odelvis

Does anyone have experience with electric fans to replace the belt driven? I read a couple articles that said that this increased the power/snappiness of the engine. I don't really believe the fans rob that much power. I understand this modification can make the engine quieter and warmup faster. Does anyone have experience with this?

I pull a 28' fifth wheel camper during the summer with an '04 F150 5.4 and would like to up the horses some. The truck does ok with the pulling as is and I don't travel far. I have on order a KN cold air intake filter and plan to install a chip (GRYPHON). I know a gas engine can't have it's horses increased that much but if it is noticeable I would like to try it.

Any other suggestions for my stock truck? Next on my list is exhaust.

FOMOCO466

it's got to help... all the drag off the fan pulling air.

musclemerc

This was a must do when I was modifying 5.0 mustangs. Try a fan from a 94 and up V8 mustang or thunderbird and get a truckers 70 amp relay and a temp probe from advanced auto these fans came with a high and low side so if you want get 2 other 40 amp relays and wire the low side for when the a/c kicks on ( the second relay will go inline before the first to turn the low side off when the temp probe kicks the high side on. This must be a normally closed relay) wire it up with a good #10 wire and remove the fan clutch assembly. In the end the vehicle will spin up faster,warm up faster, and keep a smile on you face

whitecrystal1

When I spoke with Mike Troyer about this, while my truck was on his dyno last year, he said I would get an extra 12hp with them.

Mod (Ret.)

There are kits out there to do just this. However, they are expensive ($300 to $400 + range). You can "piece" a system together (I.E. buy a fan, relay, tap into your temp sensor) if your crafty.

In my humble opinion, the money and time spent on this change (electric fan) alone will not net you that big of a "seat in the pants" performance feel. If you plan to do more mods to the truck to gain performance, then this would compliment them. Folks usually add smaller (under drive) pulleys at the same time to tweak out some extra horsepower.

As a teenager, I was fortunate enough to spend time at Smoky Yunicks shop in Daytona Beach. I mostly swept his floors to get a buck, but I had the opertunity to listen in on his talks in the shop. One thing he always preached was that an internal combustion engine is a big air pump. Find ways to get more air in and out faster, and power will result. A better air intake ("true" cooler air is best) and free flowing exhaust are the best starts. Then go after a tuner, as the stock maps in the PCM will not take advantage of these two mods. In your case, towing power is what you seem to be after. Adding the air box, exhaust, and a good tuner will net you great results. I think you'd be very happy with those three items alone.

musclemerc

The net gain will be from 8~15 horsepower gained by going electric and the best thing is you don't have to have a tune. A programmer costs about 400.00 and gets maybe 20hp gain the route i described will cost 120.00 for up to 15hp do the math. If you want to take it a step further go with an electric water pump and now were at a 20hp gain. This is just by getting rid of parasidic drag from the crank. Check any dragcar and you wont see an alt.,pwr steering pump,or smog equiptment. There getting all the hp they can squeeze out of the vehicle.

Mod (Ret.)

They also don't run on pump gas, they rebuild the engine after every run, and they don't pull a boat, fifth wheel, or other trailer.

I don't doubt your HP gains with the electric fan mods, but I believe a better start is with getting more air into, and out of the engine first.

odelvis

Thanks for all your thoughts. Sounds like I am on the right track for increasing pulling power. I have a KN cold air intake on order. Once installed I will get a chip (thinking gryphon). If I feel I need to improve more I will get electric fans and better exhaust.

I doubt I am going to enter any pulling contests but hopfully I can get to pull my 9,000 lbs camper and bass boat short distances (60 miles).