Underdrive pulleys and electric fans

[stmitch]

no....not an opinion.



not even close to an opinion....if it was a guess or opinion i would have had little doubt left to imply it was more then a guess built into the statement.. or at least attempted to.

your alternator is either fawked up or it has the wrong one installed. or the fan is fawked up and drawing 70 amps or something.


last sytem i checked in a 4.0 truck with everything on...high beams, blower motor ect was drawing 50 plus amps. so 80 plus with a huge e fan.....well within the capacity of a stock ranger alternator. they can make 90 amps at idle....there is some variance....but 95 amp is stock....upgrading to a 130 is cake.


pretty much everything 1/2 ton and down has an electric fan now....specifically due to efficiency.


and i went to efans only around 97 after dismal performance for a few years from mechanical cooling in my v8 ranger and most v8 conversions to that point i did. depending on use, the electric fan really shines... for some it wont matter at all....for others it is a worthy investment. just depends on how its used. ones actual drive cycle will prove out any gains, but theres no loss when installed correctly to say the least...

since 2008, my personal truck contains over 6 liters of diesel power with a smaller alternator then yours and biggest e fan ford makes cooling it for hundreds of thousands of miles.

so.


not realy an opinion.

It was pretty common to see people with underdrive pulleys and high electrical loads experience things like dimming lights since the alternator was slowed down by the crank pulley. So, if you have stereo stuff, extra lights, an efan that is triggered when the AC compressor runs, or a combo of those things then it's possible that the charging system wouldn't be able to keep up with all of that.

Personally, I never had an issue with it, but I rarely used AC and didn't have any extra electrical loading other than the e-fan which was only triggered by coolant temps. For awhile, some vendors sold smaller alternator pulleys to compensate and keep alternator speeds at their factory levels.

 

[McCormack]

no....not an opinion. not even close to an opinion....if it was a guess or opinion i would have had little doubt left to imply it was more then a guess built into the statement.. or at least attempted to.

Oh please, the internet is rife with people that offer expert advice on subjects they know nothing about or have no personal experience with, so you needn't get so huffy about me asking you to back up your claims about how my e-fan performs in my truck.

I suppose that something could be "fawked up" with my charging system or my fan or my battery (the battery is one year old), but I've had the fan on there for 13 years and it still keeps chugging along and seems OK to me. I would still question the wisdom of installing an underdrive pulley on a vehicle equipped with an e-fan, especially if that vehicle is going to be doing a lot of idling with the AC on or operated extensively at slow speeds on city streets.

 

[bobbywalter]

no huffy here.


the resistance of the hvac blower and electric fans is just like us......dies at a steady rate and gets stiffer and more prone to just staying on the couch.. so they generally increase amp usage as they age.... i dont disagree that a guy needs to understand these things. i have regularly seen people replace 3 resistors in a winter instead of replacing the blower and wonder why their wiring is hard as hell and the motor end connector is cooked.

i check my blower and fans with a ammeter periodically so i know what they are pulling. i usually swap em out before they fry on their own. same thing with my glow plugs....i know when one dies or they are laying down by amp draw. i buy used fan and check them the same way. very cost effective.



as to underdrive pullies...

true and all agree as far a i can tell its a bad idea for a daily driver, underdrives and electric cooling are not the best idea for low speed high load driving. you indicated you did not have high loads and underdrive. so throwing a load test to have an idea of what is going on would help keep your battery healthy.

i know all to well guys having underdrives and killing batteries etc and have dealt with it since the 80's.... it is a modification that requires calculation, and understanding the true expectations.

electric cooling for sure....underdrives....not so much.

 

[Lefty]

Im making a drift truck, or atleast trying, i already have the axle mounted over leaf, they are f-150 leaves with an add a leaf and an explorer 8.8 with 3.73 and lsd (wanting 4.10s or maybe 4.56). All together it should have little axle wrap by now but id like to get traction bars of a 5.0 explorer. After doing all that it definitely feels alot better and i can get it to start sliding but it needs just alittle more power. I know its a truck and not meant for it but i like doing stuff different than everyone else.

And for the electric fan setup i have a fan from a 95 mustang gt that i plan on using for a 5.0 swap but that wont be for a long time since i sold the engine i was going to be using. Decided i didnt want it carburated or bored 60 over.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[Lefty]

Im making a drift truck, or atleast trying, i already have the axle mounted over leaf, they are f-150 leaves with an add a leaf and an explorer 8.8 with 3.73 and lsd (wanting 4.10s or maybe 4.56). All together it should have little axle wrap by now but id like to get traction bars of a 5.0 explorer. After doing all that it definitely feels alot better and i can get it to start sliding but it needs just alittle more power. I know its a truck and not meant for it but i like doing stuff different than everyone else.

