fan clutch and fan 92 xlt help

[dmorris]

wow, what a confusing search I have been on..

I want a heavy duty fan and clutch (I noticed my spins very easy after getting warm with the engine off so I assume its bad).

I want max airflow esp at idle mainly for better AC.

I have a 10 blade fan, I would like to go to the max if that is not it.

Clutches are all over the place price wise. I see 4 seasons a lot and hayden, but not sure which to get, again looking for max engagement due to extreme heat here if Florida.

 

[gmanpaint]

I run Hayden Severe Duty clutches on 9 blade fans (I think manual trans is 10 blades?). Love them, and they do the job fine for me.

Plastic and metal fans were offered on our rigs, I see no difference performance wise, but the plastics do tend to crack from heat/age. Either will work, but if you really want more CFM, and do not want to install a bigger clutch, electric push & pull fans work great. Some even have 2 speeds, and pass massive amounts of air.

There are threads on the electric fan conversions here. I would search them out, and decide if that's something your interested in doing, otherwise, the clutch is the easiest way to go.

 

[Maniak]

wow, what a confusing search I have been on..

I want a heavy duty fan and clutch (I noticed my spins very easy after getting warm with the engine off so I assume its bad).

I want max airflow esp at idle mainly for better AC.

I have a 10 blade fan, I would like to go to the max if that is not it.

Clutches are all over the place price wise. I see 4 seasons a lot and hayden, but not sure which to get, again looking for max engagement due to extreme heat here if Florida.

You already have a good fan, so I would personally stick with that...

The Hayden Severe Duty or even the Heavy Duty will work.. I personally run the Severe Duty and when it was a DD it routinely saw 105-110f temps. Now that it isn't a DD (and the a/c is full of black death) it doesn't see those temps as much as my body doesn't like those temps as much either.

According to Hayden...

Heavy-Duty Thermal

Turns the fan 70-90% of the shaft speed when engaged for increased cooling
Turns the fan 25-35% of the shaft speed when disengaged
Used with deeper pitch fans. (2-1/2” of pitch)
Land and groove design with up to 27 Sq. In. of working surface
Identified by finned aluminum faceplate and thermal spring on the front



Severe Duty Thermal

Turns the fan 80-90% of the shaft speed when engaged
Turns the fan 20-30% of the shaft speed when disengaged
Used with deeper pitch fans. (2-1/2” of pitch)
Land and groove design with up to 72 Sq. In. of working area
Larger working surface provides cooler running and longer life expectancy
Thicker body and deep finned faceplate dissipate more heat
Can be used in place of many heavy-duty clutches

so, knowing the above specs, I like the Severe Duty. It spins the fan more when hot and less when cool. It isn't made for higher rpms, but the 4.0 ohv motor isn't really spun that fast anyway.

While I haven't put an electric fan on an explorer yet, I have it on my Van with a 460 and a friends f-150 with a 302. Both are using Mark VIII fans and the electric fan does a great job of cooling at idle and doesn't turn on at all when going 45mph+. You do have other things to worry about though, like physically fitting it in there and the amp draw (I measured 30 amp continuous and 60 amp on initial startup).

~Mark

 

[dmorris]

I noticed cracking on some of the fan blades (I am pretty sure I replaced it but that may have been 10 yrs ago, just don't remember). I am guessing I replaced it the 1st time due to cracks, as I do not recall it coming apart, but again its been a while.

 

[Maniak]

I noticed cracking on some of the fan blades (I am pretty sure I replaced it but that may have been 10 yrs ago, just don't remember). I am guessing I replaced it the 1st time due to cracks, as I do not recall it coming apart, but again its been a while.

I'm on my 2nd fan on our '92 with 390k miles on the truck (many parts changed/rebuilt).. Somewhere before 300k I changed out the fan blade that had been cracked well over 100k miles. After a few years the new ones was cracked again.. I've just left it cracked..

If you are really worried about it either get a 10 blade Ford blade (not a dorman) OR get the metal one from an early 2nd gen. I can't remember what exactly to ask for at the auto parts store though..

~Mark

 

[dmorris]

I was looking at a lot of 2nd gen fans, but I just assumed they would not fit. That is where I saw a 11 blade fan. My primary concern is getting as much air thru the AC condenser while stuck in traffic, of course I don't want the car to over heat as well, but so far that has not been the issue. So I figured it had to be pretty close to the exact same diameter to fit the shroud well.

I read somewhere about early dealer retrofits to 134a and some yakking about adding an electric fan in addition to the reg belt driven fan. I presume this was needed to the operating characteristics of 134a with the existing condenser.

I never saw specifics but did see ford parts listed. Seems like the tow package oil cooler mounted in front of the condenser would mess that up. I assume that for the pusher fan to work it needs to be flush up to the cond core, necessitating relocation of the cooler. I think it has hard lines so that could be an issue as well.

 

[dmorris]

ok hayden 2793 severe duty clutch and new 10 blade plastic fan on the way.

 

[Maniak]

I never saw specifics but did see ford parts listed. Seems like the tow package oil cooler mounted in front of the condenser would mess that up. I assume that for the pusher fan to work it needs to be flush up to the cond core, necessitating relocation of the cooler. I think it has hard lines so that could be an issue as well.

I have a 10" fan on the very front of our cooling stack on our '92.

It is directly connected to the aux trans cooler (the one on the driver side) which is in front of the a/c condenser, which is in front of the radiator.

I did turn on the fan with the engine off and you can feel "some" air coming all the way through the radiator but it isn't that much. I doubt it is really helping the radiator. It might be helping the condenser some, but I doubt it is pushing more air than the engine driven fan is already pulling. The fan I'm using is off a '92 geo prism (toyota corolla) and I'm using it to help keep the trans cooler.

~Mark

 

[dmorris]

I would like to learn more about the "ford retro fit kit 134a" which seems to have some kind of aux fan in front of the condenser.

I would not mind trying to get the largest fan I can and (large dia, shallow depth) and mount directly to front of the condenser. Then offset the trans cooler in front of that.

I never tow, and its flat as a pan cake here if FL so I am sure my recent rebuilt trans will never suffer, so no too worried about added cooling of that.

My next challenge will be to remove the seat for two reasons:

1) maybe see if I can get the seat cover off and take it to a upholstry guy, try and save some money by doing the removal work myself.

2) the power switch that moves the seat fore and aft is flakey, goes forward easy aft is tricky, so every time my much shorter wife drives it, it take me several minutes to try and get it back to where I need it. Just a general PITA (the seat).

 

[pkn]

... I would not mind trying to get the largest fan I can and (large dia, shallow depth) and mount directly to front of the condenser. Then offset the trans cooler in front of that. ...

In '92 XLT there is a small supporting cross-beam in the center behind the radiator grille, which wouldn't allow installation of large - like 16" diameter - fan in there. I was thinking of cutting it off, but eventually decided against it and purchased two of SPAL 9" fans instead. They (and other parts) are still in the mail, I'll start installation when they arrive.

And it seems like vertical part of the cross-beam wouldn't let a fan of considerable thickness to be installed flash to the condenser - i.e., between the condenser and the cross-beam. The thinnest 16" fan I found was SPAL 30101517, it's only 63 mm thick, and it wouldn't fit there in my XLT without redoing the whole radiator+condenser pack to move condenser further inside.

 

[dmorris]

the twin fans sounds like a good approach, hope you post about how it goes.