
3. Taurus eFan ($40. I chose to use this. From a 3.8L Ford Taurus)
4. eFan controller (way of automatically controlling when the fan turns on. Or you can just use a switch, but this is not as good of an idea because: you can forget to switch it on, and I've read that it isn't good for the electrical system in the long run to keep getting hit with the large spike in electrical consumption. I chose the fk50p from www.dccontrol.com. Unfortunately mine took 2+ months to arrive and apparently this is common practice for the electrical engineer who makes/sells them. DCControl also offers a budget 2 speed fan controller that would still be better than most options.)

Time to complete: 8 hours for a noob such as myself. For most, it'll probably be closer to 6 hours. I spent a LOT of time working out the details of fitment and making my decisions on mounting. Also, I wasted an hour trying to get the annoying lower shroud bolted back in. Further, I spent some of that time on general maintenance of the engine bay.

Periodically check to make sure each of your wiring steps are functional. Obviously, check to make sure your fan works at all by briefly connecting it directly to the battery with wires. For example, after you hook up the a/c indicator remote wire, turn your key on so that the a/c comes on - The fan should turn on with the a/c "snowflake" button engaged. You just want to make sure you catch any mistakes as soon as possible.

Before you can even begin to put anything in, you've got to figure out how to get things (such as shroud and clutch fan) out of the way. Go ahead and unhook your negative battery terminal now.

Start by investigating where the two bolts are that hold the fan shroud assembly in. Not sure of the year when it started, but a lot of the 2nd gen dakotas have the shroud that is 3 pieces: coolant/washer fluid reservoir, upper, and lower shrouds. The Upper shroud is bolted to the reservoirs and they can both be taken out together.
Steps to remove the upper shroud assembly (both pieces at once):

1. Unscrew both bolts (10mm) on either side of the shroud. One is near the horn and battery tray

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1. and the other is underneath the sensors on the passenger side of the truck. 2010-12-21165233.jpg

1. I found it benefical to unbolt the horn (in the way) and hood latch (kept stabbing me in the stomach while leaning over). 2010-12-23142118.jpg

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1. You can either choose to loosen the clutch fan before or after removing the shroud. I loosened it before per the instructions from the haynes manual, but later realized it didn't matter for our purposes. It doesn't matter if it falls onto the lower shroud. You'll probably never be using the clutch fan again (not that it got damaged by falling the few inches onto plastic).
2. You'll need to unplug the two sensors on the passenger side of the reservoir. On mine, gray was on the right and black was on the left.
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1. Have a plan for plugging up the washer fluid nipple before you pull that hose off (in the picture). I used pieces of a plastic bag and a tiny ziptie, but it wasn't perfect. You can always lean your shroud with that end upwards later, but you just want to minimize the squirting in your engine bay as you pull the hose and the shroud out.
2. The last thing (or first thing. Order really doesn't matter) is to pull off the skinny black overflow hose that comes from your pressure cap on your upper radiator hose and to your overflow reservoir. Unplugging it from the filler cap/pressure cap is the easiest end to get to. I also chose to unclamp and push aside the upper radiator hose from my radiator to help move it out of the way for the removal process. There shouldn't be much fluid in this hose since your engine is cold (I hope).
3. Go ahead and pull that entire upper shroud assembly out and set it aside.

Steps to loosen/remove fan clutch:

1. You can either do this before or after you remove the upper shroud, but you won't be able to take it out until you take the shroud out.
2. Before you can unscrew the clutch fan nut, you need to find a way to get the water pump pulley to stay still without spinning. A LOT of people on here were suggesting to just wedge a C clamp on the water pump pulley and wedge it on one of the bolts, but I personally couldn't get this to work and actually got the C clamp stuck behind the pulley for a bit. I chose to go with some big vice grips like you see below. It also helps if you leave your belt on this whole time to help provide resistance. There are special tools to aid in this process, but I wanted to take a whack at it first.
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5. 
   You are going to slip your large wrench on from above and rotate it towards the passenger side (normal right-handed threads) I ended up not needing the rubber mallet that I had prepared. I was able to turn it with minimal banging with my palm while also holding the vice grips steady. Some people have not been so lucky.
6. Once I got it loosened, it was easy enough to finish unscrewing it until it came off.
7. Remove it now and set it aside (the manual says to store it with the fins facing downward), if you chose to wait until you got the shroud off. If you still have your shroud on, just let it set on the lower shroud while you take out the upper shroud.
8. Take the vise grips or C clamp off and set it aside.

Removing the lower shroud:

1. In order to unplug the stock efan, it is necessary to take out the lower fan shroud. It is a pain in the @$$. The lower fan shroud has 2 bolts (10mm) holding it in place (one on the left and one on the right). The one on the drivers side is easy enough to get to, but the one on the passenger side is hiding under the transmission cooler lines. You'll need a mild extension to comfortably reach both of these.
2. Once you have both of the bolts taken out, the only thing keeping that shroud in there is its tight fit. You'll have to bend and twist and pull to get it out. Just make sure you don't let it gouge your radiator fins. You may want to unbolt the efan to help with maneuvering room and just let it rest while you attempt to get the shroud out.

