Which one is better? Comments, opinions welcomed

Reddevil91 · Feb 27, 2011

Ok so ive had my beast sitting garaged and covered for 5 years, with occasional start ups, oil changes etc. My question is im looking to switch to an electric fan instead of my aluminum flex fan. i just changed out the water pump bc the gasket was bad and it was leaking. So what set up do you all think is best, ive looked at black magic extreme, proform, and the mishimoto fan shroud with dual 12" fans. i have also looked at the imperial and hayden fans from autozone,advance and those places but what would be my best bet?

LarsD · Feb 27, 2011

I'm running a fan out of a mid 90's Taurus and it cools my car pretty well despite the undersized radiator. You can pick them up for cheap from salvage yards.

gtcobra302 · Feb 28, 2011

I just went from an aluminum flex fan to a single speed fan from a Taurus and it works great. You need to have done the 3G alternator swap before the fan and it is also a good idea to use a fan controller to turn the fan on and off. Definetly worth the tome and effort.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 28, 2011

The oem fans seems to have the aftermarket fans beat in performance and price

jrichker · Feb 28, 2011

Unless you have a 3G or other high current alternator, an electric fan is not a good option.

Electric fan = 3G alternator if you want long life & reliability from your car.
The electric fan saves some HP. The stock fan's parasitic drag runs from 7-12 HP depending on who you talk to. The electric fan uses about 1/2 HP of power from the electrical system.

Figure this:
Ignition system & computer = 12 amps
Fuel pump = 12 amps
Exterior lights = 15 amps
Fan (heater or A/C) = 15 amps (can run between 5-25 amps depending on setting)
Radio & instruments = 10 amps
Wipers = 10 amps

That's grand total of 74 amps from a 65 amp alternator. Talk about overdrawn at the bank!

The electric fan draws about 30 amps unless you have an advanced Pulse Width controller like a DCControl (Welcome to Delta Current Control) or SPAL FAN-PWM (FAN-PWM). The advanced controllers will reduce current surge and current draw. It will still require a high current alternator, but it makes a smoother running system.

The DCControl unit has an excellent reputation here on Stangnet, and there area lot of guys who have had good success with them.

Reddevil91 · Mar 2, 2011

Cool thanks so when you say 3g alternator is that what its called? i guess another question is how much CFM is enough, this wont be my daily driver its basically will be driven every now and then, mostly garage kept. ive seen the cheaper ones from say autozone etc that push 1400-1500 cfm and then there is some like say the proform and black magic that are around or over 2500 cfm. Also i am confused as to the push or pull type, what is it that our fox bodies need?

LarsD · Mar 2, 2011

You would want a pull type fan. A 3G alternator is out of a 94-95 Mustang.

KEN08G37 · Mar 2, 2011

I have a Flex a Lite 175 and have had no probs at all with it.

citmov · Mar 3, 2011

My buddy has a single row aluminum radiator, Mark 8 fan w/ 3G Alt and he's never had a overheating problem. Just throwing out another option.

NIKwoaC · Mar 3, 2011

I hate to ever say anything that contradicts jrichker, because that dude knows what he's talking about, but I will say that I ran an e-fan for 6 or 7 years with the stock alternator that came with the car, or maybe 30-40K miles. 4 or 5 of those years was with underdrive pulleys. I wouldn't say my charging performance was stellar, but I never had any serious issues. Worst that would happen was my headlights would dim when I sat idling at a stop, that's about it.

Note that I'm NOT recommending this, I'm just saying that it is possible to have an e-fan with the stock alt. My motto with anything that doesn't affect the speed or performance of the car is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and that little alternator kept chugging away all those years just fine. This year I finally threw in the towel and upgraded to a 3G, and that was because my stock alt finally took a dump.

rbonella · Mar 3, 2011

I was going to do the mishimoto dual 12's with shroud until I read the reviews on it....less than steller! Instead I simply replaced my fan clutch and bought a new factory fan....the factory fan w/clutch robs a few hp, but that sucker pulls in the cfm....IF I did electric...it would be a MarkVIII or taurus fan!

jrichker · Mar 3, 2011

NikwoaC said:
I hate to ever say anything that contradicts jrichker, because that dude knows what he's talking about, but I will say that I ran an e-fan for 6 or 7 years with the stock alternator that came with the car, or maybe 30-40K miles. 4 or 5 of those years was with underdrive pulleys. I wouldn't say my charging performance was stellar, but I never had any serious issues. Worst that would happen was my headlights would dim when I sat idling at a stop, that's about it.

Note that I'm NOT recommending this, I'm just saying that it is possible to have an e-fan with the stock alt. My motto with anything that doesn't affect the speed or performance of the car is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and that little alternator kept chugging away all those years just fine. This year I finally threw in the towel and upgraded to a 3G, and that was because my stock alt finally took a dump.

