I have an 03 sedan with the mechanical clutch fan and wish to do a e-fan conversion to allow for more space in the engine bay and for a generally cleaner look ( I doubt I'll get any power out of this ).

Anyways, does the small fan in front of the radiator turn off even if the A/C if off? I ask because if it does I could just tap into the wires for this fan a run a relay to operate the larger e-fans without the need of any additional temperature equipment. Sounds correct?

 

No-one?

 

Hmmm interesting...either no one seems to know or you guys just don't care...lol. I guess I'm just gonna give it a try then.

 

Not sure if it would've helped if you posted this in the Sedan section. But yeah, I'm looking to this in the future as well in order to fit a Vortech S/C.

I'm pretty sure you can tap into the A/C fan but there are also many ways of doing it.

What I did to my old car was run direct power from the battery w/ an inline fuse then installed a switch somewhere in the cockpit. The upside to this setup is it lets you cool your car down with the engine off. Downside is sometimes you'll forget to turn it on/off and you risk overheating your engine or draining your battery.

You can also run the same setup above, but instead of a switch, you can connect it to a thermostat. Once it reaches a certain temperature the fan will automatically go on.

I would advise against tapping power from the OEM harness since it could damage more parts when the fans have a sudden change of current.

Hope this helps give you an idea.

 

I thought of putting it in the sedan section but it's an engine bay related question...I guess it would have gotten more attention over there though..lol.

I just want the fan to act on it's own and using a relay will take all the load off the oem harness so it should be a problem. I just don't know how the oem auxilary fan works, or rather, when does it operate. Cause if it barely ever turns on then that's a problem but if it's regularly on then that's perfect. It simplifies the setup.

 

Wow. A little impatient are we? It is a holiday weekend afterall. Many of the questions you've posted have been covered in decent detail on this site. I simply entered in "electric fan conversion" and got tons of hits which will surely answer you questions if you'd spend about 1 hour reading through all the information posted.

That auxillary fan kicks on at low/idle speeds when you've got the A/C on and if the motor is excessively warm, but it does turn off when coolant temps fall. You could tape the wires, but I wouldn't do it because:

1) You'd need to know which wire to tap which is a nightmare seeing that wiring schemes change often
2) The fan only turns on under extreme situations

If you're going to do the conversion, do what most everyone else did and place the e-fan provided temp sensor in the radiator and call it a day. Just make sure the temp probe is securely fastened and situates in the correct position to get good readings.

 

Hehehe...I know...I sometimes suck that way.

I've read every topic on this subject I could find but no one really seems to have tried using the auxilary fan as an on/off switch for the main fans. At least I couldn't find anyone who has tried it.

This is the only worry really because working with the wiring is not a problem for me but I don't know at what temps that fan kicks in. I wonder if the manual will say...I'll check that out.

e-fan provided temp sensor? The e-fans I bought don't have a temp sensor that I know of...or maybe I misread you post.

 

Did your kit not come with a controller and temp probe? If not, it sounds like you need this

On a side note, has anyone doing this conversion considered the fact that the e-fan puts a lot more stress on the alternator because the fan will pull a substanial amount of amps on start-up and then during running? I'd recommend researching if the e-fan equipped Gs/Zs come with larger alternators. Lots of Stang and GM guys doing these conversions have to do alternator swaps.

 

I didn't buy a kit...I just bought two 12"fans.

I checked the FSM and the aux. fan turns on at 203*F and goes into high speed at 213*F assuming the A/C is off. Does that seem to high? I kinda wished it would turn on at 180* or so.

I agree the e-fans will put a good deal of stress on the alternator, but I plan on going S/C in the near future so I really just want to make room for it. If the Alternator fails due to the extra load than I'll upgrade it.

 

You can use the wires that run the AC fan to power both fans if you run a dual fan setup. Or, you can just tap into the wires if you end up running a single 14" or 16" fan and keep the stock aux fan.


I'm running dual electric fans using those wires.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. I kinda don't like the temp at which they turn on though...might end up getting the control module.

 

Ya, that might be the only downside. It'd be nice to have them turn on earlier...if you could hack into the ECM and adjust that it would be the best option