Streetwiseguitar

Some friends and I installed a Flex-Lite 270 E-Fan installed on my 2000, 4.2 V6 5spd.

Performance report:

1. Absolutely ENORMOUS difference in engine noise. My truck went from sounding like an old UPS truck, to eh hm.. an effen TRUCK! I can hear my bloody Flowmaster exhaust now. Man, I'm simply speechless! YES, it's that's much of a difference.
2. A/C blows cold AF (pretty much like all the other reports of those who installed it).
3. MPG: I haven't measured that yet, but how could there not be a gain with all that mass the engine is now not turning.
4. Horsepower: since I have not access to a dyno to scientifically measure it - but I can report this - I run 34s on it and before it felt "eh" at best, dipping towards "doggish." Now, it's not that AT ALL. Am I smoking the tires? lol No! However, it's a marked NOTICEABLE difference. The motor runs considerable smoother (on all fronts) including accelerating up towards and through the power band, which is now is enjoyable. Before I was relegating myself to the idea that I'll be suffering Great Granny-like acceleration and now it's far better.
5. Blowing: The sheer amount of air these fans move is dramatically more than the original. Driving to the grocery store (nearby) in the evening, it only ran for about 15 seconds on the way back. **It's got to save on fuel considering the original fan was just beating the air all the time!?!**

Installation:
1. It wasn't that easy and it sure wasn't as quick as the install vids on YT by a long shot. There are a few steps that 100% Flex-Lite should have done at the factory, i.e. the control box should come mounted, including all holes drilled. Those tasks are put off on the consumer and the job takes long enough to do then having to do that nonsense. Having those simple obvious steps should be taken care of by the manufacturer. Also, for my 2000, we found bolting the brackets onto the fan + bolting the fastening brackets on to the fan brackets PRE dropping the fan is was a MUST-DO! The instructions to do otherwise actually added a TON of time onto the job (There should be an amendment, or change added to save the consumer at least an hour worth of time).

2. Purchase additional butt connectors, and make sure they are NOT smaller than the ones in the kit. Smaller ones won't do the job correctly.

3. We found the drier hose was resting on one of the brackets after the install. NOT GOOD. The bracket edge is not rounded and over time would undoubtedly over bumps and vibrations etc., would eventually cut into the hose. Getting past the hoses and obstacles in order to loosen the bolt fastening the drier in place to turn it an 1/8" was such an incredible PITA. Of course Ford in their incredible wisdom (wizzdumb?) uses 3 bolts to hold the wiper reservoir in place, because hey...you just never know when yer gonna blow a wiper reservoir out from your hood from too much wiping!?! At any rate, they all needed to come out (another PITA) and the reservoir moved by pulling on it in order to adequately get to the Drier bolt. I'm certain any Joe-Blow mechanic guy at a cheap garage installing this fan would've left the hose where it was (against the bracket). IMO that is a pricey repair waiting to happen, and should/can be avoided.

4. Sounds obvious, but use a very good crimping tool and make sure 100% get that part right. There's lots of crimping to be done and your crimp skills should be on point. Don't settle for, "well, that looks good enough." Settle for, "that's super solid." Cop on if you F**k up and do it over. If one of them come apart when you're in traffic or on the turnpike..... well, 'nuff said!

5. No need to buy a fan puller. Rent one. Make sure it's a decent one, too. The one we got awkward one from Autozone that required 2 people to do the job easily. It would've been a b*tch with this particular tool to do it solo.

6. Buy extra zip ties. Though the 270 comes with some, it's hardly close to being enough. If you wanna make it look nice, add some 3/8s loom to cover the wires up.

7. Buy additional splicing connectors (like the blue ones in the kit). You may need them and you don't wanna be caught w/o them.

8.. Give yourself 4.5 hours to do this job if you've never done it before. That way you can be relaxed and allotting that kind of time could account for surprises, mistakes (not connecting wires correctly, etc.)

9. Flex-Lite should most definitely add and extra 3"s to the wires coming in and out of the fuse box!

Cost:
I did a ton of searching and researching re: this yoke. I was surprised to find loads of sellers really gouging the price (some as high as $600!???!). Also, I hadn't read a really definitive review that made me think, "I'm gonna pull the trigger." It was more like lots of little short reviews that spoke about one or 2 gains, but not lots of details. It left me kind of unsure, because this isn't cheap.

On a lark, I called up Summit Racing. I was just testing the waters and getting a feel for the vibe I got from the salesman. He assured me that Summit stands behind their customer issues. You know...salesman talk! Because after a long convo with this guy I got a good vibe about the whole operation and the fan, I chanced it and I ended up purchasing my fan from Summit Racing. They had the cheapest price and are willing to meet ANY low price on the net. I paid only $427.38 w shipping. The salesperson I dealt with was named "Guy" and was very easy to deal with. I didn't want to buy from an eBay seller and I knew Summit has been around for a long time and in spite of some negative reviews I read, I went for it after speaking with Guy. I'm glad I did.

Finally, the immediate differences on this upgrade were defo worth the money. I can imagine the difference one of these could make to a V8, too!!! If you have a V6 with large tires like I do, this upgrade an absolute necessity! DO IT!!!!

I hope this helps and please post your experiences should you decide to go for one of these yokes!

white89gt

Post pics!

Streetwiseguitar

I'll see if I can get some pre loom pics tomorrow.

Edited:
**I'll wait until everything is done***

Will94SC

Hope the OP doesn't mind me posting my pics, but I installed the same fan on my truck. I had to rebuild the engine, so while I was at it I replaced the single core radiator with a dual core rad.






I think this is the hose the OP mentioned. It was rubbing the mounting bracket, so my solution was to cut a spare length of hose in half and zip tie it around the hose for another layer of protection. Every so often I inspect it to make sure it's not wearing through.

Streetwiseguitar

Looks GREAT! Thanx a mill for posting the pix. I'd certainly encourage everyone installing to post, so there is some kind of resource for this very useful and worthwhile update. Did you also find the same power increases that I found? Did you MPGs improve and if so, by how much? What size tires would you be running on your truck? Are you using the factory setting on the temp screw?

Ps. I just weighed my fan at 6lbs.5 ounces. I suppose that doesn't sound like much until you factor in it's a spinning mass + extreme wind resistance by the blades which are hardly aerodynamic.

Will94SC

Unfortunately it's kind of hard for me to give you a real before & after comparison. I had to rebuild the truck's engine immediately after I bought it--on the drive home, it had oil pressure at cold idle and at speed, but not at hot idle. So I pretty much drove it into the driveway and removed the old engine. Also, during the rebuild I installed a mild cam (89 Supercoupe factory grind), so any power gains might not be from the fans alone.

That said, I'm getting about 14-15 mpg with the e-fans, which I admit is lower than I had hoped for. But my truck is a 4WD, so maybe I was optimistic to begin with.

Edit because I realized I didn't answer all your questions. I left the temp screw setting untouched, and it seems to work fine. And my tires are 265/75-16s.

Streetwiseguitar

I was thinking the extra weight from the 4x4 could have a significant effect on MPG. What gears are you running? 3.55 here which seems to be fine even with my 34s. (Meaning the motor isn't getting bogged down, etc.).

Will94SC

3.55s here too.

Streetwiseguitar

So, my fans were making a terrible rattling sound. Turned out it was one fan that had a set screw that only needed lets say a 1/16th of a turn. Rattle gone. Thanks to AJ at Flex-a-lite!!!!!

Streetwiseguitar

Could I get a moderator to change the title of this thread to "Flex-a-Lite,"which is actually the proper name for this product.?