bike-maker
Full Access Member
Last summer, on a trip back from the coast with a car hauler and a 84 F250 IDI in tow, my fan clutch bit the dust. Was still able to keep my speed up on the hills, but she was definitely building heat in a hurry (luckily the hills weren't very big).
So usually when anything goes lips up on my truck, I take the opportunity to upgrade - and I'm also cheap. So the decision to try out an electric fan conversion was made. $35 at the local pick n' pull, and I had my new fans.
I've seen quite a few people use these fans; the 2 mounting variations I've seen were just bolting the fans up to the radiator as is, or grafting them into the stock fan shroud. I figured it would work best to just make a new fan shroud specifically for the fans. So I priced out aluminum sheet ($$$), then some galvanized sheet metal ($$), then went on the hunt through the scrap metal yard. Then I was digging through this big steel cabinet in my garage where I store my power tools and....the big steel cabinet no longer has a back on it.
So this afternoon I got the sheet metal cut, bent, and welded; the sheetmetal I robbed turned out to be 23 gauge.
My question for everyone is, how should I situate the fans?
I'm going to butcher the Windstar shroud so that it bolts to the flat sheet metal
I figure the bigger of the 2 fans should be closest to the upper radiator hose, so should I just mount both of the fans straight across from each other like this...
Or angle the little one down towards the bottom of the radiator as I've seen on some of the aftermarket electric shroud setups like this...
Either way, I figure I'll go ahead and run them into the summer, and if I run into any issues with cooling at highway speeds, I'll add holes and some rubber flaps to let the wind blow through it better.
So usually when anything goes lips up on my truck, I take the opportunity to upgrade - and I'm also cheap. So the decision to try out an electric fan conversion was made. $35 at the local pick n' pull, and I had my new fans.
I've seen quite a few people use these fans; the 2 mounting variations I've seen were just bolting the fans up to the radiator as is, or grafting them into the stock fan shroud. I figured it would work best to just make a new fan shroud specifically for the fans. So I priced out aluminum sheet ($$$), then some galvanized sheet metal ($$), then went on the hunt through the scrap metal yard. Then I was digging through this big steel cabinet in my garage where I store my power tools and....the big steel cabinet no longer has a back on it.
So this afternoon I got the sheet metal cut, bent, and welded; the sheetmetal I robbed turned out to be 23 gauge.
You must be registered for see images attach
My question for everyone is, how should I situate the fans?
I'm going to butcher the Windstar shroud so that it bolts to the flat sheet metal
I figure the bigger of the 2 fans should be closest to the upper radiator hose, so should I just mount both of the fans straight across from each other like this...
You must be registered for see images attach
Or angle the little one down towards the bottom of the radiator as I've seen on some of the aftermarket electric shroud setups like this...
You must be registered for see images attach
Either way, I figure I'll go ahead and run them into the summer, and if I run into any issues with cooling at highway speeds, I'll add holes and some rubber flaps to let the wind blow through it better.