Electric Cooling Fan !

[builtnotbought]

Hey, my fan is seized on all the time and my blades are in a bad shape, i was looking at buying another one but before this does anybody have eard or tried an electric one ? if so what is the best one out there. i think it would be pretty nice !

[jamstoyz]

i heard the electric fans are great and free up some horse power

[builtnotbought]

THats what i was thinking, before you could really feel it whenever it was coming on !

[elibenson]

Originally Posted by jamstoyz

i heard the electric fans are great and free up some horse power

Err.. On a gasoline engine. I don't think anyone that I know of uses an electric fan on a diesel. I don't expect the engine to last too long that way. Diesels get a lot hotter than a gas motor. And they weight like 3x the amount. It takes significant cooling to keep a diesel working. I don't think any electric fan is going to cut it.

Further more, it may take X amount of horsepower to move the air necessary to keep your truck cool at idle or low speed with a mechanical driven fan. It will still take X amount of power to keep your truck cool at idle or low speed with an electric fan too. There is no overall difference. The reason being is that you may drag your engine down with a mechanical fan while it's clutch is engaged. The rest of the time (hiway driving mostly) there is enough air flow to not need the clutch engaged. You will end up using the electric fan the same way, mostly at low or no speed situations. It will still take the same amount of work being done to cool the truck. It will just be electrical work being done instead of mechanical work. Further, that electrical power comes from.. (you guessed it) the alternator.. Which means that the alternator is going to be dragging your engine down instead of the fan. In the end, you don't get something for nothing. Actually, you get less than something for nothing with an electric fan. It is actually more efficient over all to belt-drive a fan than it is to belt drive an alternator, use that rotational force to create electricity, then convert that electricity back to rotational force. You see what I mean?

just my $0.02

[builtnotbought]

Originally Posted by elibenson

Err.. On a gasoline engine. I don't think anyone that I know of uses an electric fan on a diesel. I don't expect the engine to last too long that way. Diesels get a lot hotter than a gas motor. And they weight like 3x the amount. It takes significant cooling to keep a diesel working. I don't think any electric fan is going to cut it.

Further more, it may take X amount of horsepower to move the air necessary to keep your truck cool at idle or low speed with a mechanical driven fan. It will still take X amount of power to keep your truck cool at idle or low speed with an electric fan too. There is no overall difference. The reason being is that you may drag your engine down with a mechanical fan while it's clutch is engaged. The rest of the time (hiway driving mostly) there is enough air flow to not need the clutch engaged. You will end up using the electric fan the same way, mostly at low or no speed situations. It will still take the same amount of work being done to cool the truck. It will just be electrical work being done instead of mechanical work. Further, that electrical power comes from.. (you guessed it) the alternator.. Which means that the alternator is going to be dragging your engine down instead of the fan. In the end, you don't get something for nothing. Actually, you get less than something for nothing with an electric fan. It is actually more efficient over all to belt-drive a fan than it is to belt drive an alternator, use that rotational force to create electricity, then convert that electricity back to rotational force. You see what I mean?

just my $0.02

Hey Thanks Man ! So i am going to start shopping for mechanical fan

[nccatfan]

I've seen an electric fan kit in one of the diesel mag's a few months back... think it came with an upgraded radiator too. The extra amperage needed will drag down the alternator, make it a bit harded to turn, but that clutch setup saps more power than the alternator anyways.

[ianstew]

I have hears good and bad. Supposedly they are a big no no if you tow.....there's someone on here who doesn't even run a fan at all. They make a kit flex a lite I think. I'd research it alot and figure out if it's the best thing for your truck.

[Dieseltorkin]

That mechanical fan pulls tons more air than any electric will. I tried 2 14" fans that moved 5000cfm a min on my old 2000 7.3, just driving around it ran 20+ degrees warmer and the one time i hooked a trailer to it, it over heated within 30miles. I went back with the mechanical