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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
I am just wondering, would there be a noticeable difference in power/mpg if I removed the stock belt driven fan and put on an electric fan? I've got several fans just laying around from previous builds I've done, so no real money lost. I was just wanting to know if anyone else had had any luck with this? I've got the V8 AWD. Thanks!
Trevor.
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An electric fan will be a cooling performance upgrade, but only if the design of the shroud and inherent performance of the fan(s) are matched. A good example is the use of a Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique cooling fan assembly in a late model Mustang. These fan assemblies literally overcool, but it's due entirely to the fact that the shroud is well engineered to work properly with the fans.
I actually retrofitted the dual Contour fan assembly to my '79 Bronco's radiator with good results. Each fan is independently controlled by the EEC and works admirably. At one point, however, I had retrofitted a Permacool 18" e-fan within the stock shroud and it did not cool well enough. So, I would suggest researching what OEM e-fan options exist with shroud dimensions that match that of your vehicle's radiator (and space between the front of the radiator and the closest accessory pulley), and go from there. RockAuto oftens has pictures with dimensions.
I've been debating on my truck too. My 96 V8 has the metal fan so would probably benefit even more than your 99 with the plastic fan. Although those plastic fans are heavy as hell too but the weight is closer to the center which makes it easier to spin. I don't think many people see much of a change. You'd probably see 1 mpg at best. Those engine fans are fairly efficient believe it or not. They're declutching fans remember, it's not like the old school fans that would always spin no matter what.
My '96 Expo 5.0 under the hood of my 02 Ranger got the electric fan treatment.
No appreciable change in perceived power or fuel economy, but wow! a HUGE reduction in engine noise. Maybe the later nylon fan blades would have been quieter but the metal one thrashing the air through the radiator was all but objectionable.
I installed a dual fan set up from a 2002 Mercury Cougar. It cools my 5.0 with only one fan running even in the heat of the Georgia summer heat. I can take pictures of the set up if you would like.
Most of my miles come from city driving but I do make a 180 mile trip every weekend. I have had zero overheating issues. I have had the electric fan installed for at least 6 months.
I had a bunch of photos of the installation process but I deleted them because my iPhone has very little storage. I will take some pictures tomorrow. The following picture is the dual fan and shroud I mounted to my radiator. It is slightly smaller than the 5.0 Explorer radiator. I used very nice weatherstripping I had laying around for sealing Seadoo jet ski hatches. It was replacement weather stripping but I'm sure there are alternatives such as automotive weather stripping. I figure it is heat and temperature resistant. It still looks new. I placed it around the shroud and butted it up against the radiator. I secured it by drilling two holes in the the top of the shroud and securing it with two bolts that go into holes preexisting in the radiator. The bottom of the shroud is held in by the plastic shield mounted underneath the radiator and condenser. It seems to rest in the plastic shield as if it was made to.
I know its hard to visualize without pictures, but I will post the pictures tomorrow.
As far as wiring, I did purchase a fan controller but I did not like the way it worked with the dual fans. Right now, I have it wired to always come on which is not the best but has worked. Eventually, I will wire in the fan controller properly. I did use relays and fuse boxes to wire the fan in, it's just not temperature controlled as of yet.
Also, I did not do this swap to gain hp or better mpg. I replaced it because my stock set up was shot and it was cheaper to convert to an electric fan set up than replacing the stock parts. I bought all the parts needed from Pull a Part for under $20.
Most people do not tune the EEC-V in their vehicles, but if you purchase a definition from Pops Racing or Sailorbob, you can enable dual independent e-fan control directly from the EEC. This allows you to take a single wire lead for the low speed fan output (LSF) and high speed fan output (HSF) and use them to ground the field coil of a relay for each of the fans on that Contour fan assembly. It is highly effective, albeit loud. I have the same fan on my Fox Mustang and my '79 Bronco.
Most people do not tune the EEC-V in their vehicles, but if you purchase a definition from Pops Racing or Sailorbob, you can enable dual independent e-fan control directly from the EEC. . .
