Anyone Using/used An E-fan From A Mercury Villager?

Saw some rumblings about this on the intraweb over the past couple days and was already heading out to the junkyard this morning. I searched for early 90' Taurus'; plenty out there but none with the 3.8L engine. Then I remembered hearing that the fan from the Mercury Villager was almost a perfect fit and performed relatively comparable to the Taurus fan. I found one pretty easily and picked it up for $15.

I'm working on getting it installed in a stock Fox shroud. Hope to have it complete in the next few days.

Anyone know if I will need either a higher amp relay or a DCC controller for this fan, similar to if I were running the Taurus fan? I currently have a Proform fan installed with a Hayden controller, but it only has a 40A relay.

I've got the fan cut out of it's stock shroud and ready to bolt into the OEM 5.0 shroud.

I've found a wiring diagram that indicates this is a 2 speed fan, but I'm really curious about the amp draw upon startup and if it's as high as the Taurus fan. I'd like to be able and keep running the same controller I have now, but I'm guessing the 40A relay I have won't be enough.

So I've finished this up. The fan fits inside the OEM shroud nearly perfectly.



I disassembled the fan; took the blades off as well as the motor so all I had left was the protective cover/shroud of the Mercury fan (referred to from here on out as the fan). I stacked the fan on 3 rolls of tape (scientific I know) so that the top of the fan (leaving edge) was level with the leaving edge of the Mustang shroud.

I decided I wanted 6 bolts holding the fan in place, but I didn't want the bolts very visible from the top of the shroud when looking down into the engine bay. I picked the place for the highest bolt locations to be at approximately 2 and 10 o'clock, and then measured around the circumference of the bottom of the fan. With 6 bolt holes the spacing of my bolt locations was 8-3/16". I marked these spaces and then drilled a small hole in each location. You can see some of the holes in the shroud in this picture.



Then I held the fan in place (still on my 3 rolls of stacked tape) so it lined up with the Mustang shroud, then drilled a hole into the fan using the holes in the Mustang shroud as a guide.



Then I used (6) #10-32 x 1-1/2" screws along with locking nuts with a nylon insert to prevent the nuts from backing off. There is roughly a 1 - 1-1/4" gap around the perimeter of the fan between the edge of the fan and the Mustang shroud. I was surprised how sturdy this thing is after it's all installed, but it's held in there pretty tight





My only concern is the overall installed depth of the assembly, because the motor shroud protrudes a bit on the fan. Would someone be willing to measure the clearance from the leaving face of their radiator to the front of the water pump pulley, assuming a stock radiator and water pump? I'm curious if the overall depth of this assembly is too deep to fit.

Your thread is actually where I got the idea for using the bolts spaced around the circumference of the fan.

The problem is how far back you mounted it inside the shroud.

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What do you mean by this? Are you saying I mounted it too far back so it will hit the radiator, or are you saying I didn't mount it back far enough?

85_SS_302_Coupe said:

I'm saying you need to mount it as close to the radiator as you can to give you water pump clearance. Another thing you can do is offset the fan inside the shroud, which may not look quite as neat but it can set the motor off to one side or the other to give you clearance.

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I'll have to do a test fit or get someone to measure what the clearance dimension is in between a stock radiator and water pump pulley.

If I leave the holes in the shroud as they are now and move the fan closer to the radiator, I've only got about 1/4" to 3/8" play before the bolts wouldn't have anything to mount to on the Mercury fan. If I move the bolts closer to the radiator in the Mustang shroud, and move the fan back at the same time, the bolts on the bottom and the passenger side are going to go through the Mustang shroud on a non-flat surface which would be tricky to say the least. The shroud has a pretty good slope here, different than on the driver's side which I obviously have some more room to move the bolt holes closer to the radiator.

I wouldn't mind offsetting the fan if I could do so and miss the WP pulley. I'll have to look at that.

Can't do **** until I get the car back from paint though.