Ebay fans vs. aftermarket

[Phone Man]

I had bought FF dynamics fans about 6-7 years ago. They were about $100 each. They seemed to be ok for a while but then I noticed that they had slowed down a bit. One of them used to get stuck or spin real slow. I had to tap the housing to get it to spin up again. This went on for a while. About a month ago it finally gave up. I contacted the company for their lifetime warranty and apparently if you don't send in the warranty card, you're SOL. Who the hell sends in warranty cards anymore??? I contacted them again and asked to look up my info. Their response was that they didn't keep computerized records back then. Really???

I was not going to buy another FF so I went over to ebay. There is a lot of talk on all kinds of forums about the quality so I figured I'd give my input. The fan I went with is one by a seller named jagcad.(http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-inch-rad...tor-hot-rod-street-rod-race-car-/281728409207) The motor is listed as being made in the USA. I have no idea if it is but wtf.

The fan is nicely made and the motor does seem heavy duty. It comes with a connector on the wiring which is a nice thing to have. Blade pitch is about the same as well as the noise they generate. Below are some pics of them. The one thing that the ff dynamics fan had was a deeper fan housing and the mounts were located at the top of the housing which was how I mounted them to my radiator. Since this was how I had it set up already, I swapped the new fan parts into the dynamics housing. You'll see what I mean from the pics. BTW I moved the temp sensor to the bottom of the radiator by the outlet hose. The reasoning for that is because this is the temp of the cooled water after it has flowed through the radiator. No reason to have the fans come on if the radiator is doing its job.

New Fan


Height comparison


Mounting options



New guts, old housing



FF DYnamics on the left, New on the right.


The new fan is just as powerful if not, a bit more than the FF Dynamics. I'll post any defects that may arise, but for $52, i'm a happy camper!

 

[roy72004]

Gotta put your t stat at the inlet side. If it is in the outlet side, your fan would only kick on after you've over heated badly. You don't want water temp to be 250 at the inlet and 190 going out and back into the block.

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[Phone Man]

The fans kick on at around 205. I have a 195 stat. They used to come on all the time because the water temp is at its max going into the radiator. If the radiator does its job dissipating the heat, then there is no reason to have the fans kick on. Using the outlet side of the radiator better determines weather or not you need the fans coming on. Being this is the first time that I have used this method, I have been keeping a watchful eye on the gauge. So far, so good.

 

[roy72004]

Hmmm. I have mine on the inlet side and it didnt run unless the temp gauge got around 210. I lowered it tho, as the fans aren't efficient enough to keep it cool in mountain terrain, crawling around rocks and steep hills now it come on about 190. I'm surprised it works well at your outlet side. Because, as I said, inlet side would be the actual temp of your motor. You don't put an exhaust gas temp at your exhaust tip, you put it closest to the cylinder as possible, (For example). using the outlet side would only tell you if you have a big enough radiator/air flow.

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[Phone Man]

Yeah, this is the first time i'm doing it this way. There are lots of other forums for different types of vehicles that are doing it on the outlet side for aftermarket fans. In reading through them, it made sense so I'm giving it a try. That's why i've been keeping a close eye on the gauge. I'll report back if there are any weird side effects.

 

[roy72004]

Sounds good!

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[SunlitComet]

regardless of personal preference or wire runs the thermo trigger of electric fans need to be located near the upper radiator hose connector on the radiator. this is to ensure that the water that leave the bottom of the radiator has been cooled first by passing thru the radiator with forced air from a fan because of the thermo switch seeing hot water coming in or driving. fans on at 205 to say 220° are ideal and should, provided you have a good setup, provide more then adequate cooling and reduced drag on the engine and provide ideal running temp conditions for the engine coolant, oil and tranny temperature control.