Who is running an electric fan?

for the people running an electric fan, what brand and or setup do you have? pics if possible.

i did a aluminum fan shroud and a 3650 cfm fan. my truck still over heated with light off-roading or slow traffic. i think the rating on the fan was B.S. IMO.

 

It's very difficult for any electric fan to cool as effectively as the engine driven fan. Just look at the blade pitch vs the stock fan. If you did find one big enough, guess what? The drag on the engine would be about the same by pulling down the alternator. There is simply no free ride here. Electric fans work great for mud bog racers, and drag racers where you need a little cooling till the run, then kill the fan and go. An electric can be used in addition to a mechanical fan for lots of low speed crawling. I've never found an electric fan that could carry the load alone.

 

Previous owner had dual electric fans put in my 04, it would overheat on me when offroading especially when climbing in 4lo. Replaced the e-fans with a stock fan clutch and haven't overheated since.

Read many similar stories on here so it seems to be a common thing with Tacomas and e-fans, though I have heard some people swear by them. Didn't work for me though.

 

Ive been running a flex-a-lite Black magic fan.
Works GREAT.
Zero overheating, and it gets HOT in Texas.

Ran one on my old 00’ 4.7 tundra, also ran one on my old 96’ 3.4 Tacoma.

The tundra got destroyed by a tree that fell on it, but the Tacoma I sold to my brother. Installed that fan 10 years ago, and it’s still running strong.

I tow max rating for the truck, and off road. I’m not easy on my vehicles.

I fully stand behind Flex-a-lite fans.

 

Why are you wanting to go to an electric fan?

I’ve run them before on my 22re trucks, but this is a prime case of getting what you pay for. Overheating can cause head gasket failure which is very expensive, so buying a quality one is important.

But after running one, I noticed no difference in performance or mpg. What I did notice was it was very loud, sounding like someone is running a hairdryer on steroids, and when it kicked on the voltmeter noticeably dropped and all the lights dimmed which was annoying. Not really worth it IMO. I wouldn’t do it again.

Keep in mind the OEM fan is clutched, so it can basically freespool when not needed, then engage when needed, so it isn’t as much of a drag as it would first appear. And as pointed out earlier the electric fan is going to transfer the load to the alternator which will transfer it to the engine.

 

Go back to OEM

 

flexalite black magic xtreme 180 keeps my 5.9 dakota cool with ac on in summer in Alabama.

 

i have gone back to stock right after i started to over heat. was toying with the notion of finding a better route for an electric fan. i liked how quick it warmed up when cold and the engine ran smoother. if there are no better options then ill stay oem.

 

https://www.flex-a-lite.com/electri...lectric-fan-with-for-05-11-toyota-tacoma.html


I’ve been running that one for the last 3 years.
Heavy towing, slow crawling, all in brutal Texas heat.
Truck runs nice and cool.

Nice having the freed up power from not using the stock fan when towing.

Do what you feel is comfortable. I’m one of the electric fan advocates. I’ve been running only electric fans for the last 12 years, and doubt I’ll be going back.

 

i installed mine in 2005 and had one bad motor about a year after purchase and they sent a new one for free. My tacoma wont get one but i know it could more than easily keep it cool.

Fairly lower power draw also. Mine does not turn above certain speed.

 

My father just purchased that fan and received it the other day for his 2013, glad to hear no issues with it.

 

Ha that's great my original tacoma fan keeps my truck cool with the ac on in Florida!

 

So does mine. Which is why it is still there.

 

Curious, does anyone who has replaced the OEM fan have any actual numbers? I'm thinking like actual engine temperature from a Scangauge or similar device towing up a grade in 100+ degree heat? Crawling for extended periods in 100+ heat? I have not tried an electric fan on the Tacoma, but I have tried the Black Magic fans on other vehicles. Those were bigger engines. What I found was that the electric fan did fine 95% of the time, but when the engine had to work hard in extreme heat, the E-fan could not keep up. I drove one vehicle for months and thought everything was fine,...then went on a road trip. I found myself on a long steep road in the Sierra Nevada and ended up having to stop every so many miles due to overheating. I had to replace it with an engine driven fan on the road.

