barthel Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 One of my next projects (they just keep piling up) is to pull out the fan blade and clutch and put in an electric fan. I've seen two basic types used in the threads here, the fan from a 93-95 Quest, or the fan from a pre-98 Taurus. I was just wondering if one was better than the other. Opinions? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 the bigger the better. it doens't have to be either of the two you mentioned. look around in the garage. there is info on all that kind of stuff in there. good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 They both work fine. The Quest one fits a little better, IMHO. I have one of the Taurus fans in my garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5523Pathfinder Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Anyone ever install a Flex-o-lite fan set up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I did a 2 speed 3.8L Taurus in the '88 and some aftermarket thing in the '87. The Taurus fan sucked!!!! As in sucked the chrome off the trailer hitch ball of the truck in front of the Pathy!!! This thing moves serious air on high speed. I wired up the low speed circuit off a Flexalite variable speed controller, and then the high speed off a HIGH CURRENT 75A relay as it is rumored to pull over 40 amps on high. I have yet to need to engage warp speed. But it is there, just in case.... It does get over 110 degrees out here. It did require some creativity in mounting to get maximum effectiveness of the Taurus shroud and some creative wiring to use both speeds, but it really and truly moves MUCH more air than any aftermarket fan I've seen. So if you have a dual core radiator, even one of the average aftermarket fans will do 99% of the time. But if you are going to do some sloooooow speed crawling in hot temps, I highly recommend the extra effort to mount and wire in the Taurus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have to agree with MWS on the Taurus fans ability to suck When my fan clutch finally goes out, my Pathy is getting the 3.8L fan setup. I had a 3.8L fully loaded '88 Taurus (which I bought wrecked and rebuilt the front end)... god I miss that car :sniff: Anyway, I "made due" with a 3.0L fan (and radiator) until I finally found a 3.8L fan/rad in a wrecking yard. The 3.8L fan moves air, no if's, and's or but's about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89_trailboss Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have a maxima fan setup. dual 12", dual speed fans. BEUTIFUL! with both on full my temp hardly gets more then 1/4 of the way up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonianbrat Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Darn-it this is another one of those mods that now after reading this thread I really want to do!! Along with a newer and bigger tranny cooler, lift, skids,sliders....the list goes on. Only thing standing in my way is money!!! I think the e-fan would be effective especially on some of the long slow climbs up Rocky Mountain trails and some higher steep paved roads up in Rocky Mountain National Park. How would I wire it up from having a stock set-up? I am an electrical tard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyb33 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 buy yourself an electric fan controller from your parts store, and have at it....(they come with instructions) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SuperSon Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I feel the same way zonianbrat lolz... Now thats another mod that I gotta pick up at the junkyard. Parts are piling up Any other fan that i should be hunting for? Ive seen a taurus fan when I was at the junkyard while pulling the explorer tranny cooler.I shouldve pulled it then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barthel Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 I feel the same way SS. At this rate, I'm NEVER gonna be done with it, I keep finding something else that it needs, or that I want. It's worse than my kids. :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SuperSon Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 hahaha .. I was able to change my distributor this morning tho till it decided to hail rain and snowed a bit.Weather here cant make up its mind, Good thing I decided to stay home and not go to the junkyard. We'll get it done one of these days bart Look at it this way,You got plenty of time to clean all parts and get it all ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 The really nice Taurus fan came only in the 3.8l models - it has 3 wires. Low/std speed, high/hurricane speed, and ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyb33 Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 so mws, how did you wire yours up? did you use a fan controller or did you just wire both speeds up to a switch? I ran mine with a fan controller. the low speed only comes on once a certain temp is reached, i have the controller also wired into my A/C switch as well, so that when i turn on the A/C the fan comes on, and then finally i have the high side ran inside with a switch that i can turn on whenever i feel like it, even tho i havent needed it. I have been wheeling with it, slow stuff, but the low speed has been sufficient thus far..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 so mws, how did you wire yours up? did you use a fan controller or did you just wire both speeds up to a switch? READ THE POSTS. I wired up the low speed circuit off a Flexalite variable speed controller, and then the high speed off a HIGH CURRENT 75A relay as it is rumored to pull over 40 amps on high. I have yet to need to engage warp speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrik Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 After running around for tha past 5 months without any fan, the wife sez it is too stressful to watch the temp needle, around town, with the twins on board and the OAT in the 70's. So, I went with the flex-a-lite 150 and the www.dccontrol.com controller. It isnt completely installed yet, but here are some pictures (the controller arrived today and I picked up the fan on e-bay for $60). Why the more expensive FAL? 2,800 cfm at only 14AMP draw (Starting current is rendered irrelevant with the dccontrol unit). These projects always take me too long to complete, argh. http://ileana.net/91-pathfinder/DSC03928s.jpg http://ileana.net/91-pathfinder/DSC03929s.jpg full size images at http://ileana.net/91-pathfinder You can see the dccontrol unit mounted on the inner fender by the battery tray. (yes, the batt. will be re-installed in its orig. loc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonianbrat Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Ok I am a bit confused. Which controller did you buy from the website Derrick? And if I bought this, what else would I need besides the actual mounting kit? Sorry but reading about these does not help me much as I do not