And for the electric fan setup i have a fan from a 95 mustang gt that i plan on using for a 5.0 swap but that wont be for a long time since i sold the engine i was going to be using. Decided i didnt want it carburated or bored 60 over.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

Nice looking ride

 

[fixizin]

OP did say he was going to DELETE THE A/C, so there's that advantage in his overall "HP/Amps Budget"... doesn't say where he's located, but I guess no A/C is an option...

... heck, I had a B2000 (aka Courier) w/ NO A/C (and NO P/S), and made do for a time in both Texas and So-Fla, by using those wing-windows and highway speeds!... all kinda Conspiracy Theories on "whither went ye olde wing windows?..."

As for e-fan MPG savings, with all the gov't pressure on CAFE numbers, gotta wonder why FoMoCo didn't make 'em that way..??

 

[rubydist]

I think it took Ford a while to accept that the e-fan was reliable enough to use on a truck where it may be towing enough that the e-fan must work while barreling down the highway. Most of the trucks have them now, but the Super Duty trucks still have a mechanical fan.

I have not done the underdrive because I know that sometimes you will get low voltage (dimming lights) at low engine speeds.

I have converted to electric fans on several vehicles and have had no issues except for the cheap temp sensor I used on the first one failed. I am using the BMW temp sensing switches and either a Taurus 2 speed fan or a Volvo 2 speed fan with no issues.

 

[cbxer55]

I don't use the ac on my Ranger, because it hasn't worked in years and I'm not fixing it. I rarely use the ac in my Mustang or Lightning either. And I live in a very hot and humid environment during the summer months. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm likely going to eliminate all the ac parts in the old gal this year. The alternator that I put on it in 2018 has a smaller pulley than the one that came off it. So, if I was to switch to a sparky fan, it'd be alright. I doubt I will though. Tried putting one in my Lightning in 2019. First time it came on, the controller and fan went up in flames. Controller was from a reputable company and easy to install and wire up. Fan was a brand new 05-09 Mustang part. Boom, went up in flames. And me with no fire extinguisher in my garage. Fortunately, the flames went out when the power was turned off.

I'll never do that again!

 

[O No 3.0!]

I have done the e-fan & thermostat switch. I got the dial type from ebay with the radiator probe. I used a flexalite 14" black magic fan. It works great & there is a noticeable power increase & better mpg.

 

[bobbywalter]

As for e-fan MPG savings, with all the gov't pressure on CAFE numbers, gotta wonder why FoMoCo didn't make 'em that way..??

2015......still the same.


They did. It's cost vs compliance.

Cost way more to e fan in initial production over cooling demands.

Cooling area under curve in speed and load are others.

 

[bobbywalter]

I have done the e-fan & thermostat switch. I got the dial type from ebay with the radiator probe. I used a flexalite 14" black magic fan. It works great & there is a noticeable power increase & better mpg.

You also have two unreliable pieces of equipment.

The Volvo style controllers mentioned and an oem fan from a low mile donor are ideal.

 

[bobbywalter]

I don't use the ac on my Ranger, because it hasn't worked in years and I'm not fixing it. I rarely use the ac in my Mustang or Lightning either. And I live in a very hot and humid environment during the summer months. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm likely going to eliminate all the ac parts in the old gal this year. The alternator that I put on it in 2018 has a smaller pulley than the one that came off it. So, if I was to switch to a sparky fan, it'd be alright. I doubt I will though. Tried putting one in my Lightning in 2019. First time it came on, the controller and fan went up in flames. Controller was from a reputable company and easy to install and wire up. Fan was a brand new 05-09 Mustang part. Boom, went up in flames. And me with no fire extinguisher in my garage. Fortunately, the flames went out when the power was turned off.

I'll never do that again!

I think it took Ford a while to accept that the e-fan was reliable enough to use on a truck where it may be towing enough that the e-fan must work while barreling down the highway. Most of the trucks have them now, but the Super Duty trucks still have a mechanical fan.

That is not simply a mechanical fan. It is an electronically controlled fan. And High Dollar. It can actually free wheel in certain applications. Full on 30 plus hp draw. That is brutal and not cheap but necessary.