electric fan?

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65slant

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Hello i have a 65 auto, it runs a bit hot on the highway i am going to start to check things out soon. but i did have a question about what electric fan to put on it after i get her running good again, have any of you used an electric fan from the salvage yard? what vehicle? did you get an installation kit? from who? sorry for all the questions id just like more opinions, thanks every body
 
Every vehicle is going to be different. There are too many variables. I chose to go with an aftermarket fan. I figured by the time I tried to retrofit a fan from another car onto mine, I wouldn't save any $$ over buying a new one. You may want to push the air instead of pulling it through the radiator. You may want to build a shroud around it. You may want to control it with a thermostat switch. You may want to even add a timer circuit to allow the fan to run for awhile after you shut the engine off. A lot of guys take pride in finding ingenious ways to adapt parts from other cars. It has an awful lot to do with personal preferences. The only real piece of advice I have for you is to add a relay system with the fan. They can draw a lot of power and it's nice to isolate that draw from the rest of the electrical wiring that feeds the factory components. Good luck.
 
If it runs hot on the highway, the fan is NOT your problem. No electric is going to move as much air as you already have coming through the radiator at anything more than about 35 MPH.

Time to have your radiator cleaned out professionally. You don't need a bigger one, or some fancy "4 row core". The stock 19" radiators in these cars were more than adequate for a slant.

Also, you would do well to verify the accuracy of your 50 year old temperature gauge.
 
Your 6 banger should never run hot even without a shroud. I'm guessing you have a partially plugged radiator or you may have a clogged/rusty water jacket at #6 cylinder (it's the lowest one). If you ever have the head off check the gunk around the rear cylinder sleeve, it's usually loaded up.
 
thank you all I'm going to do a coolant flush very soon, the reason for the electric fan wasn't to band-aid the high temp problem it was just to take some load off the engine and for a few more ponies and some more mpgs. could it also be the thermostat?
 
Ditto above re "shouldn't overheat on highway". But back to your question "best fan?", most people say that production fans move much more air than little after-market ones. Hot Rodders like the Ford 2-speed fans (Taurus, Lincoln? search HAMB website). Simpler and still good are the pusher electrics on older M-B cars like the 300D. I put one on both my 64 slant and 65 SB, using the MB brackets. The main purpose is to help when sitting at a stop light, especially when the AC compressor is on. In a M-B, the electric fan is solely for the AC. If you do get a cheapie after-market fan, I would bolt it to steel braces, not use the hokey "stick plastic rods thru radiator fins" that come with them.
 
i used 2 10" ebay fans in my 66, mounted them in the corners. they wouldnt fit next to each other. also running a ebay thermostat to turn them on.
 
65slant said:
thank you all I'm going to do a coolant flush very soon, the reason for the electric fan wasn't to band-aid the high temp problem it was just to take some load off the engine and for a few more ponies and some more mpgs. could it also be the thermostat?
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If you want to take some load off the engine, use a clutch fan. All an electric fan does is transfer the load one pulley over to the alternator.

If the thermostat was the problem, it would also overheat at idle. So, unless the radiator is stone cold when the engine is running hot the thermostat is opening.
 
C130 Chief said:
All an electric fan does is transfer the load one pulley over to the alternator.
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not really. when the fans are running yea. but cruising or pretty much any other time you are moving they arent running. mine dont come on unless im sitting still for a while. when they do come on its only for a minute or two. even after a run, im also turbocharged so im making quite a bit of heat. so for all the times they arent running you are gaining extra hp. granted its probably not much at all, it is still a gain.
 
I was spending a lot of time chasing heat on my 225 slant, because the stock gauge always climbed all the way to the top on the freeway. I bought an electric temp gauge with numbers that could be read, and sure enough - the car ran 210 on the freeway with a 180 degree thermostat. After 5 minutes to 20 minutes it would climb up to 240, then further. I eventually bought a mechanical style gauge, and sure enough - temp is 180 running, and on the freeway, and sometimes when it's real hot outside, it's 190, but never any higher no matter how many hours I spend on the freeway. I think the alternator charging at higher speeds caused the needle to move up. Also when you were in town, slowed down, the temp dropped right back down immediately, and if you hit the turn signal, the needle would click back and forth.

