Electric fan installation

[281pony]

i have an electric fan in the mail. its a 16" fan. im wondering what all is required in addition to the fan to install it?

i need to get the supplies i need tomorrow as im not going to have a car after tomorrow until i put on the fan. thanks

 

[HISSIN50]

mounting and wiring. what are ya stuck on? give more specifics on the fan, amp draw, CFM rating (im curious), number of speeds, do you have a thermo-switch, a/c, etc.

a real nice way to wire it is with a unit from:
www.DcControl.com (i dont have one but many do and love it). you can use switches and relays too. that is how poor people like me do it.

good luck bud.

 

[281pony]

ok ill tell you what i know. i have limited knowledge of the fan.

3200 cfm, no idea on amp draw, no idea on speeds, has an adjustable thermo-switch from 180-240 i believe. a/c deleted if that helps.

just wondering the basic stuff i should pickup for a poor man install already have some wiring and a toggle switch around here.

 

[Michael Yount]

"Poor man" install with a big-amp draw fan = fire.

Be careful. If you're planning on simply controlling the fan with a toggle, you're asking for trouble. It's REAL easy to overheat one by simply forgetting to turn the fan on. Not a good or recommended set up. Furthermore, most simple toggle switches don't have the capacity to flow all the juice the fan will pull - sounds like you intend to power it directly. That'll likely burn the toggle up. The only way to directly power a big-amp draw unit like a fan is to buy a toggle that's rated to handle the amperage of the fan - and you don't know the amperage of the fan, which is problematic to start with.

If the fan comes with a temp. select unit, then it will come with detailed wiring instructions on how to hook it up -- it probably has a temp. probe that pokes into the fins of the radiator, as well as a relay to power things. So you'll need to simply wait until you get the fan to see what else you'll need.

Use only high quality, large gauge wire for install. Fans usually pull a lot of current - I'd use only 12 gauge or larger on any of the power or ground circuits. Also, if you have the stock 65A alternator - you're most likely going to have charging issues because the current pull of the fan at low rpm is likely gonna overwhelm your alternator. Most folks running electrics have upgraded the alternator as well to a 95A or a 130A alternator.

Good luck with it.

 

[Idwitheld-1`]

I would also recommend a double crimper tool. I recently had my fan stop working. I found the crimp on the ground wire had the insulation melted and charred. Closer inspection revealed the crimp was good. Unfortunatly, the contact between the spade male and female was very poor (less than 50 %). Looks like the spade female was distorted (probably during crimping) and lost its contact ability. THis reduced the cross-section of the conductor, increasing the heat in the junction. Inspect all connections!

 

[HISSIN50]

Id, you crimp stuff??????????? how ya been?

guys, 88SC has a 200 amp alt and the a fan controller. i have an aftermarket controller (for a 4th gen camaro) and i will say the directions with it leave something to be desired - glad i sorta 'think' i have an idea as to what im doing already.

the controller might have a provision for a manual switch - if it does, i would use it, as some of the less expensive controllers (not sure what you got, 88SC) can hiccup.

it might also come with a relay. your wiring will be simple - you have one fan blade/motor to energize and no a/c.

bug me later if no one posts a simple schematic - someone in here has one in their sig - if a picture is worth 10 bucks, it will be worth $9.99 more than my ramblings.

i second what Michael and Id said about proper wiring. you seem to have a lot of CFM's to flow - not knowing what amp draw you have (i would surmise a good bit), i would go with 8 gauge wire on the feed (should handle 50 amps pretty well, if you draw that much). the relay coils flow probably a couple hundred mA, so those wires can be svelte.

i might add that you might be able to go to the manufacturer's site (of the fan) and they might have specs and even schematics on how to wire it in (nice to have a schematic in hand as a reference, rather than piece together what we are saying). plus it would be cool to know for sure how much it draws (for wiring, future reference, etc). we are just guessing at what you need (AWG size, etc) without such info.

ok, i think im done for now. good luck bud.

