Taking advantage of cool weather, I finally removed the clutch fan. I would like to share my mistakes.

Mistake 1: I used a dual fan removed from a big V8 Cadillac. It had 4 side mounting tabs. Not even one was at the right position. I should have chosen a fan with top/bottom mounting tabs. I could have just bolted 2 long aluminum strips to the top/bottom pieces of the radiator and mounted the fan to the strips.

Mistake 2: This is the consequence of Mistake 1. Mating side mounting tabs to existing mounting posts left all 4 edges of fan shroud open to engine bay. The top/bottom mounting would have sealed top and bottom automatically, leaving only sides open. Closing all 4 sides was not easy. My rigging is flimsy and does not look like a professional job. I don't like it at all.

Mistake 3: For control, I selected the 3-relay setup. It switches between serial (low cooling) and parallel layout (high cooling) of 2 fans. I didn't realize how crowded the engine bay walls were. There was no space to mount a small relay box I removed from salvage yard. I had to lay 3 relays in a row on the plastic piece atop the radiator with all connections (terminals) exposed. It looks very messy. I will have to order a long project box and keep the relays inside with terminal strips on the side.

I attached 4 temperature sensors, 2 on radiator in/out and 2 on AC condenser in/out. I am using Arduino to measure temperature and close/open fan relays. I read here OEM clutch fan gives 6000 cfm. Cruising at 20 mph gives 6000 cfm over our 31"x17" radiator. I probably don't need to run the fan until late spring. Plenty of time to fine tune temperature control and to correct the mistakes listed above.

 

I need to improve fitness of fan to radiator. Mine looks like a hack job right now. Has any member of this forum used 2010+ Ford electric fan? I found one e-fan conversion thread in 2004-2009 forum. But that gen. uses a different radiator.

FYI,
1997 F150 radiator: 32 x 17
2010+ F150 radiator: 31 1/2 x 17 1/2
2005+ Silverado radiator: 34 x 17 1/4

 

The Taurus and Mark VIII fans fit almost perfectly to our radiators. Look up that on the forums and see how well it fits. That's the way I went. This is what the fan looks like. you can see how is is made to fit fairly well to our rad's. It is used quite a bit in Jeeps also. Jim has one on his XJ.

 

AK,
1994 Taurus V6 3.8L radiator measures 24x15, compared to F150's 32x17. I investigated this route, too. I would have to EITHER cut out F150 shroud (and Taurus shroud) to make Taurus fan/shroud fit, and fill the gap with sheet metal OR use Taurus fan/shroud and cover the exposed radiator with sheet metal. Is this correct? I know I don't have the skill/tool to make the final product look pleasing.

 

That particular is a std Taurus radiator. The SHO and Mark VIII use a much wider unit. The pic I showed is about 25 inches sides to side. It was for reference to style. The flat side is wider in the bigger one. I should of stated SHO after the term Taurus. I knew what I was meaning. Why didn't you? lol

 

I need to re-read carefully Taurus SHO fan threads. Thank you.

 

You will find more under the Mark VIII name

 

FYI - The Mark VIII and 4.6 T-Bird/Cougar fans are the same thing.

If you would have done what I suggested to you previously you'd be a lot happier. If you use your F150 fan shroud as the mount for the fan, you will pull air across the entire radiator. I don't know if you remember the pics I showed you of my install on my Mustang, but that Taurus fan pulls really hard, and pulls across 100% of the radiator (that the shroud does, anyway).

Since you asked, I knew a little bit of info on the 2010+ fans. A friend of mine that is a moderator on a site that I admin had an 07 he put them on. I knew he had these pics, and so I had him send me the link.

https://www.f150online.com/g/album/2235278

Just a reminder/idea of what I did.....

 

If you use a Taurus fan, ONLY use the 3.8 fan. The 3.0 fan pulls less.

 

Thanks Whitey for posting that. I didn't go into it, because I didn't have pics readily available at the time. That is close to how I did mine, and using the truck shroud keeps the air centralized.