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Electric fan conversion HELP

37K views 44 replies 13 participants last post by  Ccrdr 
#1 ·
Hey looking for some first hand advice, or almost any advice..
Have a 99 Durango with a 408 and still running my stock clutch fan WHICH I HATE!!! Car runs cool enough but that damn fan kicking on sounds horrible and drives me crazy..

So any u guys done any conversions know of any kits? Read some people talking Chevy HHR fans? Is it the correct size to bolt on? what do i need? i assume a fan relay but which one ???

I'm getting lost and wanna do this with least fab possible and GOTTA be done before summer gets here..

Anything will help

THANKS Y'All :mullet:
 
#3 ·
just get you a E-fan from a Parts store and put it on... no fabbing required and just wire it to a switch if you dont get everything finnished by summer... when you see the gauge getting a lil over where it should be flip your switch n when the temp comes back down turn it off... or you could run 2 smaller fans and have one set to constant and one set to a switch just incase it starts to warm up in town or something so you can flip that one on for a lil extra cooling
 
#5 ·
or just get a controller for an extra $50...
also, your going to need to "fab" no matter what.
but it's all really simple. some go overboard though.

also, the JGC fan is an OEM fan. it's made to do the job. no guess work
 
#6 ·
How much HP does the clutch fan delete actually give you? I assume for a bolt on truck like mine it's not at all worth the trouble.
 
#8 ·
5-10 hp.
but the difference in throttle is night and day. like going from a 35lb flywheel to a 10lb
 
#12 ·
5 not worth it to me, 10 maybe. Probably something I'll never do. Better options out there than worrying about keeping my heart cool.
 
#13 ·
that looked pretty sweet i like the brackets he used they were nice...

chad i hear the throttle responce diffrence is amazing though and with that i would say would help with fuel mileage aswell by freeing up a lil
 
#14 ·
I have throttle response, its a manual. Pick a gear and bam. I'm sure it would help, but not something I'm going to worry about.
 
#16 ·
yea i know im used to a humvee lol wher you can hear that biotch flip on and off lol... what is it just like 1 nut on the end and its off aint it im not sure i havent looked yet i want to get a cai and ported TB when i take mine off though that way i notice a change
 
#19 ·
When I did the one on the orange trucki used a jeep cherokee fan someone gave me. I used the shroud thats on the Dak and mounted the fan inside the opening for the old clutch fan. I had to make 1 L braket to make it work. The tabs on the e-fan were in places where i just had to drill a hole in them and the shroud and pop in a small bolt. Hooked up a Derale controller and as done.
One thing i did have to do after a cpl weeks is replace the controller. The fuse holder isnt big enough to handle the current and although i used the fuse that came with the controller when the wire heated up it never popped the fuse. As a result the wire just shorted out the controller when the insulation melted.
Put in a new controller (replacement free of charge) and replaced the fuse holder with a circut breaker instead. No problems at all after that.
 
#20 ·
hey hwy you would get better results with that fan if it was mounted on the rad like its ment to... with it so far away its not doing as good of a job cooling.... they are ment to be mounted as close to. if not directly to the rad.
 
#21 ·
not true, it's sealed to the shroud which is mounted to the rad. it will pull all it's air though the radiator no matter what
 
#24 ·
Several people have used the HHR fan. The grand cherokee recall fan works, but you would still need a shroud for it to make the most out of it. As for controllers, there are several options. Not sure if any of the OEM fans can handle PWM to control the fan speed or not, but I recommend the SPAL fan-pwm-V3. It taps into the factory temp sensor, or you can add on the SPAL temp sensor for better sensitivity, and also taps into the A/C clutch trigger so the fan runs with the A/C clutch engaged which is required if you want your A/C and defrost to work properly. And with being tapped into the stock temp sensor, it's a lot more accurate than a temp probe shoved into the radiator fins. Then you custom program the controller for turn on temps based on your t-stat and personal preference. I have mine set to turn on low speed at about 185, then as the temps rise it ramps up the speed but doesn't hit full speed until 210. It rarely ever need to turn full on cause it does a good job of keeping it below that temp. I am running a SPAL 16" high performance fan in a custom made aluminum shroud. Don't worry so much about CFM(but you will definetily want over 2200cfm) but focus more on making sure you have a shroud that covers the most amount of the radiator as you can.
 
#26 ·
they mount that close for space and looks. you want it to pull air though the whole radiator surface. the leaks are minimal for a stock fan and if you have more than enough CFM's you will never know the difference. if the same volume of air is passed through the radiator, what does it matter if the fan is up it's ass, or down a 400 foot pipe?
 
#27 ·
they mount that close for space and looks. you want it to pull air though the whole radiator surface. the leaks are minimal for a stock fan and if you have more than enough CFM's you will never know the difference. if the same volume of air is passed through the radiator, what does it matter if the fan is up it's ass, or down a 400 foot pipe?
thats the key though you can mount a lower cfm fan on the rad and get the same effect as having a high cfm fam mounted further back with leaks and whatnot
 
#29 ·
It all depends on the shroud. You want the shroud to cover as much of the radiator as possible. Mounting the e-fan directly to the radiator limits the amount of surface area it can pull air through. Look at ANY OEM set up where there is only an electric fan. They all have fan shrouds where the e-fan itself is mounted to the exit of the shroud, not directly to the radiator. The reason most e-fan set ups sit close to the radiator is for looks and to take up less space. It's not for efficiency. Now I'm not saying you should mount it as far away as you can, but as long as the shroud covers as much of the radiator as possible and you have a good e-fan there won't be a problem. doesn't matter if it's a e-fan or a mechanical fan, they both pull air through the radiator the same way and I bet you've never seen a mechanical fan sitting right up against the radiator. they are always right at the opening in the fan shroud.
 
#30 ·
I see all these posts about swapping in an e-fan, and I like the idea. I have no problem hitting summit for a fan and mounting it either flush or constructing a bracket. Or, even this JGC swap I've heard about. Either/or. My questions revolve around wiring it in. Where do you get the power? How does the controller tie in to the rest of the truck? How does the controller know what temp the coolant is? If anyone has an easy(ish) combo for a 2002 Durango 4.7 NGC, I'd like to hear it!
 
#32 ·
Yet another reason to get an SCT lol
 
#33 ·
What year(s) JGC should I look for at the local boneyard?
 
#34 ·
I just looked at JGC fan options... Ok, What year(s) and engine and tow package options should I look for?
 
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