Orion ZyGarian;982277 said:
I dont want to get too far into a shitfit being that its 2:30AM and I'm tired as fuck, but I will say that I personally think e-fans are vastly superior, if nothing else than for saving room and teaching/practicing how to wire shit.
I've had my fans wired directly to the battery and lost power with them always running full speed. Probably similar to the stock fan, though I've never had it.
Switching to e-fans is an excellent idea if your stock shit breaks, instead of fixing it back to stock. This is my opinion.
As I've said before, I have dual Aisin fans...I have no idea where they came from but they are in fact stock Toyota fans and fit the radiator perfectly. Instead of a thermo-switch, I use a switch under the dash, and like every smart MkIII owner, I watch all of my gauges religiously, especially oil pressure and water temp. As such, I know when the cooling is necessary and flip the switch under my dash. This way I dont have to worry about drained power when I dont need them. I'd often forget to turn them on when driving on the highway as at that speed, you dont need them; only in stop and go traffic, in which case I leave them on and let the thermostat do its job.
I'm not saying theres anything wrong with a stock fan, other than the noise it makes and the space it takes up. I have no doubt that they can pull as much/more or whatever amount of air they want, but my experience of a few years at BMW has me preferring the e-fans regardless.
As a side note, my DD is a Miata, which came stock with e-fans. One day, I hadnt noticed, but the nut holding one of the fans on to the motor backed off and I lost it, so the fan was sitting inside the shroud doing nothing. I've taken it out since and driven over a thousand miles and many months, using A/C very often, without need for more than half of the radiator to have fan support.
Agreed....I had to ditch my stock setup because I went FFI and my 3" intake is directly in front of my CSF radiator. I also didn't have a fan shroud so it was no big deal for me to consider electric fans. Sure I have heard about some fans taking a dump, and I certainly know a new stock fan clutch is unparalleled in longevity service, and over all out put.
However when I wired my contour fans in, and ran both of them at the same time at idle they cooled more than the stock fan at idle. How do I know this....the temp gauge is the key. I also liked and wanted the cleaner engine bay look, and the ease of changing belts without taking off a shroud.
Performance wise here in New York where traffic is bumper to bumper, and street temps with exhaust heat can cause weak systems to fail my fans kept my car cool while set up on a temperature switch. Don't DARE run your E fans without a way to make them come on if the switch fails or a fuse blows. If you wire them for fail safe running with a direct switch hook up you won't be disappointed. It looks well, and cleans up the engine bay appearance, and works well if you choose the right fan.
So far I can vouch for a late model chevy lumina dual fan, ford contour or mercury mistique dual fan which are my ultimate favorites, and now my single ford taurus single I believe 5000 cfm single set up which allows me to run my FFI pipes infront of my radiator. I have no cooling issues what so ever. My IC pipes are in front of the engne and I cruise with 6-9 degree centigrade air temps in the winter and so far no higher than 30 degrees centigrade during the summer IC air temps registered by my wolf. When drivng in the winter members here have verified a 6 degree centigrade IC air temp registered on my wolf v500 display.
The most reliable setup is stock period, but a well manufactured high flow efan will work fine. I have a 12x24x4 inch IC and my ac condenser, and radiator between my electric fan and when it comes on it can keep a leaf stuck to the front of the IC until the fan turns off. You can literally feel the air coming ou from behind the car at idle. It's only ultimately up to the user which route to go.
I think the point some are trying to make is that the efans aren't getting a fair shake in the capeability arena, and if set up properly will do just fine against a stock fan setup. However the reliability falls heavily on the stock set up for sure. I spent more than an hour and a half on the dyno doing WOT pulls making 479rwhp and 449 ft lbs of torque with electric fans that came on only by sensor, when I tried to find a fault in my tps system. I have also survived many hot summers with ford contour dual fans. I hope my new Taurus fan serves just as well. I am not debating which is better, but I am giving everyone a chance to see what the alternatve can be if done properly.
All this to say the e fans are a viable alternative to stock fans for those that want a clean look, and want to run an FFI like I did, or just don't have a shroud, or want the ease of use of changing alternators, water pumps or belts. However you will lose the reliabilty of the stock setup. I also can say my efans barely come on in the winter even when I am driving, and I know this by watching my water temp gauges, and they only come on when sitting still in traffic, or really hard drivng during the summer.:naughty::biglaugh:
Fixed Ian
lol v v v v
