Overheating dilema

[lakev2]

Well the clutch fan gave up the ghost today happened to be 10miles out in the mountains at Hungry Valley.

Made it back to the house at 4 after packing snow in the radiator and never stopping to keep airflow going over the radiator.

The local jy closes at 5, and i wanted to get an electric fan...hmmm.

Got in the dd and hauled butt to the jy, guy at the gate said we close in 20minutes, ok, no big deal i said.

walked down first isle and found what i wanted dual fan setup from a ford contour. got it out about 2mins before they closed.

Coming soon dual fan setup writeup.

Initial plan is to use two seperate controllers, one for the lowspeed to come on at 185 and the second to come on at 205.

From what I have researched on this fan it draws less amps than the taurus fan and it is thinner so no interference problems with the front of engine. Also the fan shroud from what i've seen fits the radiator without needing trimming.

Will see how it turns out.

[XJJK]

Look forward to your results and writeup.

[Guest]

I'll PM you and save the rest on my comments.

[JeepinLA Eh]

the flex a lite 485 was the best money I spent on my Jeep!!!

[XJJK]

I'll PM you and save the rest on my comments.

heheheheheh
FWIW after I put the 135.00 3 core radiator in mine, AND got ALLLLL of the air out of it, it ran cool all the time so far.
It did take a while to get that last air pocket out of it though and I think I got lucky that I noticed the overflow tank low before it created another air pocket.

[chris142]

If you have AC don't forget that the fans need to come on with the Compressor. An engine can run a few minutes w/o air flow but the AC needs air flow across the condensor every second or the high side pressures will get too high and damage the compressor or blow a line.

I work at a Radiator shop and we are not impressed with electric fans on cars that originaly had a mechanical fan. Too often we get a car in and the electric fan just does not move enough air to pull the engines heat out.

Once we built a $500 radiator for a guys Dodge pickup. He came back a few days later trying to tell us that our radiator was not cooling his engine.

When we opened the hood we saw a dozen or so computer fans wired to the $500 core! The clown actully put a bunch of tiny fans on the thing, destroyed many fins with his wire and zip ties.

Another thing. Don't use anything through the core to mount the fan or oil coolers. Eventully it will wear a hole in a tube and cause a leak. Build a bracket, mount your stuff to that and bolt that to either the core support or the radiator straps.


Fan air flow is measured @ 2200 rpm. A stock mechanical fan with a working fan clutch will move 8000-10000 cfm of air @ 2200 rpm. Most aftermarket electric fans only move 1000-1500 cfm.

I don't know the air flow of the Contour fans. Hopefully they will work for you.

I don't believe that electric fans are all that great. I'm keeping the stock fan and clutch on my Jeep.

[snydercj7]

It's amazing how much a radiator can affect the cooling also. I recently added an Active aluminum radiator & found that I had a heater core leak. I was down a gallon of coolant but the temp gauge only went just to the right of the 210 dot driving in town. That is with a working cooling fan though.

[lakev2]

Long days at work and cold rainy evenings have been slowing me down. But I have some progress on the fan install.

Mocked the fan assembly up to the yj radiator, found I am able to retain use of the stock fan shroud mounting holes to mount the electrics. Drilled 4 holes in the fan shrouding and the fans cover the core 100% with a tiny amount of overlap past the core.

Decided on the wiring setup and switch setup that will be used and have half of it installed.

This is a diagram of the controller I picked up from Autozone. The amp draw from the contour fans is ~20amps so it doesnt require 70amp relays as the taurus setup does.




Installed a switch to have the fans in Controller mode, Override controller to have both on, and an off setting for water crossings.

The top option in this switch setup is how i installed mine.



Also on the Contour fan setup is a resistor that allows one fan to spool up slower than the other, I am running the cool side fan on this for now and may change to have the hot side fan use it depending on my results.

Once i get some more hardware and wiring connections from work I will get it finished up. Will take some pics installed for all.

[Guest]

Since I went another route. I am curious to see how cool it keeps it. Post some photos after install. Just for sh!t's and giggles.

Kragen Auto had the probe and complete kit. Straight forward. I went that route and added an extra fan when I had my grand cherokee awhile back. I was trying to keep it cool when I towed.

