Alright, so how do I check this bad boy?

I was always under the impression that with belt driven fans they were always on if the engine is on. I heard some comment though that when its damn cold they actually shouldn't be on because of the clutch.

Well mine is on always, doesn't matter if its -20 F when I first start it or 80 F. This good? Not good?

 

I have had my truck since September of last year. I have opened the hood frequently since to check mods and such. I have never seen the fan running. One of the first things I did was to change the plenum gasket, and, while doing that, change the thermo out to 180*. If your fan runs all the time, then your fan clutch is bad. The stock fan (running all the time) will rob hp big time. Shott did a good write up on home brewed/installed electric fans wich you may want to look at before replacing the fan clutch. His install looks dam clean and yields alot of room in the motor compartment, and pricewise might be real comparable to a new/used thermal clutch.

 

electric fans are deffinatly the way to go, I'd just skip putting in a new clutch and go with the electric fans.

 

them are kind word mopower!!!


socha my clutch was shot.....that thing was soooo stiff it wasnt funny.... even in cold and hot temps the friction between the actuall fan and the cltuh stayed the same ... how i checked it is took it out in the snow and let it get wicked cold and then tried to spin it (should spin very free,,,meaning the fan isnt needed and the clutch is disengaged) then i took it inside and let it sit in front of my 175000 BTU jet heater for about 15 mins and get all sorts of nice and toasty... and then tried to spin it again and there was no change in the friction between the fan and the clutch... very very hard to spin... witch would indicate that the mechanism iniside is seized up and always ingaging the fan... wooooping my MPG and HP's ***

not sure if that was the best way to check its functionality but thats only way i could figure that it was trigard... the ambient air

 

So shes shot!

I looked ebay at those electric fans you put in. You say 2 is overkill, think I could get away with using just one?

I think for the fan and the contol unit it came out to like $55.

So mainly would one do the trick? I live in MI so in the summer it can hit 90 and RARELY 100, not like I'm in Death Vally or anything. I also never tow with it (in a year and half I haven't pulled anything yet)

I dunno if my bat and alt could handle 2 fans since you said it drains them. At any given time in my truck I have Headlights on, Headunit, 2000W amp, cell phone charging, Satalite radio on, CB on, and also quite often at night my 150W a peice KC Daylighters. Adding 2 fans would hurt [&:] But I don;t have any problems right now with all that stuff on. Hmmmmmmm. I have the HO 136 Amp alt too.

 

if you got the 136 like you you can get away with 2 fans... especially if you wire them like im going to... seperate on 2 seperate control switches...

i wont be able to tell if one will do it untill the summer and .. you could get one now and since they are so cheep you could wait and get another one if you need it... my chinsy testing methods using my jet heater to warm up up the rad the single fan still cooled it..but that testing isnt accurate at all...

i dont wanna say one will do it or not... but i do beleive one would do the trick if you shroud the hell out of it...my setup will be wired pretty much as one fan on the drivers (hot inlet side of the rad) will be the primary and the second fan on the passenger side will only come on if needed...i think..still havnt worked outthe details yet

but with this project the REAL TEST wont be till summer on long trips up hills or muddin with little forced air movement and the fans gotta work hard... imgonna get a a 165amp alt and just keep it as back up in the even i smoke my 136....untill i can measure the actual draw and startup and normal running speeds accuratly i wont know if the alt will be able to handle it for a long term situation... waiting on my clamp ammeter to get here so i can test the amp draw on it

 

I'd be interested to know the results that you find out when you get it all hooked up, I'd love to know the draw, because im looking at ditching the factory fan in favor of two electric ones, I do a lot of pulling and the rpms arent always up where they need to be to cool the engine, so I'd be nice to be able to flip a switch and cool the engine

 

your in the same boat as me i alredy have lots of things using power i have a 116amp alt (whitch is odd because i thought they ither came with 90ish or 136 amp but my build sheet says it is 116 amp) me and shott have been trying to find out how much air the stock fan moves with no answer so far im thinking its around 3500cfm but thts just a guess shotts setup is around 5000cfm (2 x 2500cfm) i dont think one of thoe is enuf but i think 2 is a little overkill (dont know for shure) beter to be safe then sorry so im thinking maby ill look for 2 smaller ones so i have around 4000cfm that way thell use less power and i can have it so only 1 at a time kick on so they both dont draw start up power at the same time. check out shotts outher threds we have been talking a fair bit about this there

 

Depending on what kind of driving you do off road electric might not be the way to go. I spent good money putting an electric fan in my Toyota to milk the tiny bit of extra hp I could get. The fan didn't last long, it got soaked and was ruined crossing a river. I was young and dumb back then mind you and spent more time then I should in mud and water. Just food for thought.

 

most import thing to rememeber is if your in water THAT deep on purpose your truck needs to be set up for that deep fording of such... also you need a way to shut the fans off in that situation b/c fans spinning at the spead they do and hit water the blades will just break right off .. more then likley slicing up your soft alum skinned rad...

if your worried about water getting IN to the motor istelf... it would be really really simple to water resist it on your own... when i got them off again next weekend to rewire ill have a look see and see how well they are gasketed or sealed..

ryan i bet ya if you run two 14's instead of dual 16's you can get away with it... easly especially up there in cananda where you wont (shouldnt) see 100deg weather... down here in ny its possible but not probable to see a constant 100+ degrees...