Electric fans with clutch fan possible?

[SnowDrifter]

Good point. Ive seen the "mud" that dexpuke causes when its mixed with air or the green ethylene glycol based antifreeze. I had a friend that a radiator to v6 almost completely plugged up by the stuff. It literally looked like someone had puked campbells chunky soup in his radiator about 10X. We had to completely flush his whole coolant system and then backlush it to get all that crap out of the radiator, hoses, block, heater core, etc. It never ran near as hot as the OP's though.

Dexcool is also ethylene glycol based. 99% of automotive coolants are EG based.

"old" green is silicated coolant and based off an inorganic acid tech - IAT
Dexcool is Organic Acid based - OAT
Mixing a coolant with dexcool isn't the issue. Mixing different base chemistries, is.
"new" green (universal) is a pretty stripped down OAT package and would be safe to add to dex-cool.


GENERALLY speaking, you're good to mix within a chemistry(IAT, OAT, PHOAT, etc), though various subchemistries may not play nice with eachother in the long term. e.g. a silicated coolant would have dispersants in it that when diluted with another coolant, would allow the silicates to settle out of suspension. But it won't form the horrific sludge we see when some boomer grabs the cheapest 'back in my day' coolant and chucks it into his rig in a public display of stubbornness and ignorance.

 

[Mudsport96]

I will go with checking coolant level to start.
Then do a fan clutch because at this age it probably needs replaced.
Compounding fans can work... but it can also make things worse. If the air flows over the radiator too fast it cant pull the heat out of it.

 

[SnowDrifter]

Compounding fans can work... but it can also make things worse. If the air flows over the radiator too fast it cant pull the heat out of it.

faster airflow = more heat removal. At least until you get so much airflow that friction and compression is a concern. Supersonic radiator?
Granted there are diminishing returns past a certain point because of boundary layer flow behaviors. But there's no such thing as too fast to remove heat

 

[justinjames]

Was it creeping into the red zone?

I would expect having both fan systems would actually end up being much worse than just one or the other. Depending on how the blades sync up, they could end up competing against each other and blocking a lot of the airflow. That would be NG.

We don't have high 90's as often as NM, but we do have stretches like that here and there throughout our summer.

If you are having problems in that temperature range, you may have something else going on.
Do you know that the water pump is in good shape? If impeller blades are broken or rusted away, it may not be circulating properly through the radiator.

Hose good? Old hoses can collapse in when hot. That can also restrict flow.

If original, the radiator itself could be partially clogged, reducing flow.

Just because you are in the upper 90's, I don't think you should be seeing any unusual or significant overheating issues at idle.

See what others say. Those are my thoughts at this point...

I replaced the water pump, the thermostat and I believe upper and lower hoses ( if not then just one I can’t remember if I did both) last year. I never thought of the blade sync but that makes sense I just thought more airflow. Thanks for your input !

 

[justinjames]

Year, make, model, engine? Miles?

A good OE cooling system should handle that heat somewhat well, but lots of variables can affect it. Anything been replaced over the years?

What's the age/condition of the radiator, thermostat, coolant and water pump? Is the fan shroud in place? Fan clutch (OE?) engaging properly?

Is there an aftermarket tranny cooler installed in front of the radiator?

Initially I'd suspect the radiator being partially plugged internally, or needing the exterior fins cleaned out. But lots of other things to verify.

Sorry I’m a newb to the forums, 2004 Tahoe z71 the engine itself has around 80,000 got replaced with a crate when the truck hit 100,000. Last year I replaced the water pump, thermostat and I believe both hoses. I have yet to replace the radiator worked on doing the cheaper replaceable parts first but it does make sense. I’ll have to run down to the O’Reillys to see if I did the fan clutch as well I wanna say I did. I’m running Preston’s dexcool antifreeze. As far as an aftermarket tranny cooler I doubt it I’m the second owner and the lady I bought it from wouldn’t of known what that is she’s the one that blew the first engine.

Year, make, model, engine? Miles?

A good OE cooling system should handle that heat somewhat well, but lots of variables can affect it. Anything been replaced over the years?

What's the age/condition of the radiator, thermostat, coolant and water pump? Is the fan shroud in place? Fan clutch (OE?) engaging properly?

Is there an aftermarket tranny cooler installed in front of the radiator?

Initially I'd suspect the radiator being partially plugged internally, or needing the exterior fins cleaned out. But lots of other things to verify.

 

[Mudsport96]

faster airflow = more heat removal. At least until you get so much airflow that friction and compression is a concern. Supersonic radiator?
Granted there are diminishing returns past a certain point because of boundary layer flow behaviors. But there's no such thing as too fast to remove heat

View attachment 372649

Well, i guess i shoud caveat that with i dont know everything about airflow. However, i do know coolant can move too fast through the radiator to transfer heat to the air. I have seen my own Nova run cooler with a 195 stat than no stat at all.

 

[S33k3r]

Dollars to donuts you just have blockages in your cooling system. Performing a couple coolant purges might get you clear. Good luck!

 

[justinjames]

Yeah dude something else is amiss.
I have efans on my rig, been in 115 degree weather going up mountain passes, stop and go, towing, and never had a lick of problem.
How are you measuring temperature?

Do you recommend efans over a clutch fan ? Like I said I watched a video on YouTube of a guy that did the conversion and lives in Phoenix area and he said it performed worse, maybe it wasn’t the correct fans/airflow ?

 

[Fless]

Sorry I’m a newb to the forums, 2004 Tahoe z71 the engine itself has around 80,000 got replaced with a crate when the truck hit 100,000. Last year I replaced the water pump, thermostat and I believe both hoses. I have yet to replace the radiator worked on doing the cheaper replaceable parts first but it does make sense. I’ll have to run down to the O’Reillys to see if I did the fan clutch as well I wanna say I did. I’m running Preston’s dexcool antifreeze. As far as an aftermarket tranny cooler I doubt it I’m the second owner and the lady I bought it from wouldn’t of known what that is she’s the one that blew the first engine.

Take a look behind the grille and see if you have one of these (in the red box) in front of your A/C condenser:

 

[S33k3r]

The conventional wisdom is that a clutch fan flows more air when your engine is under load and needs it the most. Electric fans have a constant speed and, theoretically, flow less air than a clutch fan at load levels. So, first, it depends on your use case. If it's all around town, short hauls, efans are probably what you want. If you are towing or otherwise loading your engine, clutch fans are what you want. Finally, more modern fans can be set up to move as much air as the stock clutch fan, thereby reaping the rewards of both the clutch fans and efans. However, there may be a trade off in reliability, and they will definitely be more expensive.