best electric fan

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Yeah you're going to have to post a TON more info. Like, what car, what engine, what radiator you're using (22", 26", number of rows), what pulley set up you have, what your alternator amperage is, how much horsepower you're making and how you plan on using the car.

Pullers are better because they don't obstruct air flow into the radiator when they're not running. But they can be limited for space. And then you're going to need at least 2,500 to 3000 CFM if it's going to be a stand alone electric fan. Typically OE fans are best, people have had a lot of luck with Ford Taurus or Contour fans (depending on radiator size). Chevy HHR and there's a Mercedes fan from a model I don't recall at the moment have been used on A-bodies as well.

There are also a TON of threads on this already to look to narrow your choices.
 

Find an OE model that'll fit. Taurus, T-Bird, HHR, Mark VIII, Contour are all good. Just make sure you've got enough juice to run it and large enough wires to carry the current needed. I'd suggest a relay and pull power directly from the alternator stud or battery lug.
 
Nothing wrong with factory fan setups and fan shrouds. I screwed around with an electric setup for almost two years. I never got the cooling I wanted. And I am a good mechanic and I did do a lot of research. I finally went with a factory type setup, and it works fine.
 
Unsuccessful electric fan installations are pretty much always come down to

- undersized fans (regardless of how much money they cost!) or
- inadequate power supply

Just like the factory mechanical fans, you have to pick an electric fan that has the cooling capacity for your application. Lots of really expensive electric fans don't produce enough CFM to be stand alone fans on these cars. And then there's the cheap radiator and fan "kits" that don't even advertise how many CFM they're capable of.

And yeah, if your fan is big enough to move the CFM it's going to need to it will require more amps than the factory wiring system was designed for.
 
Search Summit for Flex A Lite Black Magic Fans. They're some of the best. Meed around 4000 CFM.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Search Summit for Flex A Lite Black Magic Fans. They're some of the best. Meed around 4000 CFM.
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They are spendy though! Especially for the ones rated for high enough CFM. And even those don't put out more CFM than my $145 Dorman Ford Contour fans.

*edit*
Well I guess the Dorman 620-104 is $175 now. Could still get them under $150 last year.
 
72bluNblu said:
They are spendy though! Especially for the ones rated for high enough CFM. And even those don't put out more CFM than my $145 Dorman Ford Contour fans.

*edit*
Well I guess the Dorman 620-104 is $175 now. Could still get them under $150 last year.
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No doubt about it they are, but they MOVE some air. I know the ones you talk about do too.
 
RustyRatRod said:
No doubt about it they are, but they MOVE some air. I know the ones you talk about do too.
Click to expand...

And that's really the key point, choose a fan that moves enough CFM. Not dogging on the black magic fans themselves, as long as you get one that moves enough CFM they should work great.

The contour fans supposedly move about 3k cfm on low speed and 5k cfm on high speed. Fan flow ratings can depend a lot on the flow test itself, so I wouldn't say that's an exact number. On my car I know that I've only had the high speed come on a couple of times, and both were situations where I was out stuck in traffic in 110° weather. The rest of the time the low speed is more than adequate, and even in those cases the high speed didn't run for more than a few minutes at a time.

So what I usually say is that for most folks and how they use their cars a 2,500 cfm output is probably enough, unless you're in a hot climate and intend to drive your car in pretty extreme situations. Obviously that also depends on the radiator being used, how wild the engine is (more horsepower = more heat generated), etc, etc. But I think most folks would be parked long before they were stuck in traffic in 110° weather.
 
Based on 72bluNblu's recommendation, I went with the Ford Contour setup on my 73 Sport with a built 340. I also upgraded the alternator and added a fan controller where each fan can be set separately. In the 3 years since, I've had no cooling issues at all.
 
72bluNblu said:
Yeah you're going to have to post a TON more info. Like, what car, what engine, what radiator you're using (22", 26", number of rows), what pulley set up you have, what your alternator amperage is, how much horsepower you're making and how you plan on using the car.

Pullers are better because they don't obstruct air flow into the radiator when they're not running. But they can be limited for space. And then you're going to need at least 2,500 to 3000 CFM if it's going to be a stand alone electric fan. Typically OE fans are best, people have had a lot of luck with Ford Taurus or Contour fans (depending on radiator size). Chevy HHR and there's a Mercedes fan from a model I don't recall at the moment have been used on A-bodies as well.

There are also a TON of threads on this already to look to narrow your choices.
Click to expand...
Speaking of stock fans.... have you looked into a 2019+ Camaro ZL1 fan? Brushless made by SPAL and puts out 5000CFM! Planning to install on in my dart this winter (I'll have to modify the core support a bit to get more space between the rad and water pump.... joys of a big block in a swinger).
 
What do all the rest of the racers use?
 
charger426 said:
Speaking of stock fans.... have you looked into a 2019+ Camaro ZL1 fan? Brushless made by SPAL and puts out 5000CFM! Planning to install on in my dart this winter (I'll have to modify the core support a bit to get more space between the rad and water pump.... joys of a big block in a swinger).
Click to expand...


Hmmmmmm…any chance you have a picture of the fan?

TIA
 

Brushless Cooling Fan Conversions

High performance brushless fan retrofit conversions for high performance cars. Brushless cooling fan controllers. PWM.
www.240turbo.com

Link to a long blog about all kinds of fans. The fan will draw 50amps BUT that will be ramped up so you won't have the huge hit like when a brushed fan kicks on. You'll need a brushless fan controller (like $50) and the fans are 250ish used and 350ish new. You'll have to fab up your own shroud set up so for sure not bolt on but looks like the best bang for the buck if you're willing to put the work in.
 
the rad is a 3 core. the opening for the radiator air flow is 20" though I could open it up further to match the radiator.
 
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