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Here in Georgia its been getting around 100 degrees and the stock fan has begun blowing warm air when I come to a stop light or idle in park for a few minutes so I decided to do an efan install. Did it on a budget because now that I'm retired from the military and looking for a new job, couldn't spend too much so after some searching found the thread on the windstar fan setup. I got the fan from a pull-a-part yard for about $25, got a Hayden 3647 for about $30 and already had plenty of wire and connectors around, picked up a couple 40 amp relays (1 for each of the fans) then wired them up to the Hayden 3647.
Removed the old fan with a small piece of chain to hold the pulley in place to loosen the fan clutch nut, works like a charm took about a minute to remove the stock fan.
Pic of the Windstar Fan, trimmed the lower brackets down some because they did not line up with the radiator lower clips.
The windstar fan upper mounting holes lined up to the radiator shroud bolt holes, so good to go there.
Had to fabricate a couple lower brackets to connect the lower fan shroud and fit in the clips on the radiator to secure the fans.
Prior to installing the fans on the radiator, I got some sheets of rubber and added a little to the surround of the fans, didn't want direct contact with the plastic shroud on the radiator, the pieces of rubber worked well.
Starting to wire it up.
I mounted the controller and relays to the top of the fan shroud for easy access in the event of any fuses that blow and for when I eventually upgrade to a better controller if necessary. I did not insert the probe through the radiator fins, instead, I ran a couple wire ties through the radiator and secured the probe with those near the upper radiator hose and outside of the fan shroud itself. (Sorry, forgot to get a pic of that)
Tapped into the AC line, this allows the fans to turn on when the AC is on. Found the Gray wire with the White Stripe in the wire loom near the front of the valve cover.
Tapped into the Red wire with Yellow Stripe for my 12v Switched Power.
Started the truck and did a test run by turning the AC on, this turned on both fans. Turned off AC, both fans turned off, looked at my Edge/Grypon tuner to watch the coolant temp, while the temp was rising, I turned the adjustment screw on the controller all the way up so that the fans would not come on early, when my gauge got to the middle point, as it is during normal operations, I watched the coolant temp on my tuner, it was about 186 degrees when I felt the thermostat open, I then turned the adjustment screw counter clockwise till the fans came on. Right now, I have them coming on at about 188, but I plan on changing the thermostat to a 195 degree one and at that time, will adjust my fan settings again.
Fans come on as they should and go off a few degrees lower when the coolant temp drops. Over all, pretty happy with the install.
Took the truck for a drive and coolant temp never went higher that 198 degrees, averaged around 196 degrees on a 20 mile drive and the AC stayed cold for the whole trip.
I took voltage readings with my multimeter, engine running and fans off - 14.3volts, engine running and fans on - 13.9volts, engine running and fans kick on - 13.9volts, no spikes or up/down issues with voltage.
- have you considered adding a second controller - one per fan? Two different temp setpoints. Full redundancy in case of a fan/controller failure.
- Throw a couple spare 40A relays in the toolbox - these tend to burn the contacts switching inductive loads after a while. Consider putting a back-EMF rectifier across the fans.
- there are a few diagrams fer LS1 fan switching on the interwebz that mimic soft-start by briefly operating the fans in series on startup, then going to parallel as needed - either on demand or timed). Significant reduction in inrush currents. Just a thought - fun with relays ( with an added TDOE solid-state relay thrown in, lol ).
- you probably don't need to fuse the controller at 30A - it's not seeing any loads past the draw of those two relay coils. Safer that way ;-)).
- Options - manual override in-cab switching, fan on indicators, etc.
MGD, thanks for the pointers, I have thought about a manual override switch and actually a light that indicates that the fans are on. Good idea on the second controller as well and the spare relays. I will be taking a look at the links that you provided, I appreciate it.
07-14-2016, 02:54 PM
My Windstar E-Fan install
