Electric Cooling fan?

I plan on putting an electric fan in place of the mechanical one. A 16" fan would nice, but I'm doubting it due to lack of space. Do any of you have any good suggestions on which fan to get? There is a PermaCool 16 incher that's only 3.25" deep in Jegs that I am considering trying. Thoughts, comments, appreciated.

electric cooling fans

Heres my idea 2 perma-cool 12" high performance fans with flexalites new variable speed controller and a custom made shroud(have no idea where to get that puppy)...Thats up to 3200 cfm and variable speed and load to boot...Plus a relocated tranny cooler that is standalone no in tank cooling for me...Im hoping that should do the trick but well see????
I thought about the 16" fans but couldnt find a economical way to make a shroud that went from 16" down to just 11.5" because thats how tall the radiator is...
luck
themud

A lot of electric fan mount with "zip tie" type things that feed through the radiator. If you can find some way to bypass that setup, it would be a good idea. My electric fan was defective and one of the blades broke off. That threw the fan out of balance and cracked the radiator in all 4 points where the zip ties go through.
Just a little tip.
Billy

Just a piece of advice from someone who has tried it: don't. The mechanical fan with good clutch works better than any electrical fan you will be able to fit in there. You may be able to get away with it in cooler parts of the country, but if you are already having cooling problems, they will be made worse by swapping to electric. Do a search on the subject. It's been covered many times.
Mattk

I'm going to try the dual fan Maxima swap. Someone posted pics a few weeks ago and I've checked out my neighbor's Maxima for size info. The Nissan radiator is just about the same size in height/length/depth although it's aluminum. There are 2 fans, both 5 blade but one is a different pitch, and both fans are 2 speed. They are pretty thin and will fit fine, turning 38s I need all the ponies I can get.

Vintage, what year Maxima do those come off of?

Dan

Ditto. Been up to the headlights in mud, the mechanical fan slings it everywhere. On my YJ, I put a BMW, two speed in front of the radiator. Been thinking about spacing the grill out in my XJ and doing the same. They seem to push better, than they pull, anyway. Had the BMW fan in front of a Chev V-8, never did overheat.
If there is room for the Maxima twin in the rear, I´m interested.

It's been about 2 months since I put the nissan fans in my XJ. One of those weeks the temp was about 95 degrees and I tried to make it overheat but to no avail.

Previously with the mech fan if I were to sit in traffic on a somewhat hot day the aux fan would kick in and out as the mech fan alone wasn't enough to keep the engine cool. A brand new fan clutch seemed to keep things in check but I wheel almost every weekend and submersing the stock mech fan in water kills the clutch fast....and sprays water and mud all over your engine and sensors.

Anyway, the dual Nissan fan on the "low" speed has enough cooling power to keep my temp pegged at the thermostat temp no matter what the situation so far....i.e. about 185 degrees in my truck. That still leaves the "high" setting for back up as well as the pusher fan I squeezed in front of my rad.

Note.... I did install a three core rad about 1.5 years ago and had to move it forward about 1/2" to properly clear the mech fan as the three core was thicker. Also, from the pics below you can see I had to cut most of the stock Nissan fan shroud/casing to make it fit properly.


http://community.webshots.com/album/86564946DsertP

How did you guys mount those nissan fans?

Check out this web site:
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/cherokee/98/06_jun/cooling/cooling1.html

I did this exact conversion along with running my aux fan from a switch, and I can say this combo totally wiped out my overheating problems. I live in Southern California, and the heat here has always been a problem for my XJ. With this upgrade(and prior to my radiator and t-stat upgrade), I went from averaging 210 F and dropped to 190 F.

I just put in a GDI 3 row radiator and 160 thermostat about two weeks ago. With this upgrade, I don't have to run my aux. fan any more to stay at 190 F...although I did tun a little test using it. With the two fans running, and with the new radiator and t-stat installed, my XJ does not get over 183 F... even after letting the jeep sit and idle in 103 F temperature for 20 minutes. This was a thing I thought I would never experience in this vehicle.

Another thing I noticed with the fan upgrade was a power increase. The "in the seat" sensation I experienced was actually similar to when I installed Rusty's K&N air tube. Removing the clutch fan removed a 5 lb weight the motor no longer had to spin around, increasing motor power efficiency. As for the radiator and t-stat upgrade, I noticed an overall increase in performance. When my temperature was at or over 210 F, it seemed as though throttle response became sluggish, and climbing hills on the freeway became a chore. Now, since it never even sees the middle mark of the temp. guage, I feel the old XJ (262,000+ miles) is showing its appreciation through better performance.

I hope this helps a bit. If you have any questions about this upgrade, I can answer them. I can also put up pics for anyone interested in seeing this upgrade. Definately check out the link I put up though...good stuff.

An idea to consider if you do this upgrade would be to connect not only the aux. fan to a switch, but also the newly installed main fan. This way, you will have total control over when they spin, and for how long they spin.

thinking...

Can the newer AUX fan, since it moves more air, do the cooling job by itself? I mean, on a Jeep WITHOUT A/C, could removing the mechanical fan and then updating the AUX fan get the job done?

When the vehicle is moving, the lack of the mechanical fan should allow slightly improved cooling. When stopped, the AUX fan should kick on pretty often, but will spin at full power. The mechanical fan would just spin at idle speed.