Removing the stock eFan:

1. There are 3 bolts (10mm also) that hold the stock efan in there. All 3 are in plain site. Two on the drivers side and one on the passenger side. Make note of these mounting points as I used the very same ones to mount the taurus eFan.
2. You may notice that the diagonal support for the cross bar is directly in the way of one of the bolts on the drivers side. If you can't get around it like I was also unable to do, unbolt it and bend it out of the way. Don't worry! it'll easily bend and bolt back into place.
3. Make sure you unplug the cord before you go pulling that thing out. The plug was previously hidden below the lower fan shroud. I tried getting to it from below, but it was an even bigger Pain in the @$$ to get that darn splash guard off down there to get to it. It's best to get the lower shroud out anyways because I needed to make some cuts on it anyway.

Wiring - A note and a brief rant:
Now that you have everything out, you can begin your wiring process. For my wiring needs, I chose to go with www.dccontrol.com 's fk50p fan controller ($145). It comes highly suggested for it's quality and performance. Unfortunately, it was invented and is currently sold and produced by what appears to be one guy. He doesn't respond to emails about order completion, doesn't give updates, NADA. After reading through some classic muscle car forums he is a member of, I discovered that this is common practice. He is apparently a genius for electrical engineering, but not so much at salesmanship when it concerns advertising or bringing in customers. With his word of mouth reputation, I suppose that he doesn't need to. It took me 2+ months to receive mine. Would I do the same if given a choice? Probably, but that is because I have been busy working anyways and didn't mind the wait too much. UPDATE 8/7/11: I have had an issue with my ground terminal post getting a little stripped and I sent him an email about it. He called me within 2 hours of me sending that email. He says that he always addresses technical support issues, but just doesn't have the time or inclination to constantly update people on the status of their orders. So he is sending me a fix in the mail at no charge and was very polite and professional on the phone. Pros: Great quality solid product with very clear installation instructions (also viewable on the site). Also provides all of the hardware necessary for installation and even does some of the crimping for you.. Cons: extreme length of time to receive product when his site still says 10 day lead time, and could have used a bit more wire included in the kit. The kit didn't come with any kind of a fuse. So currently I do not have a fuse between my controller and battery. I realize that if the fuse pops, my fan won't turn on and I'll run hot. I'm pretty sure I would rather that than start a fire with a possible short or damage the $150 controller. So I'll be adding a high capacity inline fuse in the near future most likely.
Essentially the wiring steps consist of:

1. I chose to mount the controller below my air intake filter (where the stock air intake filter box would normally be. It seemed like the ideal location for a flat mounting surface). I'll just need to keep an eye on it's moisture vulnerability. I may look into a way to help waterproof the connections in the future.
2. Connect the positive high output wire of the fan to the output terminal of the controller.
3. Connect the negative wire to the ground terminal of the controller.
4. Connect the positive wire of your stock eFan wiring loom (left in the truck since you unplugged and removed the fan) to the blue remote wire that tells the controller to turn on 50% due to the a/c being on. I used one of my quick splices to tap into the positive wire of the stock efan wiring. Afterwards, tape it all up to prevent any shifting and to protect it from contamination.
5. Insert the temperature probe into your radiator (I'm pretty sure I followed the instructions for location for what I think is our cross flow radiator <-- please correct me if I'm wrong) in the top drivers side near the upper radiator inlet. Plug this wire into the controller.
6. Connect the ground wire for the controller at the same ground terminal as above to the negative terminal of your battery.
7. Connect the positive wire for the controller to the positive terminal of your battery and plug it into the input terminal of the controller.
8. Routing of the wires: I chose to use the same path as the other wire loom that was already down there below the lower fan shroud.

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1. Once you have all of your wires cut and connected and routed, go ahead and clean it all up by adding extra wrapping to any connections and putting it all in some wire loom to help keep it all safe. Since My engine bay is working its way towards a red theme, I use red electrical tape and wire loom for everything.
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That's it for wiring for now unless you chose to also purchase his LED indicator light that lights up different colors based on the status of the fan. I haven't installed it yet, but when I do, I'll update this thread to include it as well.

Mounting the eFan:

1. I chose to center it on the engine the best I could. So that meant putting it all the way to the passenger side of the radiator
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1. which left a bit of a gap on the drivers side of the radiator. 2010-12-23192556.jpg

1. The only pieces of the taurus eFan shroud assembly dealy that needed to be cut off were the top corners (the whole thing is rectangular shaped) where it would be in the way of the diagonal support bars for the cross bar that the radiator is bolted to. You'll have to eyeball this to figure out how much to cut off, but it wasn't a lot (maybe 3 inches in both directions from each corner.
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1. As for mounting positions, as with most projects I encounter, I try to utilize factory mounting locations as much as possible (mostly because I don't have a welder and suck at extensive fabrications. I'm learning!). Therefore, I just used the same 3 mounting points and bolts as the stock eFan. It came out very sturdy.
2. For the brackets, I used a $5 steel strip from home depot with holes already drilled in it at periodic distances. It is thicker than the stuff that you hang garage door openers with.
3. I didn't feel like drilling new holes in the brackets, so I utilized the already existing holes.
4. Bend the brackets into the shapes that you need (very minor bending here). Just make sure they position of the fan ends up being just off of the radiator. You don't want it rubbing all over the fins, but leave a small gap. Driver's side: 2010-12-23192556.jpg

