pusher vs puller fan
 

ok, i installed a hayden 14" electric fan in my 87 NA after my fan clutch crapped out. thing is, even the damn fan clutch throws more air and cooled my car much better even without the fan shroud than this shrouded electric fan. i installed it as a puller, since space is scarce in front of the radiator. and yes, i remembered to flip the blade over and reverse the polarity (since they come pusher-ready). as far as spacing, the blades are about 1 inch from the radiator, best i could do withough leaving it all dangly. i dont think it should be closer to the engine, or should it?

my car right now almost seems bipolar. when running continuously, it runs at ideal temp. when idling or in heavy traffic the temp gauge sky rockets. as soon as i step on it it practically falls back down. after driving it around for a while, after turning off the engine you can hear the hot coolant boiling inside, something that never happened before my fan clutch crapped out. but, i dunno if this has anything to do with a bad water pump.

someone please tell me i need a better fan (if the fan is the problem). this is tempting me to go back to the damn fan clutch.

I'm cool in the mojave desert.
 

My car is N/A, so heat is not such a concern as turbo.

The Hayden fan is only rated at 1100 CFM. That is what I am using too. Mounted to the back side of the radiator.

The boiling sound is normal when you shut off engine that is pretty hot. Its boiling the water, and the cap is letting it over into the bottle.

I always have my A/C on here in the desert, so my 2 little factory fans also run, which helps keep it cooler.

I run a 180* thermostat, which won't prevent over heating, but does allow it to run cooler if it can. Better than keeping the temp up to 195* minimum.

I also added a large (12"x15") transmission cooler right in front of the radiator (mounted to it actually), between the radiator and the A/C condensor. I removed the small 3/8" coolant by-pass hose (below the thermstat) and ran hoses out (under the afm)to the new cooler.

I calculated a 40% radiator increase.

It always runs about 1/3 on the gage, and never have the boil over sound anymore.

50/50 antifreeze. New cap.

If I were to ever need a new fan, I would get this.

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...tegoryId=10117

#720-1987...14" 1800cfm.

You may need this. Or do a search on this forum for electric fans others have used.

my elect fan throws 2950 cfm no shroud


that 1100 isn't going to cut it

That's my point. Gotta have a lot of air moving thru a supra.

What kind / brand are you using??

I may want to upgrade mine.

Also, I removed the rubber hood sealing strip on the body at the firewall. It helps let air out of the engine bay.

But not a good idea if your car has oil leaks, and smokes under the hood.

The reason your car overheats when in traffic is because your not getting any air flow from the car moving lol. If this is happeneing, Your fan is underrated. Get a bigger one! Your fan is there just to cool the car when its moving slow. You dont even need the fan when your going down the highway or just going at least 25 or above. Ive driven around without my fan even on (on my way to get a replacement) And it was fine, Because i didnt stop.

im using a perma cool and i removed the rubber molding from the engine hood too

after i saw you did it .
it makes alot of sense to me

You also need a shroud of some sort. That helps a lot more than youd think.

Update!
 

ok, i got a flex-a-lite 16" shrouded 2000 cfm fan... it still overheats, but very gradually. the temp gauge doesnt go up until ive been idling for several minutes. works fine for normal driving, even at traffic lights, but its gonna still be overheating under very heavy traffic. and im still getting that coolant boiling. it even looks like it sucked my reservoir bottle (it was almost collapsed) though the reservoir was full.

ive mounted it behind the radiator, as a puller. i didnt have to reverse the blades because it came puller ready, i just had to wire it as a puller.

-2000 cfm
-16" diameter
- shrouded
- puller

what i was thinking though, is that since the fan clutch is farther away from the radiator (and my electric fan is attached to the radiator) it could have something to do with it not having enough room to pull air from. any ideas/suggestions?

Sounds like you might have a bhg??? Have you replaced the water pump and thermostat? I donno though. I just got a 2600CFM 16" electric fan. We will se how that goes.

i dont see how i could have a bhg, i get lots of compression and no white junk under the cap (or any other bhg symptoms). a bad thermostat and/or water pump would have my car overheating even when driving fast. its air im not getting into my radiator, i just dont understand why.

Thats not neccesarily true. If your water pump is starting to go, It might not pump a lot of water, But the radiator while moving has enough flow to defeat any overheating. Def replace your thermostat with a cooler one too. Even with no fan you shouldnt be overheating that fast, So there is something wrong.

thats the thing, with this new fan i installed i dont overheat fast. only after ive been driving for a while and then start idling for a long period of time. even then it takes a while for the temp to go up. even if i am idling and overheating reving my engine a bit will start lowering the temperature.

what would i look for in a bad water pump (or a water pump thats about to go bad)? but given that thermostats are fairly inexpensive ill get a new one for sure.

I dont think there is a way to test your water pump. Just replace it to be safe they are like 30 bucks. Also your radiator may be somewhat clogged.

You need a water pump then. The rev the motor and it goes down is a dead give away.

Im going to be stopping by autozone or pepboys within the next few days to pick up an electric fan.. Any brands I should avoid? Whats the limit to how big of a fan you can put in our cars?

i would avoid hayden, which is unfortunately what is most common in those stores. they are the cheapest ones around but id rather spend $40 more for a much better fan. napa has a much larger selection of electric fans. flex a lite is good, and ive heard perma cool is also good. you dont need to spend $400 on an electric fan. my flex-a-lite was $133 after tax, 16" 2000cfm. you'll need a 14" or 16". i dont know if you can go any bigger but definitely wouldnt go smaller. not only is size important, but cfm's are also important. ive been told to stay above 1800 cfm but i got the 2000 just in case.

question for you guys: does anybody know how many cfm's the stock auxiliary fan blows?