The BM fan is a good quality fan, and there are benefits to E-fans, but 95, or even 99% success isn't good enough for me. It is possible to believe the fans are fine, simply because you never really tested them. The OEM fan has done the job even in heat over 115 degrees. I would suggest that anyone trying this keep the OEM parts in the truck if they head out to AZ , Death Valley, or Moab.

Having said that, IF anyone has any real numbers in extreme conditions, I could be convinced to try this again.

 

I run Torque on a tablet, and watch temps and such.

My truck, while towing about 4000 pounds, another 800 pounds-ish in the bed, plus myself and another in the truck, AC on, at 100-ish outside holds about 190 pretty consistently. Sometimes it hits 195+ but quickly dropped.

Dunno about the factory fan temps.

 

I don't know about our Tacomas but the temp gauge in my old 1991 w/ 22R-E had a pretty wide dead zone (what Toyota calls a "middle stable" design). That's common with cars so that the gauge doesn't constantly flutter at normal operating temp. So yeah, I wouldn't trust the needle but a Scangauge, sure.

Since the gauge now is a reading from the ECM rather than a simple analog circuit I don't know what the stable zone is anymore but with the trucks back in the 1990s if the gauge moved *at all* from the center it meant you need to shut down immediately since overheat is eminent.

Here's one example of a fix we'd do to the gauges to make them linear:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/93-97-coolant-temperature-gauge-modification.64252/

 

Part of the problem is when the electric fan kicks on. If you don't get that right then it will overheat. Also the draw of an electric fan doesn't cause the alternator to rob more hp from the eng. I can prove this on the dyno and have run those tests. The only way it can rob power is if you do not have an alt. that can keep up with amp. demand thus robbing the ignition and fuel system from the power it needs. The stock cooling fan once the clutch "wams" up it engages the fan it won't loosen up and allow the fan to spin less unless the clutch drops down to a certain temp and idling/offroading it won't happen. On a cold day in the middle of winter cruising down the highway where you have enough air movement it may free up some. It's not just CFM you're looking for but also the dia. of the fan. 2 Fans of the same CFM but different diam. even shrouded will move different amounts of air through the rad. They test the fans in a tube the same dia. of the fan. In other words when you as an 8in fan to pull X amt of cfm through a larger area it won't be able to move as much air as lets say a 14" fan of the same cfm. Flex a lite make a universal 2 12" fan set up in an aluminum shroud that I am going to go with. The dimensions of the shroud are just a hair larger than the actual core of our rads. Those 2 12" fans with a control box and a 195-200* switch should be perfect. I would also run a bypass switch from the controller and temp switch.

 

Energy is energy regardless if it's converted by the alternator or directly from the engine. An alternator is pretty efficient but per cubic foot moved it's no different, you can't cheat physics.

The reason it might appear to be a reduced engine load is an electric fan uses stored energy from the battery and therefore the alternator doesn't have to do all the work initially. Eventually you discharge the battery to the point that the alternator starts to work. This is the same for any large load, for example a winch, big stereo, lots of lights. Given a long enough draw the alternator will eventually have to work, either to run the load or recharge the battery.

I agree with most of the other stuff you said. An electric fan can let you remove the cooling load completely, which can be a significant advantage sometimes. To me it's not worth the trouble, I'm more interested in keeping it simple. But there are certainly arguments in favor of them.

 

The alt. is constantly putting out and not just voltage. It also doesn't have a on or off. The loss you see is if you do not have enough Amperage to keep up with the draw and the ignition or fuel inj. or not enough power to the ECU again because the alt cannot keep up with demand so the load is robbing all the other components. When the engine is running the batt. is doing nothing the alt is providing all the energy needed for the vehicle. Higher amp draw if you are in the alt. spec will not cause an loss of power there is no physics in this except what the alt. bearings and internals put load on the engine electrical draw has nothing to do with how much load or robbery of power the alt. has. Unless you want to talk specific cases like some of the euros which do have water cooled alt. and clutched alt. Again I can prove this on a Dyno me and a buddy did once before because someone claimed this same exact thing.

 

Everyone here has excellent advice based on there own experiences. But lets be practical hear, you want the most reliable and easy to maintain truck, Common seance dictates a clean radiator, new thermostat, a good non leaking water pump. OE fan Clutch . new antifreeze In the case of your cooking system....simpler is better. You can over think anything, this is one of those instances.