1. Passenger side that required a bit more bending: 2010-12-23192510.jpg

1. I then used the brackets and holes to figure out where I wanted to drill the holes in the efan assembly. I temporarily had the shroud hanging from a bracket from above fastened to one of the bolts that go into the crossbar for the diagonal supports.
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1. You won't be able to leave that vertical bracket there above the fan because it'll be in the way of the stock reservoir when you go to put it back in. You could keep if if you planned on switching to aftermarket containers for your washer fluid and coolant reservoir. However, I have planned to keep my truck as close to stock as is tasteful while still fulfilling my needs for customization (it's a fine line for me lol)
2. The 3 side brackets are more than enough to hold it in there once you get bolts through them. Mine is super sturdy with just those 3 so the 4th vertical one isn't really necessary in my opinion.
3. You're all mounted!

Time to start putting things back together to finish up

Making adjustments (cutting some off) to the lower shroud before putting it back in:

1. Some of the cuts on the lower shroud are optional and some are required.
2. You have to cut a slot in the bottom corner or just bottom of the shroud where it meets the radiator for the fan wiring to fit through.
3. You also have to cut the slot, where one of the stock eFan mounting arms on the drivers side was going through, bigger in the lower shroud in order for your new mounting bracket to fit through.
4. I chose to cut a small arc off the low center of the shroud to help it slip past the crankshaft when putting it back in. I also trimmed about an inch off of both of the ends that reach up the sides of the radiator to aid in the reinsertion process.
5. For me, getting the lower shroud back in was the biggest headache. Mostly because the 2 bolts really didn't want to grab and screw back in (acting like they were stripped), but with some serious convincing and a wasted trip to the parts store for replacement bolts, I managed to finally get them screwed in.

At this point, you can just put everything back in the way you found it:

1. Put the upper fan shroud assembly back in
2. Bolt it in
3. plug in the two sensors on the passenger side
4. plug in the windshield washer fluid hose on the passenger side
5. plug the skinny black hose back into the filler clap neck on the upper radiator hose
6. clamp the upper radiator hose back onto the upper radiator inlet
7. Firmly attach the positive and negative terminals of your battery.

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Now you need to make sure the temperature setting of the controller is appropriate:

1. Go ahead and start your truck and let it start warming up.
2. Use this time to start cleaning up (for me it was after dark and I was cleaning up around the parking space of my truck in the parking lot with a flashlight)
3. Keeping checking on the temperature gauge in your truck and compare it to whether the fan is actually spinning yet or not. Side note: I hope you feel free to test the fan before and periodically to make sure all of your wiring is correct (it would suck to find out it wasn't working correctly after you had everything put back together).
4. Once the truck is at it's normal operating temperature, your fan should be on. My controller has a gradual start process where it slowly increases the power to the fan as necessary based on its temperature readings. I had to adjust the temperature quite a bit, but this is really a case by case situation.

Concluding thoughts:

I definitely think all of this was worth it. I no longer have to listen to the annoying sound of the clutch fan as I step on the gas (mine was probably shot anyways). I have noticed better throttle response with faster revving. I am now usually getting about 17.5 MPG with mixed driving conditions, but that is after everything else that I have done. I used to get 15 MPG. I spent $40 on the fan from a salvage yard/parts recycler and $145 on the controller from www.dccontrol.com . Those were my main expenses. I feel it was worth it. I'm very happy with it.

If you have any questions or comments or suggestions (let me know if I forgot anything or am incorrect!), please share them with the rest of us!

Hope you enjoyed the read and I hope it helped provide some perspective to some of you considering this feat on your own. It's totally do-able!

 

Nice write up. I will post in the DIY and the FAQ.

 

Thanks!

 

What he said.

 

Im puttin mine off till summer who needs one in the winter anyway lol.

 

Here in FL I prefer working in the 40-60 degree winters than the 100+ degree summers

However, if your clutch on your clutch fan is shot like mine was, the constant roaring get's annoying.

 

Yeah well our summers dont get much hotter than 80 but our winters get cold last year we saw as low as -10F Im just going to take mine off since its winter.

 

Is this the 2 speed fan from the Taurus? Do you by chance know the CFM's of that fan?

I have searched and I could't find a reliable source. All I find are tons of forum posts stating Low is 2,500CFM High 4,5000CFM. Which is impossible for the high on a single unit, $300 Dual units reach that. So I was just looking for a creditable source.

 

It is the 2 speed. I only have it wired to the high speed circuit. I also never found a reliable cfm rating- just testimonials of its effectiveness on beastie v8s.

 

I looked up the part number for the taurus fan, and the parts websites are saying 2500 cfm on low and 3800 cfm on high. That is a good amount of air being moved by a single fan!