Electric Fan

[MAKG]

I dissagree with you here. Your altinator is still rotating at the same speed whether you have a mech fan or electric. The increased load doesn't place a segnificant load on the engine to consume more fuel.

Umm, this is absolutely, completely and irrefutably wrong. The increased electrical load places AT LEAST AS MUCH LOAD on the engine. Always. Claims to the contrary are precisely equivalent to claims of perpetual motion. They have as much validity as claiming to have a ghost-powered fan.

You've said this before. Try a bicycle generator before you make it very clear (again) that you didn't pay attention in high school physics.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

i didnt swap rad.s in my explorer...............went thru the smokies in aug traffic was a nitemare.........never got hot.

gas milage isnt an issue with the ranger........7 to 12 mpg (rough guesstimate..lol)

power to fan......not a problem.......180 amp alt........2 1250 cranking amp batterys in the bed wired for 2500 cranking amps.
not trying to insult anyones I.Q. but it works for me

 

[rickcdewitt]

i don't like the thermostats with a sensing bulb as opposed to a sensor directly in the coolant.they don't work very well at crawl speed and can let your truck overheat.i used a flexalite ranger kit and it cooled well but the bulb coulden't always get enough hot air past it to work properly.then i went through some mud bogs up to my headlights at a local off road park without turning off the fan first and the wimpy fan blades broke off.enough was enough and a factory fan and new fan clutch went on.no problems since even in deep water.anyone want a electric fan with 4 blades left?

 

[HAPPY_RANGER_GUY]

...Claims to the contrary are precisely equivalent to claims of perpetual motion. They have as much validity as claiming to have a ghost-powered fan.

WHAT? There is no FREE lunch?


Yep, no way around it, forcefully moving air requires some energy of sorts(engine load) no matter how you slice it. If in doubt, leave er stock.

T.

 

[michowski]

Im not saying either of you are wrong. Im not saying im 100% right. All im saying is how my experience went. From just taking off the stock fan and putting in my electric fan I noticed a very noticable increase in power. Cooling was the same. This whole alternator thing I dont get. No matter what your alternator is always spinning. Wether you have a big load on it or not its always going and doesnt effect the engine performance anywere near as much as the stock fan does lol. Thats a fact and something you cant change my mind on.

And as for the stock fan pulls more air then the electric fan and therefor it is inferior I think is true to an extent. Driving down the highway the fan rarely if ever turns on. If you have good air flow then there will be plenty of air which equals plenty of cooling. City driving doesnt cool any better then the stock fan either. You say the higher the rpm the faster the fan spins but unless you rev your motor so much that you keep it at 3000rpm all the time I dont think its anymore effective. The fan only cools as much as your engine has rpms. The electric fan is a constant 2500rpm regardless of the rpm. You can be at an idle and the electric fan is pushing in more air according to your statement mentioned earlier.

 

[MAKG]

Michowski, you run into the biggest problems with the transfer case in low range, at ridiculous altitudes, climbing a hill slowly. Which can easily mean 3000 RPM and 5 MPH. An example might be the Alpine Loop in southwestern Colorado, which has a 12,000 foot pass.

And 3000 RPM isn't that fast. I take my 4.0L up to 5000 RPM routinely. That's just about as fast as it will go....

You have a fan CLUTCH stock. This means it isn't pulling significant power unless it is needed, which is determined by the temperature of the air coming through the radiator. Unless it's broken. If you compared a broken fan clutch to a working electric fan, that's hardly a fair comparison.

 

[michowski]

ok, now I can see where your comming from. I live in chicago and am no were near those kinds of altitutudes. And no matter what a stock fan will always drag power out of the motor vs an electric fan. When I went offroading I was out for an hour straight, climbing some very steep hills for a stock truck in low and it never got hotter then normal driving. This one hill I was on for about 2 minutes and held it at 3 grand the entire time and didnt experience any over heating or anymore heat then normal for that matter. Now if your doing the kind of climbing at your altitude then maybe the stock fan would be better but besides that I just disagree. Ive experienced none of the problems you have said an electric fan causes. I mainly offroad in the woods were it is more humid then normal and still havent had a single issue.

 

[MAKG]

Humidity is a GOOD thing for your cooling system. No natural temperature on earth is warm for an engine (not even the world record of 136 deg), and humid air holds quite a lot more heat than dry air at the same temperature. Your engine cools exclusively by heat transfer, not evaporation like people do.

