I have the same theory. It never had a problem when new, but it seems to be getting worse as it gets older. Stop and go traffic is the worst for my tranny as it'll run near 210F-250F all the time. Keep in mind I have an auxiliary tranny cooler, but no fan on it. As soon as I speed up the temps come down.

If I'm climbing steep grades at freeway speeds I have to watch the tranny temp and the engine temp. I can control the tranny temp by watching the temperature gauge and going in and out of overdrive. I believe with the OD off the torque converter locks up thus lowering the tranny temp. But, that makes the engine work harder raising the engine temp. It's a vicious cycle.

I've had the overheating tranny and engine problem with the stock fan and the taurus fan. I have since switched back to the stock fan for reliability reasons. Also, I swear that a locked up stock fan puts out way more air at idle than the taurus fan puts out on hi.

The little cooler beside the tranny is the transfer case cooler.

The little pusher fan in front of the radiator is for the air conditioner.

Personally, I don't think an e-fan is significantly more efficient or provides any significant power gains over the stock fan. It still uses energy which comes from the engine.

I see what you mean. I was thinking the same thing as far as shaft work from the engine is concerned. Turning shaft work into electricity and back to shaft work and finally to moving air is typically much less efficient than just turning shaft work directly to moving air.

I suspect that unless one installs, for example, a passive tranny cooler without fan to ease the cooling load on the radiator, is no way that I can see to lessen the load the engine spends to cool itself.

I think I'll stick with the stock fan, over heating an engine prone to head gasket issues is not wise.

Frank

I found that the taurus fan cooled far far better at idle and slow speeds then tha stock fan did. Also the electric fan is using energy that for the most part is wasted and not used from the alt which is running anyway. I actually really like the electric fan over stock.

As far as relibility it allows me to bypass the typically unreliable gel clutch which usually just turns the fan whether its needed or not and more importantly the fan bearing that is known to seize up and kill the fan itself. It is a trade off. FYI the motor that Ford uses to turn the taurus fan is used in a wide variety of vehicles and oddly enough is a pretty good piece.

I had a Flex-a-lite 165 for years, and hated it. I think it worked fine for Scott (in CA) but it couldn't pull enough thin air at altitude to keep the motor cool. Also, I found their external temp sensor to be near worthless.

I've now got a Taurus fan and the temp needle may as well be painted on the guage. I still need to rewire it per SPAL's instructions (I use a SPAL contoller with an in-line temp sensor), but the fan works great.

Mark

Given the cost differential I'm definitely leaning towards the Taurus. It *should* cool without issue since it is spec'd for a 3.8L engine which was also typically mated to an auto. I don't doubt that the Taurus fan is reliable, Ford doesn't make that motor. Heck, you can bet that Toyota, Honda, etc... don't make those types of motors either. They probably all get them from similar/same places.

I vividly recall that my '89 5 speed 3.0 would turn the stock fan on once and a while. Sure it was a big drag on the engine when it did but it was very infrequent.

On the freeway unless I'm climbing I'm ok with the 94. The fan is off unless it is a hotter day. Around town though, it is on almost all the time this time of year. I think that's where I'd like to see the difference. It would be nice as mentioned to have a fan pulling hard when idling at a light so that it can shut down sooner when the truck starts moving again.

Frank

I'll have to disagree with that one. The rotating resistance of the alternator is proportional to the voltage and current draw. Since the voltage regulator only limits the voltage, the current is free to do anything it wants. Therefore, the higher the current draw, the higher the load on the engine. That's why when I used to hit the high switch on the taurus fan the engine RPM would dip slightly.

I'd agree though, if you're going to do an e-fan, then go taurus.