Ok Ok
 

If I were you........I'd do a search on this forum, in the General, and in this section, on BHG symptoms, and diagnosis.

Oh what the hell.......I need to practice me 2 finger typing skills. (I bet I can hit the 'backspace' button more times than you, and still 'sound' like I know how to type).

It sounds like you need to have a "block test" performed by a shop. Our car's BHG symptoms are as follows....

Stays reasonably cool around town for short trips, and 1-2 hr cool down times. (like going to the movies) But, after a long drive, it can heat up, or not, until you slow back down.

What happens is....(believe me, I went thru it, and have thoroughly researched it out)............

Back at #6 cylinder it gets a hot spot, which then develops a tiny gasket leak into the coolant passage from the combustion chamber. This pressurizes the cooling system to the point of pushing coolant over into the bottle. If it gets a chance to cool down, it will suck the coolant bottle dry, setting on the little orange light on the left of the dash.

I 'baby'd' mine for 3 months until I could get to it.

Valve job.

You can't go more than 16" electric due to space.

Check this site. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...tegoryId=10117

A shroud helps pull air from in front of/thru the radiator, and not from the side of the fan.

A thermostat is a good thing to know that its working properly, 180* prefered, but I seriously doubt its your problem.

I don't believe your water pump is bad either. You can check it easily. Drain some coolant out of the radiator, until you are just above the down tubes inside.

Start the car, and let it warm up. The coolant will start to flow. When its all warmed up, the coolant will flow, but if you raise the idle up to about 1000 rpm, you will see the coolant flow more. The pump is good. No flow=blown engine very quickly.

All your symptoms indicate a possible BHG. Get the blocktest.

There's mechanics/technicians, and then there's parts changers.

Don't just start changing parts, as it may not solve any of your problems. Diagnosis first is the RIGHT way.

"Stays reasonably cool around town for short trips, and 1-2 hr cool down times. (like going to the movies) But, after a long drive, it can heat up, or not, until you slow back down."

actually it heats up when i slow down. and i mean SLOW DOWN. more like idling for minutes. but yes, its more common after a long trip. and i would presume that my pump is good since the temp does go down after reving my engine. and the new electric fan really does help a lot in keeping it cool (not enough though).



"Back at #6 cylinder it gets a hot spot, which then develops a tiny gasket leak into the coolant passage from the combustion chamber. This pressurizes the cooling system to the point of pushing coolant over into the bottle. If it gets a chance to cool down, it will suck the coolant bottle dry, setting on the little orange light on the left of the dash."

i have had the "bottle sucked dry" symptom. well, kinda. it was sucked in, like almost collapsed, but it wasnt empty. in fact it was almost full. and the low coolant light never lit up.

before i go on buying parts ill get the block test. how much should i look to spend on it? more so, a complete rebuild? my car does have 113k original miles (i bought it when it had 108K) and i doubt it ever had the hg replaced.

in the meantime, is it safe to drive my car? my total daily trip is 8 miles, and i dont race. i do speed but ive been careful not pushing it hard so it doesnt overheat. i do wanna fix this ASAP.

Sounds like the bottle collapses because the little air hole on its cap is plugged, not letting air in to displace the coolant as its sucked back into the radiator.

Block test should not cost over $20

Where are you getting this "Cooler" thermostat? I have the OEM toyota one in. I'm running dual flexalites and Around town I couldn't get the car to overheat if I wanted but on the free way it started shitting on me and over heating, So I cut holes in the Flexalite shroud in an attempt to get more air across the radiator when in motion. This helped but I still need more flow, I'm hoping the body kit fixes my problem. Other wise im gonna try cutting a few fan blades out of the flexalite and promote more movement there. I guess i'll find out soon enough.

and yeah, it really sounds like BHG, when I blew mine there was no white smoke, no white goo under the cap, no coolant in the oil, just a constant over heating and bottle draining. I was suspicious, had it block tested, and then =O nooooo! on the plus side, the list at the bottom was mostly installed during the 39 hour head gasket repair binge I went on. If my neighbors didn't think I was doing crank before they think I am now.

Theres a big rack of them at pepboys with different temperatures written on them(200, 195, 180, etc). Just get one thats the same diameter and the lowest temperature. I Didnt even match them up, i just did it by eye, And it works fine. You just have to make sure that rubber gasket can go around it.

update
 

no bhg (yet haha), just a water pump starting to go bad (and i could see it get worst everyday). funny thing, when i removed it it still seemed to spin alright like the new one. but, no overheating problems anymore! and my car is even a little quieter now. thanks for all your help guys.

See! lol. glad ya fixed it. Overheating problems are always a PITA

[QUOTE=Burn N' Up]Other wise im gonna try cutting a few fan blades out of the flexalite and promote more movement there. I guess i'll find out soon enough. QUOTE]

Do that and sure enough the fans will be in an unbalanced condition and they will crap out shortly when the bearings go. Take a home desktop fan, break off a blade, turn the switch on and watch what happens. It almost sounds like the fans are running all the time which will impede airflow at highway speeds, maybe you should adjust the fan thermostat up a little.

Im here in kuwait and in the summer its usually over 120 degrees, heavy traffic conditions etc.
The way I got mine to run cool was to have a custom radiator made for my car with one more row in it. Ive had it like this for about a year and a half and its never gone over 1/3 temp no matter what conditions here and Im still using the stock fan. I was thinking of getting a perma cool to get some extra horses for the engine though but havn't done it yet.

There isnt a big difference without the fan. I drove my car from my house to my friends with no fan on it and it still felt pretty much the same. Didnt overheat either, But it was a short drive. Ive actually had every belt off my motor except the alternator/water pump, and it still didnt feel much different. Id have to get it checked out on a dyno or something tho lol.