Thanks

[mrblaine]

If you have AC don't forget that the fans need to come on with the Compressor. An engine can run a few minutes w/o air flow but the AC needs air flow across the condensor every second or the high side pressures will get too high and damage the compressor or blow a line.

I work at a Radiator shop and we are not impressed with electric fans on cars that originaly had a mechanical fan. Too often we get a car in and the electric fan just does not move enough air to pull the engines heat out.

Once we built a $500 radiator for a guys Dodge pickup. He came back a few days later trying to tell us that our radiator was not cooling his engine.

When we opened the hood we saw a dozen or so computer fans wired to the $500 core! The clown actully put a bunch of tiny fans on the thing, destroyed many fins with his wire and zip ties.

Another thing. Don't use anything through the core to mount the fan or oil coolers. Eventully it will wear a hole in a tube and cause a leak. Build a bracket, mount your stuff to that and bolt that to either the core support or the radiator straps.


Fan air flow is measured @ 2200 rpm. A stock mechanical fan with a working fan clutch will move 8000-10000 cfm of air @ 2200 rpm. Most aftermarket electric fans only move 1000-1500 cfm.

I don't know the air flow of the Contour fans. Hopefully they will work for you.

I don't believe that electric fans are all that great. I'm keeping the stock fan and clutch on my Jeep.

One of the nicest electric fans I've ever owned was one from a Liberty. It was a dealer take-off from a new Liberty when they install a Heavy Duty tow package that includes a mechanical fan and clutch for some reason.

[lakev2]

Fits like a Glove









Got the fan install finished up this morning, plenty of clearance in front of the engine and plenty of cooling power.

To do a simple driveway test ran the engine with the switch off(water crossing setting) and let the engine get up to 215, fans pulled it down easily, then maintained the temp between 185 and 195.

The switch got installed in the unused slot for auxilary lights.

Will put the setup to the real test tommorrow on the trails.

Next week will borrow an ampmeter to test the amp draw when they come on and running. Noticed when they initially start the voltmeter drops slightly then raises back to normal.

In the research I did on fans this fan setup pulls 3400ish cfm, whereas the taurus single pulls 4500ish. The taurus fan has the downside of being large and difficult to fit in some enigne bays because of its thickness.

[chris142]

I'd be concerned about the amount of radiator core that the shroud covers. All the air thats going through the radiator @ 60 mph is going to be funneled through the area where the fans are.

If you have temperature problems at higher speeds look into cutting holes in the shroud so that more air can go through when the fans are not needed.

Keep us posted on how well it works..........Maybe your on to something.

[lakev2]

Well after a full day of wheeling and 75 highway miles, gotta say it works good. I was like a hawk on the temp gauge today just incase, but it never rose above 205 either will crawling or cruising down the highway.

The only test left for the setup is when the ambient temps raise up to 110 range will see how it does then.

[snydercj7]

I'd be concerned about the amount of radiator core that the shroud covers. All the air thats going through the radiator @ 60 mph is going to be funneled through the area where the fans are.

If you have temperature problems at higher speeds look into cutting holes in the shroud so that more air can go through when the fans are not needed.

Keep us posted on how well it works..........Maybe your on to something.

Is this shroud really an issue? Doesnt the factory shroud with a mechanical fan cover the entire core? My understanding with electric fans is people do not use a shroud & they do not cool properly when the fan is running.

[chris142]

Is this shroud really an issue? Doesnt the factory shroud with a mechanical fan cover the entire core? My understanding with electric fans is people do not use a shroud & they do not cool properly when the fan is running.

It's hard to explain. The stock fan and shroud are as big as the radiator core. The aftermarket fans the OP put on his radiator are much smaller and the shroud covers an area in the middle of the radiator.

The hot rod shop behind the Radiator shop I work at is always building a fan shroud with electric fans and then having heating problems at high speeds.

They never learn. The answer is to cut holes in the shroud so air can easily pass through at high road speeds.

But they are dealing with 400+hp vs less than 200 here so maybe it won't be a problem.

I'm still old school. I see more problems when electric fans are used to replace a fan and working fan clutch to justify their use.