electric fan swap

So after reading Gojeep's ford torus electric fan swap i figured it was time to do it on mine since my mechanical fan was starting to crap out again. So i headed out to the junkyard and grabed a fan out of an early 90's ford torus and test fitted it to one of the cherokees in the yard to see how much triming i was gunna have to do. still dont know how they fit that huge fan in a cherokee but i didnt like how tight everything was going to be so i scavenged the yard pulling electric fans from numerous different vehicles and taking them back and test fitting them to the guiny pig xj that was in the yard. i ended up coming home with a 14in fan from a 93 Chrysler LeBaron with a 3L v6. not sure of the cfm as searching has turned up empty but since it has to keep a 3L v6 cool ill give it a shot.




Next was to tear down the manual clutch fan setup, which involved pulling the fan hub off and pounding the shaft out from the front. i chose not to cut the front of the housing off as i did not need the extra clearence and this would allow me to switch back if i ever changed my mind.




Next was to trim the alternater bracket to allow clearence for the fan belt since i eliminated the fan clutch pully





here is a pic of everthing that was taken off






Here is the finished bracket showing that the belt has cleared the bracket






Next was to start trimming up the fan shoud which took some time but turned out to fit darn near perfect and almost looks factory.










And here is the fan fully installed with all the pullys back in there places and the lower shroud mounts i bent up from some scrap 20guage sheetmetal






Passenger side lower bracket


driver side lower bracket





I ordered a new shorter fan belt like this one from summit (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GTR-4060827/?rtype=10) after measuring to make shure the length was correct allong with a this fan controller (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DER-16749/).

I will update more once i get the belt and fan switch installed allong with how well my new setup performs.

after running the new fan straight from the battery with jumper wires and turning the factory aux fan on while holding a rag in front of both fans, the new fan seems to pull a little harder than the aux fan. since my aux fan does a pretty dam good job keeping the motor cool while wheeling since i just leave it on via manual switch, and can drop temps in heavy traffic rapidly, the new fan should do just fine. i would still like to know how much cfm the new fan pulls though. still cant find any info on it, so if anyone knows i would be interested to find out.

i thought the taurus fans were pusher type not puller type.

no the torus fan is a puller (it is mounted behind the radiator on the torus) however due to the shear size (its huge) and that it draws up to 90 amps on start up i chose not to use it. the 93 chrysler lebaron electric fan fits much better and doesnt draw the huge amperage on start up.

oh ok i wasnt sure about the taurus fan. ive heard of the swap before but i could of sworn that they said it was pusher. anyway im very curios to know how well your new setup works. once u put it to a good test post up how it does for u. also i heard that taking the big mechanical fan gives u a little more power and the engine responds faster. is that true or not? everyone i have ever talked to says that the mech. fan pulls way more air than an elec fan. not sure if its true or not but i would like a little power gain and better cooling if possible.

Nice find. Looks like it barely fits. Also looks like a two-wire setup, how are you planning to switch it?

BTW bails85 the mech fan is constantly spinning and uses power from the belt, so it is always cooling but it is always dragging. You need a pretty good electric fan to adequately replace it. The extra power is available to the wheels and can be felt in some circumstances and mileage may go up also, but the big benefit is being able to turn it off and on as you see fit.

jpcherokeekid said:

after running the new fan straight from the battery with jumper wires and turning the factory aux fan on while holding a rag in front of both fans, the new fan seems to pull a little harder than the aux fan. since my aux fan does a pretty dam good job keeping the motor cool while wheeling since i just leave it on via manual switch, and can drop temps in heavy traffic rapidly, the new fan should do just fine. i would still like to know how much cfm the new fan pulls though. still cant find any info on it, so if anyone knows i would be interested to find out.

Click to expand...

I believe it's rated for about 3300 CFM. It will not cool as well as a properly functioning engine driven fan but it should be enough for all but the most hard core wheeling.

ehall said:

Nice find. Looks like it barely fits. Also looks like a two-wire setup, how are you planning to switch it?

BTW bails85 the mech fan is constantly spinning and uses power from the belt, so it is always cooling but it is always dragging. You need a pretty good electric fan to adequately replace it. The extra power is available to the wheels and can be felt in some circumstances and mileage may go up also, but the big benefit is being able to turn it off and on as you see fit.

Click to expand...

When the engine is cold the mechanical fan requires very little power to spin it. As it heats up the clutch gradually engages and it takes more and more power to spin the fan.

Are you going to have enough belt contact on that alternator pulley? Doesn't appear to be much and if you are adding the extra load from that fan...

Another thing to note is when your going for a replacment fan like that, cross reference it to see if you can find replacment parts for it. The Tarus fan has a replacment motor available for it for around 100 bucks. I dont know what happens if you break the LeBaron one, maybe ther is a aftermarket motor for it, maybe you have to go back to the yard.

I have a 5.9 ZJ that has a electric fan & the motor went bad in it last week & I replaced it with a Tarus motor because the dealer replacment part was 700 bucks. So all I am saying is that the tarus parts are readily available should you have a problem.

the alternater pully will have more belt contact, i was just holding the belt up to show that it clears the bracket.

as far as replacement parts go, i can get the motor and fan forless than a hundred bucks. but they are a dime a doesen at my junkyard for less than 20 bucks so if this one craps out i got cheap replacements down the road

i put my carburator syncronizer/flow meeter in front of both fans and the new one pulls over twice as much as the factory aux fan so it probly around 2500 to 3000cfm.

my mechanical fan was starting to lock up all the time and it was just anoying to have to drive around and listen to to, thats why i decided to go with the swap. the electric fan is way more efficient as it doesnt have to rely on engine speed to pull its max amount of cfm. the mechanical fan setup has always been a poor design in my opinion.

well got everything wired up and took it for a test drive and man what a difference. its got a nice snappy throttle response and feels like i might have gained quite a bit more horsepower. just the new fan by itself keeps the motor nice and cool, right around 180* to 190*(right where i like it). i still have to do some miner adjustments to the adjustable fan switch but so far its nice. tured out the alternater pully doesnt have as much contact with the belt as i thought but i just gotta keep the belt a little tighter than with the previous setup and it should be fine.

This is a cross post from another tread on NAXJ http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1045499&highlight=taurus+fan I think it has allot of info for you.

Take a look at this link. It show the complete process in a RHD XJ.
http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoTaurusFanInstall1.htm

It isn't a simple swap. The Taurus fan is very thick and requires removing the mechanical fan and it's shaft to provide enough room. The fan housing needs a lot of trimming for a tight fit. The shroud will hang down under the radiator, a perfect place to mount a transmission or power steering cooler.
The fan draws a lot of power and needs bigger than normal relays, something rated 70-amps or more..
It would be a good time to beef up the electrical with bigger cables, large alternator and the most powerful battery that will fit.
When properly done, these fan work great but, in return, there are many more parts that can fail. With an electric fan, an alternator failure can stop you dead, where a mechanical fan will keep working and you can drive out on battery power.
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