Noticed my fan clutch was wobbling where the clutch joins the mounting shaft. Rather than spend money for a new fan clutch, I went to a friend's garage and chose the best e-fan arrangement he had lying around. The Corvette arrangement was too much of a misfit, but the LT1 Camaro duals were nearly a perfect fit. Twin multi speed fans that have proven good enough to keep some real powerful engines running cool in one of the most cramped and poorly ventilated engine Bays known. I have set mine to run at maximum full time, since I run AC 97% of the time anyway, which would kick any fan control system to maximum automatically.

Impressions? Despite my doubts, there is more power, better fuel economy, and less noise. Everything is much easier to see and reach as well. There does seen to be less Underwood cooking going on as well. That might have a lot to do with the fact that most of the radiator exhaust air is now directed back at and under the engine, rather than just being blown around radially by the unshielded portion of the mechanical fan.

Where the front of the radiator is concerned, there is definitely more grabbing power than there was before. Ingress of air felt weak at idle with the Mech fan. Now it's like a vacuum. Great thing about the Camaro arrangement is that the lead fan is on the passenger side, placed higher up, where it maximizes airflow through the transmission cooler, as well as the hottest part of the AC condenser. Voltage at idle has not changed one bit. Alternator doesn't know the fans are there.

Uploading pics now.

 

 

Nice! What did you do about a power source, temperature controls and wiring?

 

In order to live with as little mystery as possible, I used the OEM Omron fan relays from the Camaro, hooked through a Delphi OEM fan switch. Comes on at 210, off at 200. I am back to a 195 thermostat, so that is fine. Fans don't fight the thermostat. But that's only if I am not running AC. If I am, it's full blast all the time. It all worked OK together from the factory, so it all works ok now. I have included an override switch to turn them on whenever I want, and an indicator light to let me know if they are on.

PWM controller is in the works for the future, which would give full progressive fan speed control based on temperature.

Excuse any grammatical errors. My smartphone thinks it knows what I am saying better than I do.

 

I can assure you the alternator does know the fan is there, especially if it is running on high all the time. Turn on your lights and fan blower motor and your alternator is having to make 60+ amps at idle. It cannot do this for long, it might take a while, but battery voltage will drop.

Every 25 amps produced by the alternator takes 1 engine hp, and if yours is running full blast, even at freeway speeds, you are nullifying some highway MPG gains that you are already claiming.

With my setup I can flip my battery switch from charging 1 nearly full battery at ~12 amps, or 3 batteries at 25+ amps. The engine note instantly changes, and it does not rev as quickly or easily with the extra load. It is very obvious in the gas pedal whether I am charging one nearly full battery, or that battery and two depleted deep cycle batteries, especially when cold.

Alternator amps are not free.

When my fan clutch fails, I'll purchase another.

 

I thought we had both been on here long enough that statements would not be taken too literally. But I am game for some good technical discussion.

First of all, last night I not only had the AC and lights on full blast; I had the rear AC unit going too. In idle with the transmission in drive, with the wheel cranked to the left for 10 minutes at the drive thru, I did not see voltage drop. So while my alternator knows the fans are there, of course, it is not having a problem compensating. Further than that, the current ring reveals positive charge under these conditions, and not discharge anyway.

Regardless of how you slice it, ultimately it takes a while lot less power to soon 2 small lightweight plastic fans at a constant speed, within a defined and specific window of efficiency, than to constantly accelerate and decelerate several pounds of wide steel and aluminum, operating well outside of it's most efficient rpm. Not to mention that there is no provision to cut the fan completely dead in overdrive, as I have added to mine.

So, to sum it up, power is not free, but reducing it's use through more efficient application and conservation certainly means less power is needed than previously.

Both systems have their pros and cons, and to each their own, and this was about the one I made.

 

Congratulations on your e-fan! I think you'll be pleased with this upgrade.

A mechanical fan wastes as much as 35 hp so pretty much any electrical fan will be far more efficient. I have my Syclone fan wired essentially the same as yours. On when radiator temp hits 210F and "always on" with the A/C. Mine runs even after shutting the engine off and I discovered that this helps a great deal with hot soak issues. My underhood temp used to hit 300F during a hot soak and I have measured my doghouse temp at 275F. Allowing the fan to run until the engine cools down significantly lowered these temperatures. I am hoping this will translate into improved underhood wiring, hose and belt life.

The additional amperage draw is worth calculating and keeping an eye on. My Syclone only draws 18 amps and some OEM fans can draw 3x that much. I work nights and if I drive only at night with the A/C on for a week my 136 amp alternator is not able keep my battery fully charged. I have a marine/RV battery which can take a little more abuse but a normal starting battery will be damaged quickly if it is run down to a 70% charge on a regular basis.

 

I was going to suggest installing a relay to do this. I'm glad to see that great minds think alike!

 

Hey man, I didn't mean to imply a snarky tone, It's all good. There is just no way my Alternator could keep up with that. I have a digital Ammeter that shows me just how pathetic my alternator charging system is despite a smaller pulley and much thicker cabling in the circuit. I'm glad Dodge was able to improve on this 14 model years later.

I still wouldn't trust the dashboard Ammeter though. Mine barely moved when starting the engine, and my digital ammeter has shown as high as 146 amps under engine cranking before it catches(always quickly), and there is at least a 2 second delay on such large readings, so I believe the starter is pulling at least 250 amps which should bottom out the Ammeter in the discharge, yet mine only moved perhaps 3 degrees, not 60, before I ripped it out and installed a Tachometer instead.

The AC itself doesn't draw any significant amount of extra electricity, in fact the computer likely ups the engine rpm a few hundred to compensate for the extra load.

When hot my "130 amp" alternator is capable of ~32 amps at 550 engine rpm. At 800 engine rpm this shoots up into the low to mid 50's.

When hot and Idling with my lights and blower motor on high, 10 amps are flowing FROM my batteries, so an E fan pulling another ~25 amps would be unacceptable to me.

I do believe e fans will increase power and MPG, only a fool would argue that they cannot, it's just in my case, battery charging is more of a priority, and a fan clutch is cheap and reliable and very easy to replace on an LA series engine.

I think yours wired to a speed control/ thermistor, and you will see even more benefit, and add life to your alternator, and possibly battery.

 

Just a couple more notes:

First of all, it should be understood that in order to install or remove an e-fan/shroud combination of this size; necessary to completely cover the radiator core, you will need to disconnect the radiator hose. I am currently working with a junkyard radiator and the twin separate e-fans/shrouds from an Acura Legend to see if I can come up with a combination that will require no hose removal at all for installation/removal.

I am also going to be comparing the flow rates of different combinations at the workplace of a friend who works at a facility where they fabricate and test custom ventilation systems for warehouses and such. For the sake of most accurate results, flow rates will be measured through an OEM style radiator, as well as the most common 2-row all-aluminum radiator. If i can find a JY tranny cooler, I will combine it with my old condenser to get a flow rate with various fans/shrouds through the whole package.

I guess my unofficial goal here is to develop a most effective go-to e-fan setup for our vans. Take all of the guesswork out of those converting, if they wish to do so.

Landyacht, my OEM 136 amp seems to do the trick. The OEM voltmeter seems fairly accurate, but it is my multimeter and its current ring that have given me the most information. She's still kickin along great.