" This year I finally threw in the towel and upgraded to a 3G, and that was because my stock alt finally took a dump."

I think this pretty much says it all... The poor stock alternator finally gave up after suffering abuse and overload.... Time to have a wake and bury the poor thing...

NIKwoaC · Mar 4, 2011

jrichker said:
" This year I finally threw in the towel and upgraded to a 3G, and that was because my stock alt finally took a dump."

I think this pretty much says it all... The poor stock alternator finally gave up after suffering abuse and overload.... Time to have a wake and bury the poor thing...

Haha, it deserves an honorable funeral, that thing went above and beyond its expected design intent. Like I said, if it aint broke, don't fix it, and that thing went 7 years with my E-fan abuse. That's still the original alt, so it's what- 25 years old, and has 90K miles on it. I think that says a lot for Ford OE quality.

2000xp8 · Mar 4, 2011

I'd start with listing your other mods.
By the time you get the alternator, fan and fan controller in the car it's a good possibility you could have purchased something that is more bang for your buck.

I've seen it tested while everyone loves electric fans, they produce very little in the performance category, 5 or less hp.
About the only value i see the the E fan is constant airflow over the A/C condensor.

bgoins · Mar 4, 2011

2000xp8 said:
I'd start with listing your other mods.
By the time you get the alternator, fan and fan controller in the car it's a good possibility you could have purchased something that is more bang for your buck.

I've seen it tested while everyone loves electric fans, they produce very little in the performance category, 5 or less hp.
About the only value i see the the E fan is constant airflow over the A/C condensor.

Another benefit is more clearance, especially if you're planning on putting on a turbo or supercharger later on.

NIKwoaC · Mar 4, 2011

2000xp8 said:
I've seen it tested while everyone loves electric fans, they produce very little in the performance category, 5 or less hp.
About the only value i see the the E fan is constant airflow over the A/C condensor.

Was it tested with the fan running or off?

I realize the e-fan is not a huge performance gain, but I think it's other benefits are more noteworthy. Better cooling, AND better specific control of engine temp, easier maintenance access to the front of the engine, etc. It also gives you the option to run the fan while the engine is off, which is great for racers in between runs.

FastDriver · Mar 4, 2011

Pretty sure the stock alternator is a 75 amp unit. It doesn't exactly change your point, though.

I'd recommend staying away from Black Magic. I had bad experiences with mine in terms of reliability. That said, I also ran one with a stock alternator.

2000xp8 · Mar 4, 2011

NikwoaC said:
Was it tested with the fan running or off?

I realize the e-fan is not a huge performance gain, but I think it's other benefits are more noteworthy. Better cooling, AND better specific control of engine temp, easier maintenance access to the front of the engine, etc. It also gives you the option to run the fan while the engine is off, which is great for racers in between runs.

It was on a dyno, and honestly i don't know if the fan was physcially running or not. Big fan blowing through the radiator though.
If you take the entire belt off it's only worth 20rwp, that's no PS, no WP/fan or Alternator (water pump running on a secondary belt that's electric).

I ran my car it's entire life on a 3 row radiator from pep boys. Never had a single cooling issue, and i've always had a mechanical autometer water temp gauge.

I'm not saying that the E fan isn't ever a good mod, it's just not that good of one if you have plenty of other things to work on first.
That's why i asked what else he had done to the car.
I sure as hell know if i didn't have a h/c/i setup i wouldn't be blowing hundreds of dollars to get less than 5 hp.

As far as cooling while the car sits at the race track, if you don't have a pump circulating the water, how much cooling is it really doing?

NIKwoaC · Mar 4, 2011

FastDriver said:
Pretty sure the stock alternator is a 75 amp unit. It doesn't exactly change your point, though.

I'd recommend staying away from Black Magic. I had bad experiences with mine in terms of reliability. That said, I also ran one with a stock alternator.

Mine is also a Flex-A-Lite Black Magic "Extreme" IIRC. I have not had any problems with it per-say, but I've seen the OE Ford e-fans that other guys have retrofitted into their cars, and the Ford units definitely seem more robust.

Reddevil91 · Mar 4, 2011

good help all thats awesome

Ok well i am still up in the air as to which one the go with, but so far im thinking about doing the pro-form 175 and getting that temp controller thing whatever its called that will automatically turn the fan on depending on the temp you set it to turn on at. ive seen different versions of that one also some that screw into the block, some that have a probe that drops into the radiator etc so thats another thing to think about. I dont want the fan for power as i dont see it as a performance product but more for clearance and just preferance. As for add ons i have f-303 with 1.7 roller rockers, full exhaust, pulleys, msd 6al, 3.73s, throttle body 65, flex fan at this time but its just noisey, 3 row rad from pep boys, looking to get an intake, injectors, mass air meter, and eventually a blower, really like the kenne bell just to be different than everyone running paxton or vortech.

Which one is better? Comments, opinions welcomed

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