understand most of it. I guess I need somebody to explain what I need and how to install it like they were talking to a 4 year old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 I feel the same way SS. At this rate, I'm NEVER gonna be done with it, I keep finding something else that it needs, or that I want. It's worse than my kids. :eek: Why I don't have kids, still buying MY toys . I used the largest single fan that Hayden sells for my 93, bouth it new ($160 ). Planning to use a JY fan for my eventual install on my 88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vengeful Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I've got a fan out of a 12.6L Turbodiesel Volvo Tractor Trailer rig fixin to go into my Pathy. As luck would have it, the shroud is exactly the same size as my radiator! Only pulls 30A at start-up too, and moves over 6,000CFM of air. If you power it on while laying it on the ground, it'll levitate like 8 feet into the air. It's ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrik Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Which controller did you buy from the website Derrik?..... And if I bought this, what else would I need besides the actual mounting kit? .... I bought the the FK-35 Fan Control Kit- it comes with all the hardware and wires. take note: I bought it on March 11 and it arrived on April 2nd: apparently, this is typical shipping for this business. I suppose he hand assembles each unit to order. Caution: This installation is not complete, nor even dry tested; and I am making it up as I go. What I have so far: DSC03931s.jpg - FK-35 mounted on passenger side inner fender. (you supply a 1/8 drill bit, pneumatic drill, optional center punch). Yellow wire goes to an inline tap (splice/tap purchased separately) to the WB (white w/ Black stripe) wire of the ASCD Hold Relay (second Relay in Pic). It was left coiled because as of yet, I don't know if the wire I tapped at the ASCD Hold Relay (WB wire) is gonna work out. Red wire goes to battery. Blue wire goes to an inline tap (splice/tap purchased separately) to the BW wire (careful, there are two BW wires in there) in the harness behind the Pass. side headlamp. This is the A/C wire (it turns on the fan at 50% when the A/C is on). This Blue wire is tapped to the BW A/C wire within the main harness directly behind the pass headlight. DSC03932s.jpg - Pic of the Pass. side main harness at the Headlamp. The fresh electrical tape is where I removed the old tape, entered the harness and found (with my multimeter) the A/C wire, tapped the blue wire into it, and re-sealed the harness. I simply ran the blue wire along the harness to this tap termination point. DSC03934s.jpg - Pic shows routing of Black (ground) wire. It connects the top left terminal on the controller to the body ground at right center. Also shows the Red wire routing; along bottom of Batt. tray. It connects to the Pos. Batt. term. through a fusible link. NOTE: ignore the fresh electrical tape and plastic tie wraps on the main harness below the controller; I tried to find the A/C wire in there, but it was too crowded to locate it. DSC03935s.jpg - Pic shows red wire (this is the power input to the controller) routing. The wire disappears as it extends past the batt. tray (I left it too long) and loops back to splice into the brown fusible link (center of pic). Hi-def full images available at http://ileana.net/91-pathfinder/ The fan has not been mounted yet <maybe tomorrow> Additional stuff I needed, but not included in kit: You need two 18-22AWG in-line splice/taps : here is an example- http://www.discountcarstereo.com/pdf/905.pdf 1/8 drill bit, pneumatic drill, center punch 11/32 socket and ratchet wire cutters, crimpers, strippers (wire), pliers, needle nose..... oh man, you can't can't expect me to include a complete list of all these various little tools in this list. More to come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrik Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 (edited) UPDATE: Been running the system since APRIL 15. No problems at all so far. Experienced a couple of 90+ days here in Sacramento. The fan control system thermostat is set to activate upon sensing 180deg at the outflow from the rad. The purpose of this is so that the fan only activates if the radiator isn't doing any cooling. NOTE: this assumes the mechanical thermostat on the engine opens completely at 180deg- anybody have any pertinent info on the mechanical thermostat? Although on cool nights on the frwy the engine temp indicator never reaches as high as when the fan activates. I suppose it might be better to set the thermostat according to the pathfinder's temp indicator to maintain a consistent temp on hot days the same to what is achieved on cool nights. Though I have also heard that the hotter the engine coolant (short of damaging temps) the more effecient power the engine can produce. i.e., Temp indicator-needle example: . . . . . ___ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .| \ .| . vs. . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cool night. . vs. hot day - fan maintains this temp. on frwy . . . . . day idling in gridlock Any ideas on any of this? Controller installed - Passenger side Connections to electric fan- direct to fan (bypassing the Flex-A-Light integrated fan relay) Fan Installed Edited June 18, 2007 by Derrik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
projekz Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 So if you're driving in water, can it potentialy damage the fan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 So if you're driving in water, can it potentialy damage the fan? Yes. Driving in deep water with the fan running will break some of the blades, and could potentially damage the radiator as well. Broken fan blades has happened to me with a fan very similiar to that one because I forgot to turn off the fan before crossing a stream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
projekz Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 So you hook up the fan to a manual operated switch that's always on unless you're crossing some water? Makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Figured it was time to bump this topic, since summer is coming... at least for the majority of us it is And also because I just finished installing an electric fan tonight. (stock fan clutch died this morning) I simply could not justify spending $45-$90USD on another clutch, when I could convert to electric for the same or less than the low end of the price range. I picked up a $33 Flex-a-lite Adjustable Temperature Control kit (#31147) and a fan from a 1990 Ford Taurus 3.8L V6 Having already done this swap in my Toyota (different fan and controller though) the install was painless. For anyone looking for more info on this topic, search for "Electric Fan" or "Taurus Fan" and you will come up with a lot of info to help you out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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