single or double fans - cooling system

[GasSavers_Bluesky]

This car is a belt driven fan engine, converted to electric fan last two months. This conversion works fine and good saving gas. Now it uses two puller fans, combination of a big motor fan, actually a modified pusher, and an aux small fan, separately shrouded with share two third and one third part.

The problem now when driving in the night with light they can drain up battery, I need idling for couple minutes to let charging batt with the light off before completely switching the ign off. I can understand the batt is about two years old, but less electric consumption will always expand the batt's life.

I will get rid of the small fan, use only a big motor fan and fabricate new shroud for it. This will give more tidy look to the compartment. I can reuse double fans if single fan can't work, but let me know your opinion please, setting up fans is time consuming.

thanks

[theholycow]

It sounds like you need a higher capacity alternator.

[VetteOwner]

ok i gonna need:

what car what engine size what electric fan u got.

for some reason people are kinda dumb when it comes to electric fans, i have a 4 cyl engine i must have to get an electric fans or fans that can cool a v8!!! lol

i see this all the time on the truck forum im on. truck has a 2.2L 4 banger yet everyone insists on the v6 tarus fan that draws 50 amps on startup haha. INSTEAD i tell them and personally have a fan from a 2.2L cavileer (same engine people figure it out) draws less than 30A (dunno what but the crappy 30A relay is going just fine haha)

[GasSavers_Bluesky]

Thanks

I was thinking about changing alternator too, before doing this I would replace the batt and give a try for the bigger one. If in bigger batt problem persist perhaps it need alternator up-grade.

Mine is a 2L Nissan, interestingly the fan is a stock 1.6L Citroen. It may work because the aux fan next to it, but let's see whether it can work individually with a proper shroud.

Not sure how much the fans draw amps, both of them use 30A relays. Although it still works on the bigger fan I can tell you the fuse is melted. Do I need to change the relay and fuse to the bigger one?

[VetteOwner]

what size wiring are u using to do all this?

heres a pic on my truck, been like this for 5 years now no cooling problems even in 100*F weather in the summer.





i would LOVE to put one on the chevette but that 63amp alternator struggles with stock at night and the brake lights go on...

[GasSavers_Bluesky]

The wires used for the fan is bigger than average use mostly, the fuse is tightly connected in the fuse box, and each connection is soldered. The fuse is not blown off, well, the melted fuse may be only my worries. Only wonder if bigger rate of relay and fuse would do any better.

Thanks for the picture, I believe it will cool off engine better if the shroud covers more surface of the rad, and no wire goes trough the fins.

[dieselmech]

First off, you only need the fan when stopped or driving slow. So, are you just turning the fans on and letting them run all the time? are you using a relay?
There is no reason for an electric fan to kill the batt while driving. If you are running a wire from the fuse panel, through a switch and directly to the fan yes you will have issues. Mostly running 50 amps through a switch and the small wires are probably hot too. That set up will draw a lot more current because of all the resistance.

Run a fused #8 wire to one side of a relay. The other side a #8 to the fan motor and ground the motor with a #8 also.
Run a smaller wire from fuse panel to a 3 way switch.
One side of switch runs directly to the relay to turn on the fan manually. (ground the other side of the relay)
The second side of the switch runs to a temp sensor and then to the relay. This will turn the fan on when it reaches the set temperature.

Now what you have is;
Off: Everything is off so you can work under the hood safely.
Position 1: Fan kicks in by itself when engine gets warm/hot.
Position 2: You can manually turn on fan to cool the engine.

If your going to do it, do it right and do it once.

Anything over 40mph or so and you shouldn't need a fan as the airflow through the grill will be higher than the fan can pull anyway.

[GasSavers_Bluesky]

Yes motor fan is helpful at traffic and slow driving.

The wires I am not sure about the size are the relay and fuse connectors, this may contribute to the heat, I may change them all later.

I am afraid of being forget to set the switch back on if the fan is manually controlled. The fan is controlled by the car ign switch, it took current from ignition wire. The fan kicks in only if ign is on at temp specified by the temp sensor. It uses 70-75 C or 158-167 F, isn't this too high? When engine is running for driving the fan kicks in later, say one strip below half gauge, while when engine is cold it kicks in earlier.

Still, AC burdens engine which can cause the fan works all time. Any thought?

thanks

[theclencher]

I've completely removed the fan from my F150- no mechanical fan, no electric fan. As long as she's moving, she doesn't get hot. Is your engine getting hot? Cuz it sounds to me like it either has abnormal cooling requirements (something wrong) or you're just running too much fan, too often.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I live too close to the city to risk taking all fans off my vehicles. With traffic lights every 200 yards I'd overheat before I ever got to the highway.