Are you talking about a device that monitors the OBD-II port and selects the engine coolant temperature (ECT) pid to control fan speeds? It would seem simpler to just monitor the ECT sensor voltage directly with a settable relay control circuit or a pulse width modulation motor controller.
Are you talking about a device that monitors the OBD-II port and selects the engine coolant temperature (ECT) pid to control fan speeds? It would seem simpler to just monitor the ECT sensor voltage directly with a settable relay control circuit or a pulse width modulation motor controller.
Yeah, what he said. There's 2 pins on the EEC-V that aren't used because our vehicles never came with e-fans. You can add those pins yourself (I've got a few harnesses I grabbed from the junkyard and use them for this purpose, ie. harvesting spare pins with leads already crimped on).
The high speed fan output is a direct connection to a field coil in a relay (ground) and the low speed fan output is as well, however there is a setting in the EEC-V where you have to explicitly set it to "Invert low speed fan output," to make it work as a grounding type. It works very well, you can program your setpoints, hysteresis, etc.
The original poster has a 1999 Limited with the 5.0L V8 which as you posted Mesozoic does not have PCM control of an electric fan. If the strategy is similar to my 2000 Sport there is no calibration constant to enable the unused PCM output. A different strategy would have to be programmed into the PCM that supports an electric fan.
The original poster has a 1999 Limited with the 5.0L V8 which as you posted Mesozoic does not have PCM control of an electric fan. If the strategy is similar to my 2000 Sport there is no calibration constant to enable the unused PCM output. A different strategy would have to be programmed into the PCM that supports an electric fan.
My Mounty as a REAC4 strategy, EQE3 catch code EEC-V. I asked Derek (Sailorbob) if he had a definition for me, but he said no. I believe that leaves either Paul Booth's EEC Editor definition and Pop's Racing as providers of the definition, although I'm not sure how complete they are.
I have a PCAG4 strategy (catch code CDE4). I have searched thru all of the calibration constants accessible (I have SCT "calibrator" privileges) and found none related to enabling an electric cooling fan or setting an ECT temperature to energize something. Since the MKVIII had an electric cooling fan the code is probably present in my strategy but SCT didn't bother to provide an interface because no Sports were manufactured with an electric fan. The Aviator has a viscous coupled cooling fan and an electric cooling fan. I will begin researching PCM editors to determine what capabilities exist for my strategy and the cost of the editors. I've avoided using them till now because I wanted a complete tuning package which I thought SCT's Pro Racer software package (Advantage III) provided. However, I've learned there are many things in the PCM code that SCT does not support. Sometimes they will add an interface to requested items if there's enough demand. Thanks for the lead on potentially useful PCM editors!
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I have a PCAG4 strategy (catch code CDE4). I have searched thru all of the calibration constants accessible (I have SCT "calibrator" privileges) and found none related to enabling an electric cooling fan or setting an ECT temperature to energize something. Since the MKVIII had an electric cooling fan the code is probably present in my strategy but SCT didn't bother to provide an interface because no Sports were manufactured with an electric fan. The Aviator has a viscous coupled cooling fan and an electric cooling fan. I will begin researching PCM editors to determine what capabilities exist for my strategy and the cost of the editors. I've avoided using them till now because I wanted a complete tuning package which I thought SCT's Pro Racer software package (Advantage III) provided. However, I've learned there are many things in the PCM code that SCT does not support. Sometimes they will add an interface to requested items if there's enough demand. Thanks for the lead on potentially useful PCM editors!
As far as tuners go, I only use Tweecer RT and Moates Quarterhorse. For my final tunes, I like using the Tweecer or the Moatest F3 chip. All of those chips are tuneable using Binary Editor, EEC Editor, TunerPro, or Caledit.
If you have a 104-pin EEC-V, regardless of strategy, the peripheral driver IC to run the low and high speed fan control is present on the PCB. I would be willing to bet that a CDAN4 strategy EEC-V, like the JZP3 or DDX3 computers I have (V8) and even the RCX3 (V6) will run a 2nd gen Ex/Mounty with the appropriate tune flashed. I have the JZP3 in my '71 Mustang with dual independent fan control cooling a 408 stroker with EDIS and a 4R70W transmission, so I know it works.