 

[notchman90]

i have two 12" electric fans in my car hooked up to separate toggle switches that are rated at 30amps. My fans pull 6amp each. Materials i used were 16 gauge wire, 12 gauge for power and ground. two relays one for each fan. you will also need mounting straps. you might also want to put inline fuse in between your relay and fan positive wire.

 

[HISSIN50]

Notchman, i hope you fused the battery power to the relay(s) as well. too many fuses is never bad (with a properly functioning set up, they will never blow), but too few is bad. too many have fried harnesses. IMHO, a fuse from the battery to the common terminal is most important.

i will add that 88SC's fan is going to use considerably more power (rated at 3200 CFM), i would think - 6 amps is nothing!

your way works obviously and you are happy with it; we all would do things differently. so im just pointing this out so as to help reduce confusion.

 

[281pony]

thanks for all the input. im an idiot with electrical if my toggle switch idea was moronic. mr. yount covered what i was wondering pretty well. i was mainly confused on the whole wiring setup.

so pick up some good 8 gauge wiring and the fan should include the relay i need? i went and bought some hefty cable ties today for some extra reinforcement on the fan.

i have a 200 amp 3g alt and optima battery, i have the stock wiring for it still too ill be doing the 4 gauge wiring conversion with the fan.

i will look up the specs on the fan if i can find them.

 

[281pony]

ok i got a few minor things mixed up.

it is a 15" proform fan. 2800 cfm. also says equipped with an adjustable 180-280 degree thermostat.

so i should just need to grab some 8 gauge wiring right?

one other question. if i wire it with the relays, it will be automatic right? how to the adjustable thermostat's work? you put a sensor on the radiator fins and it senses the temp and comes on whenever it hits that temp?

 

[HISSIN50]

hey bud. we all know im the king of overkill - on your alternator, i would actually use a 2 gauge wire. most of the 4 gauge recommendations are for 130 amp alts, as i recall.

normally the fan switch (thermoswitch) has the relay, in my experience. once again, knowing the amp draw for sure would help (i know you will find out - just dont want it to get overlooked as it is pretty important - im not good at guestimating from the CFM flow what a fan might draw).
some guys use an SPDT 30 amp relay, while guys with Mark 8 fans use a higher rated relay (often a Bosch relay). so it is important, IMHO. i will do the latter, as i like overkill.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here (and i dont know 1/1000th of what Tom, Id and many others do), but if you are not real sure on the wiring stuff, i dont want to see you fry something or have lackluster results (i would kick myself for not saying something).

good luck, bud.

 

[281pony]

i know what you mean. i got the alt wiring kit from pa performance specially for my alt though so i think it should be fine. reguardless better then my stock wiring.

i can wire things ok, im just not real familiar with it obviously. ive wired my stereo, gauges, ect fine. i was just wondering if the fan used a different application and what i was going to need outside the kit. if that makes sense.

from the sounds of it, i should be good with just some 8 gauge wiring then. maybe ill pick up some connectors too, i have a good set of wire crimpers to use also.

 

[HISSIN50]

oops, you posted #10 while i was pecking #11.

yep, the thermoswitch has an outlet wire which goes to the controller or relay (it often sends a ground pulse, but not always). this will energize the relay and it fires up (automatically). some of the fan switches are not absolutely accurate (in terms of it closing at the temp specified). you might have to play with the rheostat to make it work at the temps you want (vs what it says it is at). chalk it up to the probing method of the fin probes.

i would wire in a manual switch too. the difference in this, vs what Notch did, is that you can use the switch to send a low current (couple hundred mA) pulse to activate the relay (or some controllers have a terminal for a switch). that way, should the probe or controller fail, you are able to activate the fan.

you got it right on about how the thermoswitch works too.

yep, some wire and appropriate terminals (likely the yellow sleeved ones or non sleeved for solder for the correct AWG wire) and whatever else you need. BTW, did not mean to offend - sounds like you know what is up with the wiring stuff. my bad. PA stuff is supposed to be top notch too (for your alt). good call.

good luck.

