Did anyone replace the radiator fan with an electirc fan? I'm doing a few gaskets on my 95 sr and thought about changing the fan. It should provide better cooling and free up couple of hourses.
In particular, I'm looking at this product
http://www.slickcar.com/productdetails.asp?ProductID=135
There's some info in this thread
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=540649
Any thoughts.

I used the dual 12" from flex-a-lite. I don't think the 16" will fit. Worked fine on the the highway but not enough air flow for serious off roading.
Also takes a lot of electrical power.

I went with dual 12" fans from perma-cool for my 4 cyl turbo raider ( 1650 cfm each).

At slow speeds mine does cool better than the factory clutch fan the 4 cyl came with. By this I meen in gear, and under 1200 rpm. The engine driven fan was just turning too slow to move much air.

It was a challange to get them to fit, I notched the radiator frame and mounted them side by side.

At higher RPM's say 2000 or higher so the factory clutch fan seems to work better. I noticed during my smog test that when the motor was held at 2500 rpm the electric fans were not keeping up as well and I was getting some temperature gain, the mechanical fan does not do this.

Then again in real world driving I cant think of any time I would just hold 2500 rpm, not moving an inch for five min.

On the road and actually driving it did not matter what setup I have, they both cool pretty well once assisted by the vehicle moving.

For my setup the electrics worked best when I need them, in gear and moving slowly. On my 87 I did need to put on a larger alternator and upgrade the wire from it.

Also the v6 engine use a larger fan and clutch assy than the 4 cyl setups. So while I was easily able to improve on my setup yours flows more air to start with.

I retrospect the cost benifit of my setup is questionable. It does work but the fans were about $170 for the pair, the alternator (110 amp) was $40 used and there was a fair amount of effort to put it in.

For me a larger clutch fan would have been a better solution. The upside is I do get a small gain in avialible HP and fuel economy.

Then again what mod on any of our vehicles is really justified?

I am adding a pusher fan to my setup for the AC since mine died. The aftermarket fans flow a lot more air than the factory fan so that will help a bit more.

The factory fan is designed to run slower so it lasts longer, it provides enough flow for the AC. I plan on setting mine up to run slowly if its enabled by the AC but bypass the dropping resistor if its the turned on by the engine cooling system.

Kevin

Thanks guys.

Kevin, your post was very informative. Lots of good info. I wasn't aware of the need for upgraded alternator.

Your SR may be have a big enough alternator, my 87 only had a 45 amp unit.

Kevin

Do some searching on Ford Tauras (sp?) fans. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />