This article will walk you though the basics of replacing the stock clutch fan with an electric fan. I used a kit purchased from JMS.
Details Here
Tools Needed:- 16 Gauge Wire
- 2 3/16" Terminal Ends
- 30A inline fuse
- Wire Crimper
- 3/8-18 NPT Tap
- 9/16 Metal Drill Bit
1)
Disconnect your battery!2) Installing the electric thermostat
This setup uses a thermostat (or thermal switch) to control when the fan turns off and on. You will need to tap your thermostat housing for the new electric fan thermostat. You may ask "Why wouldn't I just use a thermostat probe in the radiator?” even though that would work and be easier to install, an electric thermostat on the housing will be more accurate.
On the thermostat housing there is already a whole you can use to install the electric thermostat. All you need to do is drill it out and tap it.
3) Mount the Fan
Mounting the fan was very easy with this kit! The kit includes everything you need, just zip tie it up. You may have noticed there was no fan shroud on this setup, so I will be using foam around the fan to create a shroud. The fan shroud is very important. Its job is to force the fan to pull air through the entire radiator. Without it, the fan will only pull air through the area directly in front of its blades, as well as the side between the blades of the fan and the radiator.
4) Mount the relay
I selected to mount the fan relay right be hide the battery, this will be less wiring and works best for me. You can put the relay anywhere you like.
5) Wiring everything up
There are many ways to hook an electric fan. In this article I’m only going to show you 2 ways.
a) This wiring diagram shows you how to wire everything up so the fan will only run while the key is turned on.
b) This 2nd wiring diagram shows you how to wiring everything up so the fan will run even after the key is shut off. (I picked this one, only because I’m too lazy to find a 12v source that’s only on when the key is on. I’ll be revisiting this sometime and wiring it up the 1st way shown above)
The relay that came with my kit looks like this:
and here are the wires labeled:
6) Testing
I did 3 tests to insure I had everything hooked up correctly. The 1st test is hooking back up the battery. When hooking up the battery be sure you look everything over, if you smell or see anything out of the normal, unhook the battery immediately and double check your wiring. Now that we know the wiring is good we can continue to the 2nd test. This test will test the relay to see if it working, disconnect the 2 wires off the electric thermostat and touching them together. This should activate the relay and kick the fan on. After you have tested to make sure that the relay is working correctly replace the wires back on the electric thermostat. Now that we know both the wiring and relay work, it’s time to make sure the electric thermostat works. Start up your car and let it idle for a while. While the car is idling monitor the temperature gauge to insure the car doesn’t over heat. Most thermostats kick on ~180-190°. If your fan does not kick on around these temperatures, shut the engine off and check your wiring. If you fan does kick on, continue to monitor the temperature and make sure the temperature gauge starts to drop. You may also want to take your car around the block a few times to sure everything is working. For the most part your fan shouldn’t run while normal cursing speeds, the fan will run while in town or idling.
Notes: When the fan is mounted in the back side of the radiator you need to make sure the fan pulls the air from the front of the car.
