Cooling Fans....

[icanfixall]

Well so far nobody seems to know what cfm our original fan is pulling so I was thinking about the Flex-a-lite modle 294. It has a dual 16 inch setup but... The $605.00 price has me thinking differantly. If two fans are better than 1... Would 4 fans be twice as good as 2 fans??/ Thinking along the lines of intake and exhaust valves more is better than les. Plus having more fans but not needing all of them a person would have some backups just in case. Flex-a-lite sells planty of differant types of fans and the shroud would be easy to make out of aluminum sheets. Just six bends and its make outside of the fan hole cutting. Any router will do that with a fixture. Maybe I need to do some work on this. I'm really not able to heat up my truck yet with the aluminum Rodney Red radiator. I'm thinking a multi fan setup will cool better than what we have now plus... Removing the fan and fan clutch will give us a little more horse power and improved fuel mileage. A new MS fan clutch is costing around $200.00 these days so there would be a savings right there.

 

[Chevyboy_0]

On my chevelle Iam running dual 14" fans made by Hayden. IIRC they flow almost 2600 cfm a piece. They work pretty well on my chevelle, but I also have an oversize Aluminu
radiator and it doesn't get over 170* even on a hot day. But then again I only have a SBC not a diesel in there so I'm not to sure how well it'd do on the 7.3. One upside is that they only cost about 150 for the pair

 

[GenLightening]

I'll be testing my setup this weekend, dual 16" fans pulling about 2400cfm each. I also have 4 cutouts with rubber flaps that should open at highway speeds. So far the fans have been able to keep it cool even with the flaps open (I haven't installed them yet, so there's just 4 big holes in the shroud). And I have adjusted the thermostat down to 190 to see if they would keep things there and they do. But this weekend I'll be hooking the trailer up and do some test drives to see if they will hold up under load. Oh, and I'm running the stock Chevy 4 row radiator, so I'm down about 20+ square inches from the Ford unit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be enough. Otherwise, Rodney Red here I come!

 

[13fcolt]

potentially, the stock fan can pull in the neighborhood of 7500-8000+ cfm.
realistically with the rpm range these trucks usually see, the high number
is more like 7200 cfm being a swag average.

city driving in the summer with the ac running full blast, an electric setup
is worth it to me. 0-35 mph, the electric will trump stock but the "not to
use for towing" warnings do cause me concern.
when i asked about it using the 5500 rpm fans on my truck, i was told that
they would be about 2000 cfm short for heavy towing. they never really
quantified 'heavy towing' with any numbers citing too many unknown conditions.
also, the cfm rating on many of these electric fans is without a rad sitting
in front of them. in the end i was advised to use them as helper fans in
conjunction with a fan clutch.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

.....i want a electric fan but i'm scared of them not cooling enough. i'd rather the stock fan, but i'll need a machine shop to make me a "fixed hub" as with the fan clutch it pushes the fan too close to the rad, a good second gear grab and i'd have a $530 piece of scrap aluminum.

-Jon

 

[jperecko]

In the offroad world, a lot of people pull Taurus fans from the 3.8L V6. They have 2 speeds and can move a lot of air. You can make your own shroud and fit 2 of them. I have yet to do this on my truck so I cannot lead by example.. but it is what I plan to do and it is hard to beat junkyard prices.

 

[icanfixall]

Mel (agnem) did the Tarus dual fan setup and really likes it. My thoughts are more to having 4 smaller fans that you can turn on as needed. This is thinking like 4 valve heads flow more cfms that a large 2 valve head. Finding out that we only need 2 or 3 fans would still leave an extra or spare for the just in case times. Who knows when something is going to give up and quit on you... On a Sunday nite really late too.

 

[RLDSL]

I was talking with Jerry at Rodney Red about E fans and he seemed to think he could rig up a multiple E fan setup to go with one of these rads that would be capable of towing. After seeing what he did with the rad, I'm inclined to believe him, but I wouldn't want to try a hit and miss homegrown setup for a critical towing application, especially considering the live cargo you like to haul and the fact that you are surrounded by some of the worst pulls in the country with year round high temps

 

[Agnem]

My thoughts on the more is better deal.... Every motor represents a certain amount of surface area where there is no or limtied flow. Food for thought. Also, and I'm not expert at this, but it seems to me that the largest amount of air flow occurs near the outer edge of the blades. The farther they are from the motor, the more air they will grab (and have the higher tip speed).

 

[6.9poweredscout]

ok i was looking online and there's some high CFM fans, like 5500cfm and up. i have an Alum. 2 core rodney red, the core surface area is 24" tall by 21 1/2" wide. so i'm down a bit on area from the ford rad. i'd like to be able to tow a trailer and my off road scout, or even take it to the local truck pulls. i don't want to cook this motor!! i think the elec fans would be simple, but if i need to use a stock fan i need to make a "fixed hub" to mount it.

any ideas guys?

thanks
-Jon

 

[typ4]

Jon, get a water pump off of an IH truck and see if Hayden makes a fan or spacer to fit it. You will need the WP pulley assy also.

I could probably machine up something for you if you want to keep the stock wp and pulleys. Need a length of hub to fan mount. And the id hole of the fan you would use. And bolt pattern of course.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

Jon, get a water pump off of an IH truck and see if Hayden makes a fan or spacer to fit it. You will need the WP pulley assy also.

I could probably machine up something for you if you want to keep the stock wp and pulleys. Need a length of hub to fan mount. And the id hole of the fan you would use. And bolt pattern of course.

that was my original idea. i was going to use the stock fan, stock w/p, and have a adapter machined to bolt to the front of the w/p pulley and to the stock fan, closer to the engine, yet far enough away to clear the belts. i'll keep you posted, i still need to mock up the power steering pump and alternator to see what pulleys i use and the space available.

thanks!
-Jon

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

From my research, MARK VIII Lincoln fans will suck the hat off your head and through the fins, chew it up, and spit it over the windshield.

I have been studying electric fan set-ups and have found that many of the factory-original ones found in common cars are CFM rated a lot higher than the flashy trendy after-market ones.

I don't know this as fact, but I believe a GOOD electric fan set-up would easily out-volume the stock fan at any engine RPM the diesel is capable of.

Like already said, an electric fan can blow full-blast at any engine RPM; and the RPM of most electric fan shafts is way higher than the RPM of the diesel engine.

I used to think differently, but lately, electric fans look a lot more appealing.

You can turn them ON or completely OFF; or, with multiple fan set-ups, any or all can be used at will.

 

[Agnem]

That was one thing that really appealed to me about the idea when I implimented it. No matter how massive the factory steel fan is, it only spins at whatever your cruising RPM is. When the electric is on, it's pulling the full CFM all the time. I have NEVER had my electrics switch to high speed yet, and I will know when they do because I replaced my factory 240 degree overtemp switch with a 210 one, so I will get an engine overheat alarm when that high speed kicks in (and yes, I tested it in a pot of water on the stove, so I know it works). I'll be towing to the rally this year, so I'm interested to see if my intercooler affects the air flow at all.

 

[subway]

i am starting to think about electric to now that i have AC, running my ac seems to raise my engine temps almost 10 deg and it cools noticably better when moving. i figure like Mel and Midnight say it can run full blast at any speed i need and it "should" help miliage some.

Mel i assume you found an adapter of the right size for your coolent lins?