Which IS BETTER MECH. OUR ELEC.

Which is Better Mech. our Elec.

  • Mechanical

    Votes: 3 42.9%

  • Electric

    Votes: 4 57.1%
  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
Volcom84

Volcom84

New Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Location
Walnut Cove
-This is for a 90 jeep cherokee XJ-

I have been reading up on swicthing my mech. fan to a electric fan., and have heard about putting a tarus fan in. Need help deciding so vote and give reason and also reply on how to help put it in, if i decide to do the conversion.
 
All depends on what you want to use it for, they both have their pros and cons.

Electric fans are great to free up a little power (supposedly the idea makes sense, but I have never seen any proof, besides, the mechanical load taken off the engine from turning the fan, must still be taken by the alternator/battery to supply the electrical current to spin the fan), if you plan on doing deep water crossings they are great because you can switch the fans OFF before crossing to avoid turning the fan into a propeller, but that is only helpful if your connections are sealed well, and you can also oversize the fans to have much more cooling at slow and idle speeds which are common on the trails.

Mechanical fans are much less prone to failure, especially if you do away with the fan clutch on a trail only vehicle, (horrible for fuel mileage, and noisy though), and 90% of the time will flow more air than a electric fan setup once the engine is revved up, although they are sometimes lacking at slower speeds.

On this note, I did install factory electric fans off an 05 1500 Chevy onto my 01 2500HD. I noticed no significant power or fuel mileage gains, but I did notice my AC is MUCH more efficient sitting idle, therefore the added cooling capacity at low rpms is definitely sensed.
 
electric frees up a lil horse power. also a lil less wear on the engine(slight). Sometimes they can cool a bit better as well.... hmm, I know im forgeting something here. On the down side...> Electric is relying on electricity.
 
Volcom84 said:
so if i go with an elec. fan can i set it up to come on auto. instead of staring at my temp gauge.
Click to expand...
Yes, all it takes is a simple thermostat. They even sell wiring kits at Vhatozone/Advance Auto/Oreillys.
Also make sure you splice into the AC wiring as well, the fans must come on with the AC compressor or your head pressure will go through the roof and ruin the compressor.

When I installed the fans on my 01 2500HD, the PCM was basically the same as the ones in the Camaro/Corvette/Newer trucks etc. so there was already a pin out on the PCM to turn on electric fans, so I just hacked a Camaro fan harness, added some relays, added a push pin to insert into the PCM harness, and tapped the AC harness, then I had a custom tune done on the PCM to tell it I had elec fans and what temperatures to turn them on.
 
Try getting a stand-alone system. They are available and you install a separate thermostat just for the fans.

If you do go electric, get the thermostat and set it to automatically turn on and off the fan. Don't half ass it by saying, "oh, I'll control it with a switch in the cab". Yeah, that don't work.
 
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