 

[HISSIN50]

oh yeah, not sure if you saw it, but i think they have instructions on their site. might help with specific stuff.

 

[281pony]

yeah i will probably wire in a switch eventually then. in the next couple weeks i have a ton of projects going so i want to keep it simple for the time being.

you didnt offend me. my post came across kind of weird so i can see your assumption

thanks for the good info guys

 

[281pony]

found one thing on the site hissin.

it says "With a heavy-duty motor, highly angled blades, and 15" diameter, this unit pulls up to 2,800 CFM of air, cooling vehicles with up to 250+ HP (without air) and 220+ HP (with air)."

can you clarify that? just making sure based on that statement this will cool more then 250 hp fine.

it also draws only 8 amps.

 

[HISSIN50]

wow, drawing 8 amps is nothing (Mark 8 fans can draw 35+, and over 100 amps at startup!). so 8 gauge wire is way overkill, but i would still do it (unless your engine bay is really pretty or something and you dont want a slightly thicker wire). should you go with something different ever, it is wired to go.

ill leave the AWG decision to others, but i think you could use 18 gauge, if you had to!

as for the HP ratings, Michael will know better than i do on that. i dont know how precise those specs are - i go by CFM's more. and your fan is right around what the stock mech fan pulls, IIRC (Michael, sound right?). i think you will have to try it and see (or get feedback from others whom have the same fan. as i recall, quite a few guys do).

let us know how it turns out.

 

[Michael Yount]

I didn't want to say anything -- I suppose you'll have to try it and see what happens; but I don't think that fan is gonna have enough capacity to keep you cool in all conditions. The tough part is that because ambient temps are starting to drop for the season, you probably won't know how it's gonna really work til next summer. Don't be surprised if you end up having to go through all this again with another, bigger fan.

Many fan companies rate their fans in very interesting ways. The challenge is that 8A and 2800 cfm just don't go together; and that a single 15" probably isn't enough. The companies sometimes list a cfm rating at 0" of static pressure - in other words, with no resistance to movement, which of course is impossible to emulate if you want to actually use the fan.

My dual 11" set up is rated at 2780 cfm, and on the car at full speed they pull a bit over 30A. So the moral of the story likely is gonna be - if your only pulls 8A, it's not gonna move anywhere near 2800 cfm; and if it moves 2800 cfm, it's gonna pull WAY more than 8A. You'll just have to see what happens when you put it on.

With it being listed as having an adjustable temp setting, I suspect the wiring set up will be quite simple. It'll likely be a 4 or 5 wire set up. The controller and relay are likely already included and attached to the fan. It'll likely take 1) big hot wire from battery to fan/unit (be sure you fuse it properly); 2) big ground wire from battery/frame to fan/unit; 3) small hot wire from 'switched on' hot source to fan/unit (find a fused connection in the fuse box that is hot when you turn the ignition switch on); 4) connection to the a/c clutch wire to activate fans when the a/c compressor is engaged; 5) they probably have a wire/sensor that they want you to insert into the fins of the radiator.

Likely all you'll need are wires, connectors. They should provide everything else in the kit. DO NOT hook up things without fuse protection. If it doesn't come in the kit (it should) buy some in-line fuse holders and add it yourself.

 

[281pony]

thanks, good advice.

one thing im assuming though on the low amp versus cfm thing. i would tend to lean towards the amp rating is wrong over the cfm. ive read of quite afew people using this fan just in a couple posts and they all are pleased.

my car runs at 160 degree's all day long now, approaches 170 if im sitting. stock fan, stock radiator. so if this is close to or better then stock, im sure ill be fine. also if it draws 30+ amps, i should still be safe with a 200 amp alt and optima battery. i believe this alt produces 80 amps at idle.

 

[notchman90]

hissin thanks for the input, my fans only put out 1300cfm each so they are not drawing too much. I made a mistake in where to put the fuse..i have it from the relay to the battery, not the fan to the relay.