How tight can you get the efan mounted? Mine is somewhat loose, so I was wondering.

 

Aside from the fact that mine is melted to the radiator..........=\

I got mine pretty damn tight. I used a pair of vise-grips. Clamped em on the rod and used something for leverage against the clicky tab. Tight working space but I found a small set of vise-grips. Worked awesome.

 

Ahh..I'll have to try that. I'll probably wire the fan in place as well. I screwed up the one mounting circle, but there were five of them in the box. Argh, the instructions are not that good aside from the wiring. Argh...

 

Yeah I had to sit and think about those instructions. I ended up writing down my plan on what was going where so there was no confusion or hang ups.

*Where do all these extra parts go?!*
^^^That's bad when you're asking yourself that lol...

 

Thanks :P Well, I'm taking a little break before wiring it up.

 

Sounds like a plan, good luck!

 

Thanks... I'll be up all night if I have to to make it work!

 

I wasn't really sold on the idea of mounting the fan solely through the radiator fins. It probably works OK but I thought I would try something a little different. The top 2 mounts are bolted to two holes punched in the aluminum upper radiator frame. These carry most of the weight of the fan assembly and the lower two through mounts just stabilize the bottom of the fan frame. The shroud had to be trimmed to allow the mounts to stick up high enough to reach the frame.

Mine is a Flex-a-lite Syclone fan. I don't know if a similar method could be applied to other brands.

 

I did about the same thing as rwenzing. The 2 holes just happened to line up perfectly with the holes in the fan. It seems to be a very secure fit and doesn't wobble at all.

 

The temp sensor really doesn't lock in place. I stuck it all the way through the radiator to try and hold it securely. Can anyone else offer advice on securing it?

 

I think the instructions said to not let it go through to the other side. There should be a clip for it. Mine had one but I had to drill the hole to stick it through. Four pins for the fan and one for the temp sensor. I guess that's where you got 5 pins...

I forget what size hole I drilled into it but it definitely secured it. Just a hair smaller than the probe itself.

 

Yea drill a hole so that the sensor fits snug in one of the zip tie things. also i asked bob and he said another way to do it is to use RTV or Silicone to hold it in place.

 

Well crap...I used some silicone but I don't know if it will hold. Guess I will have to try something...I already have two other holes where it went...argh...

 

^^^What happened to your plan man?

 

Plan? I went to Plan Z Well, the silicone is holding, so I'll probably go back and make sure it is a solid fit. I have the thermostat set to a low temperature to turn the fan on, at around 150-160, around factory settings basically. I have a cutoff switch modded from a fog light switch with a rear window defroster cap on it. It works but this appears to be overridden by the thermostat. I'll probably end up increasing the temp of the thermostat, and will go and place some more silicone on and around that temp sensor. I'll also wire the fan to the top of the radiator for added safety. I always go with the overkill factor.

I can see the need for a new alternator as well!

 

Does anyone have something better than the add-a-circuit to wire up the switching power? It looks god-awful with the cover to the fuse panel bulging out.

 

I tapped mine into a wire on the back side of the fuse panel. I don't remember which one now, but it was a switched 10amp. It is only hot when the ignition is in RUN. That way, I can still use the ACC side to listen to the radio, etc without the fan turning on. It's easy to find with a test light.

Looking at the pics of the fans mounted high on the rad got me thinking about something. My fan is mounted more "central" on the rad and I've been having issues with increased tranny temps ever since I installed the e-fan......ESPECIALLY in stop & go traffic. Does anyone know which part of the rad is actually the internal trans cooler? I'm wondering if my e-fan is mounted in an area that it's not pulling air across the internal cooler? That would explain the increase in temps.

 

Ahh, well, I was tempted to tap it to the radio circuit behind the panel with a 10 AMP fuse. I'll probably do some more research before changing that.

I have my fan centered more or less. I don't have a gauge to measure my tranny temp, presuming it is not affecting it too much.

 

i believe the tranny cooler is on the driver side of the radiator...........

 

The dash fuse box is divided into 'zones' with different functions grouped together on common rails. Here are two of several of these zones.

Hot in RUN:
2
6 (cutoff date unclear but not used before late 2002 or possibly 2003 MY)
10
14

Hot in START and RUN:
11
15 (unused)
19

According to the Ford manuals, this is correct for 2001~2003. Other years may or may not be the same.

 

For your purposes, that's exactly what you want. The thermostat will continue to operate the fan whenever the radiator needs to be cooled, regardless of whether the A/C is in use or not. Under normal conditions at highway speeds, the fan will not operate because the airflow through the radiator would be sufficient to cool the radiator. The kill switch is there to eliminate the unnecessary constant fan operation during A/C use at highway speeds.

Some off-roaders have a fan kill switch that turns the fan off completely. This is valuable for certain special situations such as crossing very deep water that may damage the fan blades. The drawback is that the driver has to remember to turn it back on. If you forget yours, the only consequence would be reduced A/C performance at slow speeds or when stopped.

 

For the switched power I tapped in to the wire behind my radio. As for keeping the temp sensor in place, I used one of those zip ties and some of the foam pads that came with it. If you mount the fan to the top of your radiator you don't need to use all the zip ties, only 2 on bottom.

 

Hi Bob,
I just got out of the hospital after a week in there. See what installing the efan did to me? Haha. Anyways, I noticed when the fan was first installed there was a significant drop on electrical gauge which I expected. The next time I drove the truck, that gauge was back in it's usual place, but the temp gauge was climbing. I haven't had it long enough to figure out all the ins and outs of it, but I presume I have it installed correctly, in that the switch does work, but the LED only comes on when the AC is on.

 

Bob, it's possible to use one of these empty spots to hook up the efan and ditch the add-a-circuit I presume?

 

It is possible but not that easy because one side of each empty fuse location has power but the other side doesn't have the output terminal. The missing terminal is fairly easy to install but Ford does not sell them separately, at least according to the dealer I talked to. Since they are designed to retain a fuse blade, they are completely different from any other terminal on the truck. AFAIK, a junkyard fuse panel would be the only source.