It's no accident that all the guys who say electric fans work live well east of the Rockies. If you make this mod, you just have to hope that you never take a road trip west.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

No matter what your alternator is always spinning. Wether you have a big load on it or not its always going and doesnt effect the engine performance anywere near as much as the stock fan does lol.

your alternator only creates as much electricity as is needed by your electrical system. just because you have a 120 amp alternator doesnt mean its putting out 120 amps any time its spinning. it puts out 5 amps to keep your ignition, fuel pump, and ECU powered...then it puts out 35 amps when you add your headlights, 45 amps when you add the heater....ect. the higher the demand on the alternator, the more force it takes to spin it and thus, the more power it robs from the motor.

its basic physics. energy cannot be created nor destroyed. it takes X amount of energy to move a given amount of air, regardless of if that energy is provided by an electric motor or a gas motor.

as for e-fans reducing cooling capacity. the fact is they do. it may not be a big enough reduction to cause problems (it seems that in most of these guys' cases, it isnt)...but if your looking to increase cooling system capacity with an e-fan, it just wont happen.

 

[michowski]

My point was compared to the stock fan it doesnt create anywere near as much drag. That all I meant.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

i know what your trying to say. im trying to explain that you cannot create energy. if your moving 500CFM of air, your moving 500CFM of air. it will take the same amount of horsepower to move that air no matter how you do it (electric engine vs gas engine).

all your doing is transfering the load from directly on the crank to the alternator (which is driven by the crank).

hope this is clear.

 

[michowski]

ya dude I get ya. I transferred the load to something that doesnt drag the motor down as much is all. Thats the easy way to say it lol

 

[fastpakr]

Except that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If the fan (electric or clutch) is moving x amount of air, it takes y amount of energy. That energy can be generated directly through the mechanical fan, or converted into electrical energy at the alternator and back to mechanical energy at the electric fan. Both require the same amount of energy.

 

[beyonder]

Umm, this is absolutely, completely and irrefutably wrong. The increased electrical load places AT LEAST AS MUCH LOAD on the engine. Always. Claims to the contrary are precisely equivalent to claims of perpetual motion. They have as much validity as claiming to have a ghost-powered fan.

You've said this before. Try a bicycle generator before you make it very clear (again) that you didn't pay attention in high school physics.

Who brought up perpetual motion? Tell me how an altinator only produces power as needed? please I'd really like to understand this magical concept. The alt in your vehicle runs your lights, accessories,etc and tops up the battery in your vehicle with the excess power. Thats out of a chiltons book.

Now in all fairness lets consider your "bicycle generator". Your claiming you need more power to run more accessories, this is true in the sense that you have to pedal faster to produce more power. 100rpm = 1 watt, 200 rpm=2watt and so fourth. The point is if your altinator is running at 1 000rpm constant its going to produce 10 watts regardless of whether you use it or not! The altinator cannot produce neither more or less that that. Because the power production is based on the rpm of the altinator.
( if you wanna call this one I'd like to see proof of your claim )

Where would the drag be eliminated? Quite simple, the fan would draw from the battery and the battery would be recharged as per NORMAL. Therefor eliminating the "drag" on the engine. You are NOT creating energy from nothing, your vehicle is still operating as normal. ( I run a microhydro system for my lights at home, how full my batteries are charged is in comparrison to the flow which affects the RPM of the alt's I use. If they run at 600rpm, they produce a constant power, just like in your vehicle )

Now IF you were correct and IF I were wrong that leaves another question that noone has answered on here, how much HP does the mech fan really consume and how many watts does the elec fan require? what is the difference and therefor what is the real increase or savings in fuel and how long would it take to make it worth while to do the conversion? This is the info I believe is what everyone wants to know here; not "don't do it it wont work"...

 

[jubangy]

Who brought up perpetual motion? Tell me how an altinator only produces power as needed? please I'd really like to understand this magical concept. The alt in your vehicle runs your lights, accessories,etc and tops up the battery in your vehicle with the excess power. Thats out of a chiltons book.

Now in all fairness lets consider your "bicycle generator". Your claiming you need more power to run more accessories, this is true in the sense that you have to pedal faster to produce more power. 100rpm = 1 watt, 200 rpm=2watt and so fourth. The point is if your altinator is running at 1 000rpm constant its going to produce 10 watts regardless of whether you use it or not! The altinator cannot produce neither more or less that that. Because the power production is based on the rpm of the altinator.
( if you wanna call this one I'd like to see proof of your claim )

Where would the drag be eliminated? Quite simple, the fan would draw from the battery and the battery would be recharged as per NORMAL. Therefor eliminating the "drag" on the engine. You are NOT creating energy from nothing, your vehicle is still operating as normal. ( I run a microhydro system for my lights at home, how full my batteries are charged is in comparrison to the flow which affects the RPM of the alt's I use. If they run at 600rpm, they produce a constant power, just like in your vehicle )

Now IF you were correct and IF I were wrong that leaves another question that noone has answered on here, how much HP does the mech fan really consume and how many watts does the elec fan require? what is the difference and therefor what is the real increase or savings in fuel and how long would it take to make it worth while to do the conversion? This is the info I believe is what everyone wants to know here; not "don't do it it wont work"...

x1