My fan is always spinning from the moment I start the engine cold. I don't know about that free-wheeling theory.... if the fan is disengaged why would it continue to spin forever? I too am interested in this electric fan mod. Oh and "Air Ram" I agree with you when you say that this mod will free up horsepower but not that much. - Reason: Am I correct in assumming that you did not dyno your truck with the electric fans working? You said you simply removed the fan/clutch assembly. Now we know that the electric fans rob some hp when working so your 199whp would go down, o I'm not sure a few hp?

P.S. - you can buy a Electric water pump drive kit for around $70 and it basically turns your stock mechanical water pump into an electrical one. Though you would need to get a different sized belt.

 

An electric fan does not take away any HP. It frees up 8 HP on a HEMI at the wheels. The stock fan on the engine is always engaged, the clutch is there to reduce spin up speed on the engine crank and to keep it spinning at a more consistent speed and not to "engage" the fan. Its an old design and is cheap. Switch to an electric and your engine will run cooler but not enough to throw codes at you unless you are in Alaska.

 

I meant to say that electric fans drain power when they are working just like any fan. They put more load on the alternator which makes it harder for the engine to work. Understand that it drains little power, I am not saying that it doesn't free up hp just comparing it with no fan at all. Sure replacing our fan with an electric one will fre up 5 - 10 hp. The electric fan drains a lot less power than the stock one this is why you free up hp when you change to an electric fan.

 

AIRRAM
I did exactly the same conversion you did and agree with the numbers, I got 1mpg over average milage with mine, definately worth it. A variable speed DC controller , see below, did the trick, it almost never runs more than 20% speed, quiet and efficient.

http://www.dccontrol.com/