FZJ80 Electric Fan Conversion?

[Tomas]

Hey Rising Sun friends, forum newbie here...

Have any of you entertained the idea of pulling the old clutch fan and replacing it with an electric unit wired to a thermostat or switch in order to free up a little extra power from the motor? Figured anything helps on a 30 year old 1FZ. Word on the street is that some have used electric fan units from Ford Crown Vics? Anyone have experience here and if so does it work well and was there any performance difference? So many questions haha.... I'd love to see some pics on how it was done if anyone has them... Thanks.

 

[Corbet]

search ford taurus fan from memory on MUD

 

[Hulk]

I'm still running the clutch fan but I upgraded the clutch with thicker fluid so it engages more quickly. It's been a decade since I did all this so I don't remember all the details but it's still going strong.

 

[Inukshuk]

Welcome.
Would it help? Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
How will the 80A alternator do?

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

Hey Rising Sun friends, forum newbie here...

Have any of you entertained the idea of pulling the old clutch fan and replacing it with an electric unit wired to a thermostat or switch in order to free up a little extra power from the motor? Figured anything helps on a 30 year old 1FZ. Word on the street is that some have used electric fan units from Ford Crown Vics? Anyone have experience here and if so does it work well and was there any performance difference? So many questions haha.... I'd love to see some pics on how it was done if anyone has them... Thanks.

I use a 2spd Lincoln Continental fan on my LS swapped 80.
Works great!

 

[Tomas]

Welcome.
Would it help? Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
How will the 80A alternator do?

Hey Daniel, I think your questions are the same as mine.... I know people have done this conversion and I'm wondering if it is indeed worth it. I do know that a clutch fan will eat up some performance... that is one of the advantages of an electric fan setup.

 

[satchel]

I have the taurus setup I used on my fj62 sitting on a shelf if you want to try it out.

 

[Rzeppa]

The law of conservation of energy in physics says that the mechanical energy required to turn the fan is the same whether you are turning the fan directly, or having to work harder to turn the alternator. Further, there will be losses from converting the mechanical energy to turn the alternator, turn that into electricity, lose some in the regulator, wiring and connectors, then turn that back into mechanical energy by losing some to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy with the electric fan.

IOW, you will tax the 1FZ-FE MORE with an electric fan than with a mechanical fan.

 

[Pz10420]

If you do any mountain driving especially in the summer I would not attempt this.

 

[KC Masterpiece]

If you do any mountain driving especially in the summer I would not attempt this.

I agree. If that elec fan fails for just a few minutes your engine might be toast.

It seems the consensus on the 80 is an AISIN blue clutch with some potential fluid modifications.

Ill take a FZ running at 181 on the highway over debatable power gains. Imo risk > reward.

 

[Tomas]

Appreciate the feedback 👍🏻
Seems like the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

 

[DaveInDenver]

There are a couple of benefits, if we're being fair.

For example, an electric fan is predictable, either on or off. It also moves the same amount of air regardless of engine RPM.

They're handy for rock crawlers who spend a lot of time going super slow. You also see them on utility machines, you know like Bobcats and front loaders. That's so they can point the radiator backwards to keep it out of harm's way.

So consider everything is trade-off and Toyota used/uses a viscous coupled fan for a reason. It's simple, nothing to short out in water, etc. The use case for switching a completely serviceable stock fan to electric is pretty narrow and comes with plenty of knock-on issues.

Something you may not have thought about, even if you can convince yourself the alternator is sufficient to run a 35A fan (which can be 3x times that much in-rush) what happens when you have to winch? OK, now you've *really* overburdened your charging system with two equally critical functions. Then you might want to do that at night with some lights on...

 

[Lastresort576]

If you do look into a fan more. Even if you go the pusher fan route, Spal is the company you want to go with.