I finished installing the electric fan on my GT6+ last night (well,
this morning), and just now finished testing it. It's really nice.
This is my autocross/track car, so I really didn't like the idea of
having the stock fan trying to push air at 6000+rpm while I'm trying to
get those last tenths out of my time. The obvious thing was to install
an electric fan.
The quick solution, I suppose, is to shell out $150 or so for a Kenlowe
kit. Since fans run about $40, and thermostatic controllers about $30,
I couldn't really see it. So I started shopping for parts. My hope was
that if I pulled out the mechanical fan, there would be enough room to
put a slim electrical fan behind the radiator, perhaps slightly offset.
I have an oil cooler mounted vertically next to the radiator, so the
fan would be able to cover some of that.
It was not meant to be. There just isn't enough clearance between the
front pulley and the radiator core. There may be thinner fans out
there, but this one wouldn't fit. However, it covers the core perfectly
(it's a 13", from Racer Wholesale).
I talked to my favorite radiator guy, and he said we could either build
a support frame to attach to the car's frame, or make some brackets
that attach to the steel core carriage of the radiator. The latter
seemed like a cleaner solution. I set out to make the four little
C-shaped brackets, and he attached them. A little paint, and it looks
like it came from the factory that way.
Last night I wired everything up. The thermostatic controller up front behind
the oil cooler, an illuminated bypass switch at the left end of the dash, and a
nice little harness to connect them (since I was making it, I included the fog
lamp lead in there, too). Since I had extra grommets, I made a new 1/2" hole to
pass the harness through the firewall; it didn't look like the bulk of three 14
gauge wires would fit through the space available in the main harness grommet.
For those of you who might want to do this yourself: I took power from the
purple (fused) circuit, where it attaches to the column lighting switch to allow
you to flash the main beams. This circuit powers the horns and the lights and
nothing else, has a 35A fuse, and is just the thing for driving the fan. I ran a
lead from there up to the switch, and two leads from the switch out to the
controller. One is always hot and goes to the supply side of the controller, and
the other is the switch output and goes to the "fan" lead on the controller.
That way I can turn on the switch and run the fan whenever I care to, just in
case. As an added benefit, the way this switch works, the light comes on
whenever the controller turns the fan on!
I decided to install the temp probe "Italian style". Kenlowe owners
always complain about not being able to get the temp set right; the fan
runs too much
or not at all. Both of our Italian cars have the temp probe at the output of the
radiator, near the bottom hose, rather than at the input. This seems to make a
lot more sense, because when you need to turn the fan on is when the radiator
isn't cooling off the water! I set the controller to come on when the exit temp
is about 180, which means it turns off at about 165 (the span is preprogrammed).
It seems to work great; sitting in the driveway the head temperature stays just
around 185. I haven't had much time to road test it yet; that comes next.
Now, if I could just figure out why one of the fan blades hits the shroud on
startup, I'd be a happy camper...
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