Basically I bought a new radiator, new water pump, new fan, new heater and rad hoses, and the stock gauge and electric gauges just didn't read correctly, even with a new sending unit. The car never boils over, or overheats. The gauge at autozone set me back $15.00.
 
i did a coolant flush,blew a bunch of crap out of it and put on an overflow tank. so now she's all set
 
RustyPlymouth said:
not really. when the fans are running yea. but cruising or pretty much any other time you are moving they arent running. mine dont come on unless im sitting still for a while. when they do come on its only for a minute or two. even after a run, im also turbocharged so im making quite a bit of heat. so for all the times they arent running you are gaining extra hp. granted its probably not much at all, it is still a gain.
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You are describing exactly how a clutch fan works as well. They freewheel along until the temp rises enough, then disengage as soon as the temp comes down, which in most cases is as soon as the car starts moving enough to ram air through the radiator. I still think the horsepower "gain" from an electric fan is smoke and mirrors. It's simply converting one form of energy into another, not magically formulating free energy.

My DD is a 1998 Infiniti Q45t, which is the big RWD V8 sedan they had back then. It has a clutch fan with dual electric booster fans. One thing of interest is that the electric fans run more than the clutch fan ever does, and also the electric fans visibly dim the electrical system momentarily.

If I installed electric fans I would definitely NOT use any part of the original harness to supply them.

Lastly..if it overheats on the highway it's not an airflow issue. It is pure and simple a coolant flow problem. My '73 Slant has a 4-blade fixed fan, no shroud and the smallest (NEW) rad they came with and never tries to run hot at speed.
 
I fought this battle on my old Ranchero. Turned out to be the only couple years old "Life-Time Warranty" water pump that came on the car (PO was proud of that pump for some reason). The vanes on the pump impeller had eroded to the point where the pump would cavitate at cruising RPM, which made the erosion happen even faster. Replacing the pump not only fixed the problem, but caused me to have to undo some of the other things that I'd done to keep it cool because with the new pump the engine took forever to warm up.
 
TylerW said:
You are describing exactly how a clutch fan works as well.
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quite simply, no. clutch fans are always turning regardless of whether or not they are needed. free wheeling or not they are putting a load on the motor. electric fans only put a load on when they are needed.

if i went and started my car right now drove a couple miles to the store and back my fans will not come on at all. zero load what so ever. if i had a clutch fan it would be turning the entire time creating a load on the engine. free spinning is still a load otherwise the fans would stop spinning all together.
 
You'd have to be in a very tight racing class to even begin to notice the difference in HP between a free-wheeling clutch fan and an electric fan. The difference is going to be so small that I doubt many engine dynos could reliably and consistently measure the difference because it will be within their margin of error. "Lost in the noise" as it were.

But if you want to split hairs, what about the drag on the car that an electric fan imposes from being unpowered and in the airflow? A friend has an indicator light on his electric fan and above about 40 mph that light lightly glows from the air spinning the fan and causing the motor to generate power. The faster the car goes, the brighter the light shines.

For me the key benefit of an electric fan is that it can run when the engine is off. Not any potential HP gain that it may or may not offer.
 
The electric fan may not offer noticeable power gains but will it offer a noticeable mpg bump?
 
With computer control of the fan I think that there will be a gain in mpg and emissions both due to faster warm-up and better control of engine temps. There's very likely a gain over a fixed mechanical fan, but I suspect that any gains over a clutch fan could easily be lost with your right foot.
 
I've done many e-fan conversions. Didn't notice much MPG increase if any. But I did notice the 15-20 hp difference for sure.
 
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