I love my electric and its just the type they sell at autozone. the 12 inch variety fits over the ratidator perfectly with no gaps. A 16 inch may pull more gross air, but if there is an inch of open fanspace its not pulling air though your radiator, just pulling air.

I just ripped out my flex-a-lite 110.

If you're hell bent on installing one, I can sell you my flex-a-lite 110 w/thermostat (in good shape). Honestly, it didn't do squat for me. I had it in for 3 months. I broke a fan blade on two fans which shorted out the motor in the first one. The fan is not made for bumpy 4 wheeling. The fan assembly bounces too much on its axis, hits the radiator, breaks a blade, and shorts out. Your screwed if this happens off road (like me). Literally last weekend I pulled mine out and re-installed the belt driven fan. I installed it correctly and securely, did a nice relay setup with the other aux fan, but it DID NOT SOLVE OVERHEATING ISSUES (even on pavement). I can tell you exactly how to install it if you still want to try. PM me if you want more details.

I went through the same delima this summer. I got the electric fan from summit racing. Then I removed the mech. fan and clutch, You have to remove the studs on the water pump and replace them with bolts. Then I cut the old fan shroud out, just the half around the mech. fan. Then I made a bracket that fits into the slots in the bottom of the rad where the old shroud went and used the same bolts on the top to fasten the bracket to the rad. I put two switches inside to turn the fans on and off manualy. I tried different ways to turn the fans on by temp but none of them worked. Now I use one for normal usage and both for 'wheeling and city driving in the summer. Any questions ask.

i did the maxima fan swap three weeks ago and it is great. i have played with other fans to find a good combo but these take the cake. there from a 95 to 99 maxima. i picked up a new dual fan setup in the box for 95 bucks at a collision repair shop. the shroud needs only a little trimming around the edges and it covers most of the whole radiator. i have some pics if interested.

what CFM are the Maxima fans? the stock XJ setup runs around 6000 CFM (so IM told) I know that the Nisan fans dont pull that much air, From what Ive seen and tried (up to 3 custom fans), nothing works as well as the stock setup, If the did all the Jeepspeed guys woud run em, none of em do from what Ive read

xjnation I would love to know where you got your cfm #s from not that I doubt you I just looked all over and couldnt find the numbers for the mechanical fan....The aux fan I figured put out about 1000-1200 cfm but the mechanical fan was the ??? I just picked up a perma cool 14 hipo fan that pulls about 3000 cfm if I got two of them that should be way more than the stock airflow is what Im thinking....
I just have a hard time with the mechanical fan pulling in excess of 4000+ cfm, on perma cools website they say a good starting point for cfm for a small 8 cylinder is about 3000 cfm now if the factory pulls 6000 why do most if not all the cherokees run so hot???? I was gonna do the 2 12" fans but I figured a 14" and a good 12" should do the trick my only test would be on long mountain climbs where the mechanical fan should work better but apparently doesnt always...

just have a hard time with the mechanical fan pulling in excess of 4000+ cfm, on perma cools website they say a good starting point for cfm for a small 8 cylinder is about 3000 cfm now if the factory pulls 6000 why do most if not all the cherokees run so hot????

Because they are designed to run @ or around 210* DUH if you run them continually less than that you are loosing engine efficiencly and under 190 you are driving in startup mode and wasting about 20% of your fuel, if your XJ is running at 210* thats what its supposed to do, I have not seen an electric fan setup once the engine has overheated be able to cool it down,

I have tried even 2-1500 12"cfm fans and 1 - 10" 1200 cfm fan and on the highway, rolling up and down the hils of az it would not cut it, towing forget about it, went back to stock and viola running correct again

I would never imply that 210* is hot Im talking about 220-230* because in phx in stop and go traffic without the ac on thats what they run, in flag it might be a different story but down here youll never stay at 210* sitting still!!!! And I belive startup mode shuts off someone around 180* not 190*...And perma cool is saying a good starting point is 3000 cfm for an 8 cylinder and youre talking about a 4000 cfm fan that cant even cool a 6 theres something wrong with the math there....The 6000 cfm # just cant be right that means the cooling system on the xj could cool a big block 454 and theres no way in h%$#ll I even think about that...I dont mind running 210-215* I DO MIND RUNNING 220*+ just around town forget about wheeling like that poof goes the tranny and seals on the motor!!!!

Mine modine 2 core new fan clutch stock water pump newer style fan and it still runs too hot to be good for the motor....

'Then you have a problem within the cooling system itself than and electric fans will not help any, you need to diagnose and fix the undrelying problem, I have a 95 now and have had an 88 and take weekly trips to Phoenix and Lake Havasu City, worse yet! and dont have any cooling issues, in either one, adn thousands of othe XJ'sin PHX dont run hot either. you need to find out why yours is overheating, you have blockage in the engine or a crappy modine rad, I went through three modines till I found one that actually had decent flow rates,

what temp thermostat are you running?
and have you tested its performance?
what size tires and gearing?
when was the last time you changed your TC filter and fluid?

The 6000 # came from a retired dodge engineer in LHC, it is probably high I will agree, but the flow rates given to you by permacool adn others are for fans that have not been restricted in any way, IE: no radiator in front of em or condenser, your effective CFM may be as low as 50% of what their rating is