Check Your Fan Blade!!!!! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Check Your Fan Blade!!!!!

Turdle

DIY stunt double
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Elite Explorer
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City, State
Humboldt, KS
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Mounty
You are looking for stress fractures between the blades

All of em do this so look now!!!

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looking between several sets of blades on a 2000 v8

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008.jpg


OOOOPS!!!

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even new ones out of the box appear to have white stress marks.

I recommend a metal fan blade if you can find it. The vitamin D has one, and although the blades come close to the accessories, it did clear fine.

discuss
 



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I have a metal fan and clutch (hayden severe duty) left over from an 88 f-150 if that will help. We converted it to a Mark VIII fan and he is never going back (he likes his better freeway mileage).

~Mark
 






constant heat cycles will weaken any plastic part that is that exposed over time, mine on my 96 had a few cracks, and got replaced with a new one a few years ago,,

A metal one would be way better in cold climates,,
 












Mine's got a crack between every other blade. Doesn't hurt me none, still does its job just fine.
 












Checked mine today while trying to hunt down what might be a vac or intake leak. Not a single crack on my fan after 14 years.
 






I also have metal. Any idea when they used plastic, or on what? V8 used metal maybe?
 






only on V8's, from '96 to '98. I just put one on my 2000.
 






guess I bought the "lucky" model with metal fan
 






That could get pretty nasty were you to be leaning into the engine compartment when it decided to grenade!:dead:
 












my '98 v8 has plastic
 






That's weird. I wonder if they were replaced at some point- I've never seen a V8 from '96-'98 that didn't have a metal fan on it... Just saw 2 more at the yard today.

In other news, does the 2001 have a redesigned fan blade? It appears to have some different shaped profile cuts on the fan blades, and the (2) I saw at the yard a few hours back had no stress cracks. Double weird.

Grabbed it because I needed a new fan clutch.

SU1HLTIwMTExMTA3LTAwNjczLmpwZw.jpg
 






Should have grabbed that roof rack off that mounty too. :p:
 






Won't fit the Ex without redrilling and the front ones are in the wrong place as well. Been there, done that, not worth the hassle. :)
 






My '94 has been cracked for years. 183K mi
 






they all crack, it's the heat cycles like corkey said. replaced mine for other reasons and the new one is already showing signs.
 






IMHO, if you have cracks at the fan blade & hub, replace the fan. It is just a matter of time as to when that fan will fail, the blade(s) separates from the hub.

Actually the white plastic cooling fans that always crack like this within a year or 2 or 3 are the cheapo replacement aftermarket ones made in China that AutoZone, O'Reilly's, Schucks, Pep Boy's, and eBay and Dorman etc. sell. Dorman used to be made in the USA, but no more-- as you all might know mostly manufactured in China.

I know this for a fact because I bought one of those cheapo replacement fans for my 94' OHV V6 and after 2 years, when I was going to change the serpentine belt I saw the big stress cracks all over the hub at the blade, as in the picture in this post. I could not believe it. I took a made in 1995 MY fan part, OEM Ford with the dates of manufacture cast into the part, from my 96 Explorer, with 170k miles, that was having the trannie rebuilt and THAT fan blade was fine. No stress cracks after 16 years of hard running and installed that in my 94.

I then ordered a new OEM Ford plastic fan blade from a Ford dealer in Buelleton, Calif. for my 96 Explorer and with shipping it was about $8 more expensive than the cheapo ones from AutoZone, etc.

The OEM Ford manufactured fans last much longer- And most of the older Explorers like mine, 1996 OHV V6 run much better with oem Ford / Motorcraft parts. I have owned 5 or 6 of these trucks over the last 15 years, all high mileage, do my own repairs and that's what works on them.

Unbelievable how bad the quality of the aftermarket parts are that are now being sold by AutoZone, etc., even with their " warranty ". Their crappy parts all fail within 2 years... I've started buying only OEM Ford / Motorcraft parts for my Explorers.
 



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I've seen tons of factory fans that are cracked as well. The one I replaced was an OEM 2000 MY fan that was cracking. I wonder if it mattered who the parts were being sourced from at the time?
 






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