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95 f150 5.0L with A/C
Soooo, I noticed a small leak on the passenger side straight at the bottom corner. Noticed when I was replacing my sway bar links (dang, I need 7/8 sway bar bushing too!).
Anyway, it seemed like a small leak, I put coolant in a couple of weeks ago in the reservoir so I know there was a recent leak and today, I noticed I needed about a cup or cup/half inside the radiator.
I'm going to install an Efan next week and look for this leak at the same time. Hopefully, it's just a hose!
But this radiator has that AC condensor right in front of it, a small square piece on passenger side in front of the radiator and before the grill. Is this attached to the radiator?
If I do need a new radiator, are these hard to remove? I'll have the fan off for sure cause of my efan upgrade. But I saw some videos that I may need a special tool for the driver's side hose or something. Or is this basically just remove hoses, remove bolts, pull up, and slide new one in? *IF* that A/C thing is not attached to it.
I did mine in about an hour, if you do end up replacing it go with a 2-row unit instead of the stock single row. It's thicker but since you're going efan anyway there is nothing to be concerned about. Got mine from rockauto for less than a single row locally.
good deal! Thanks guys. So my plan is efan next weekend. Inspect all the lines and take pictures.
Then see if it drains again. If so, I'll know exactly what bolts and connectors need to come out and I can do it without my friend. He's helping with efan cause I'm not that great with electrical work. I want a little indicator light that its on and running somewhere in my dash. Hope a 16" 1400 CFM is strong enough!
That singe 1400 CFM fan might not be enough. Keep a very close eye on that temp gauge.
As said above the radiator is very easy to replace. One very important thing that you need to do if you replace the radiator is make sure to remove the adapters that the transmission lines screw into. My father bought a radiator the other day for his '96 and when we were putting it in the supplied brass connectors wouldn't work. They were the right size and screwed into the radiator just fine, but the trans cooler line wouldn't screw into them. I had two of the adapter kits that come with the new radiators and none of my fittings would work either. If I hadn't kept the stock ones I would have been in the same boat.
2 16' fans won't fit. I measured on mine when I did the conversion because that's what I was going to do. I ended up getting some fans from the junkyard. They came form mid 90's Thundirbirds and are basically just like the Mark VIII fan. I used a Flex a Lite variable speed controller that doen't start the fan at full speed so it doesn't hit the system as hard when it starts.
Also, if you do the efan conversion put on a 130amp alternator at the same time.
2 16' fans won't fit. I measured on mine when I did the conversion because that's what I was going to do. I ended up getting some fans from the junkyard. They came form mid 90's Thundirbirds and are basically just like the Mark VIII fan. I used a Flex a Lite variable speed controller that doen't start the fan at full speed so it doesn't hit the system as hard when it starts.
Also, if you do the efan conversion put on a 130amp alternator at the same time.
Thank you for the tip! I just looked at my order just now, it says its 2500CFM. So I think I'm good for now. If I need to, I'm guessing I can rework the position and put a smaller like maybe a 10 or 12" fan next to it later on.
From what I've been reading it's not good to wire to the battery as it stays on after you turn off the car. I'll have to read up more on the instructions and maybe visit a "how to read electrical diagrams" website somewhere.
No, don't just wire it to the battery. You need a way to control it. Some people grab relay setup from the junkyard. I bought this setup and it works great.
This is how I wired in my dual fans that I pulled off of an 04 sebring convertible, they have a high and a low speed, I pulled the fans and all of the wiring (2 fans to one wire set, one wire set to car connector, 18" of the car wiring past the connector).
Relay Two:
87>Low Speed
30>Battery
85>Manual switch in cab
86>Ground
Temp Sensor/Controller:
2>Red/Lt Green wire (any wire that's Red/Lt Green works) @ ICM
C>Terminal 85 Relay #1
I used the $20 controller that you can get at advance or autozone, 2 relays from the junk yard (it's better to use oem relays for $0.50-$1 a piece than to buy new crappy relays for $10 that don't have the same quality as the oem from any car), and this relay holder that I found while digging around my local JY.
Here is a wiring diagram of stock wires and colors, it may come in handy in the future
With a single speed fan you wouldn't need the second relay.
If you bought a new aftermarket fan you shouldn't have wasted the extra money, they don't last as long as the OEM fans you can pull and they usually have an electric whine to them that can be heard over the engine, unlike the OEMs.
09-26-2015, 03:27 PM
Radiator replacing
