Like I said this should probably be the easiest setup anyone can do and on a simple wallet. The electric fan SHOULD just drop in with no need in reusing the old shroud or removing material from the ford fan shroud. I'll probably cut off some out of the depth just to gain extra clearance.

Mounting it can be easy too! Just drill 4 holes in each corner and use Nylon ties that pull through the radiator.

Apparently, Frenchy can already be testimony that it works. And its been well proven on more than just Mustangs. It's widely used in the 4x4 trail and rock crawling community who generate tons of heat with little natural mph speed and rely soley on electric fans to keep their radiators in check.

For me the benefit to aftermarket electric fans are amp usuage. I come mostly from a Jeep background and know for a fact that Jeep users who have used aftermarket electric fans and switched out to the Ford 2 speed fan I mentioned say this thing completely out performs their old setup on the LOW setting. High for them is on a backup switch which gets used as often as the trunk open button on a Jeep. Which is why I would suggest this setup over any aftermarket setup.

I just want to ensure their aren't alternator drawbacks. If there aren't then for me it's obvious what setup I'd want. If there are amp issues (which is fan startup only) then I'd try an alternative wiring for a "slow start" that doesn't need 100 amps on startups.

If Frenchy had a different setup he would be able to tell us but with only one startup that'd be hard to tell if there are amp drawbacks.

I think I'll try to stop by the Pick n Pull this week (fingers crossed). I'll have to persuade the wife to let me buy myself early Christmas and get the fan controller too so I can go ahead and prove if this works or not.

But I started this post for anyone else to try if they dare. Self wiring would be as difficult as it gets. But anyone interested just do a search on "Taurus fan". There are tons of boards and write up out there. Many have wiring diagrams you can follow. I'd follow any using diodes.

Best of luck.

 

I'm planning on doing this myself soon as I can get my hands on one of the fans and find the time to put it in. My plan was to get a simple thermostat for the low setting and a switch for high or just wire it like frenchy did if I can't find a thermostat easily. The controller is a really neat idea but I'd rather save the cost, money is never in abundance in college

 

Agreed, I just got out of college last summer and I've got a long way to go to work my way to the top. And now I have a wife of 6 mo. that decisions need to be agreed on. And it's too hard to pick spend money on Jeep or Truck. Hence, need for budget items. But if you click on the SPAL link I gave and read the engineering doc on the controller $90 seems worth it. It has LED's if you want to mount in cab and know if it's off, 50% on, or 100% on.

I listed parts & cost in my initial post that are typically used when wiring this fan in (these parts will not be used in my setup) and their total cost comes up to 72 bucks. For the SPAL controller I won't need any additional relays, temp probes, or wiring. Just the fan, SPAL controller, 60 amp inline fuse, and connectors to splice. The engineering doc says it works with most OEM temp sensors and I'm counting on that. If it doesn't then I'll need to buy a SPAL sensor.

 

Almost everything in our trucks runs on the CAN-BUS system, not sure if the temp sensor and gauge runs is included in that or not. If it is the controller probably won't be able to use the OEM sensor information, you may want to look into that some if the cost of the extra sensor is a deciding factor for you.

 

Even so you don't think one could splice into the line right after the temp sensor?

 

Possibly, all I'm saying is if the sensor does use the CAN-BUS protocol to communicate with the computer the SPAL may not recognize it. Although now that I think about it more I don't see any reason why they would do that instead of just having a normal sensor...

 

I was just thinking about your amps draw. My Flex-a-lite fan draws 18 amps. On startup it draws double that which is 36 amps. You say the ford fan draws 100 amps on startup? That seems very high I would check that again.

 

To coondog05 I am interested in your relay. Do you think it would work with the flex-a-lite fan and where can I get one?

 

Cutting the flange of the stock fan
to make it a two-part unit
that could be taken on or off in about
5 minutes might be more worthwhile
than gettting deep into the electrical engineering
of junkyard fans.

You don't need a fan above 40 mph, even at 80 degrees air temperature.

You don't need a fan with air temperatures below 60 degrees.

If you are looking for a real find at the junkyard
try to find the Lexus fan that runs off the power steering fluid.