kev93p-up

OK, so I find this awesome Yota site with tons of cool info that I've been looking for for a while, and begin to do the minor mods(airbox, intake silencer elimination) on my truck. They worked great with a pretty noticeable performance gain! Impressive! The day after I did these mods, I get in the truck and fire it up and the piece of CRAP stock fan blade EXPLODES!! It demolished the fan shroud, busted two holes in the radiator, and lodged one GIANT piece of plastic in the side of my battery! SUCK!!! I was able to get the radiator repaired at a local radiator shop for a reasonable 40 bucks. I purchaced an electric fan and wiring kit and wondered if there's any tricks I should know about installing it. Anyhow it's a 200 dollar bill I would have really liked to spend on something else, but at least I got the electric fan upgrade out of the deal!

Plays_with_Toys

What electric fan did you get? If you found this site, I hope you searched. Theres a new craze to get the Taurus electric fan and save some $$$ compared to a flexalite. Thats the trick I know about... Sorry to hear about your fan exploding on you. I take it you had to foot the bill?

Yoter

Yeah $70 compared to $200. Yikes

kev93p-up

The fan I bought is a Hayden Rapid-Cool 16" fan. It was about $90. The rest of the $200 was the rad. repair and battery.

Yoter

$200 not bad for all of that, i forgot bout all the other stuff.

4RUNR

Could someone please enlighten me and explain why did Toyota put a clutch fan in and not electric to begin with?

KING

Because they're great egineers.

Yoter

Prolly the same reason they routed the exhaust manifolds the way they did. Anyone ever take a peak at that set up?

kev93p-up

The fact that they designed it with the belt drive fan/clutch set-up is'nt too terribly bad, aside the whole robbed horsepower issue. It is just beyond me why they made the blade outta PLASTIC! Anyone with half-a-brain could tell you that the plastic is gunna get brittle with heat and time, then...KAAAAABLOOOOOIE.......that'll be 200 dollars please!

Plays_with_Toys

How long should these fans last? Especially with varying temperatures, I live in Colorado where the temp is anywhere from 20* to 100*. I was thinking of getting a metal flex-alite- flex fan to replace the clutch/plastic fan. The taurus fan is too thick to go in front of the 4 cylinders.

ravencr

My stock fan is all messed up too, and now that I've heard that story I'm going to be doing my taurus fan install this week. I think I'll be the first to it on a 3rd gen with the 3.4liter.

Chris

Cebby

And I always thought Toyota engineers were smarter than that and had at least 3/4 of a brain. (Mine was fine when I removed it at 120k for an electric - for HP, not fear of self-destructing)

KING

Well, I think sometimes that car manufactures do somethings for them not to last FOREVER.

For example, the FORD SUPERDUTY (94-97) had a rock solid transmission that people have had very few problems, if any. However, the next model of FORDs (98-2002) did not come with such a solid transmission, so now after five years, you're starting to hear stories of rebuilt transmission, which has not been the case with the 94-97 FORDs even after nine years.

You see what I mean?

It's done for a purpose, in my opinion.

I still can't figure out why TOYOTA never thought of putting a damn TACHOMETER on my truck. And I'm not the only one... Alot of same model trucks as mine (basically, the majority) did not come with a TACHOMETER for some stupid reason!

Plays_with_Toys

Agreed! Where the heck was my tachometer? I still have no clue why automatic transmission cars get tachometers and manuals like mine are jipped.

kev93p-up

I agree on the whole "designed with a life expectantcy" issue. I mean, they need to sell some parts sometimes. It just sucks when something like this happens. Don't get me wrong, I think Toyota builds awesome vehicles across the board! All manufacturers have things that some people don't agree with, so we "modify", that's what makes your rig and mine different from one another. That's just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Firefyter-Emt

LOL.. Yep, know that feeling. At first you are like "WTF??" and then like" Awhhh Crap" and then you open the hood and see this...



Feel lucky, this is what it did to my hood..



Glad I had myself a body shop to work in, because this would of gotten pretty expensive.. (BTW, that is not the same hood.. I had to replace it)




View the whole story here..

kev93p-up

Those dents are almost the EXACT same dents in my hood!! The same side, sime place, everything! The only difference is, the paint stayed on mine. I actually forgot to mention them in my origional "fit of rage" description. So, where'd you get your hood and how much $$ was it? By the looks of things, that'll be the cheapest way, if I find a cheap hood.

Firefyter-Emt

I used to run a body shop and had a hood with just minor damage that I had saved.. The black hood on my website is not primer, but a black hood.. So the body work was a freebe.. But I bought all the fan stuff new OEM for $$ money..

Go to this web site Used part search database and try to locate a local used hood.. I would try to get one with the hood liner pad, the hood likes to steam for hours in light rain without it.. and it is about $200 new

rimpainter.com

Well you aren't going to avoid this problem by going electric cause they are plastic too.

joez

toyota used a plastic clutch fan for 3 reasons.
1. flows a peak of almost 8000 cfm.

2. would not rust out like metal fans (ones made entirely of steel would rust, and the fans tested in the past with aluminum centers would bend over time, and the fan would come off in 1 piece.)

3. Ever see a metal fan let go? much worse damage than a plastic. i saw a metal one break off as a result of rusting out, the fan came off in one piece spinning. after destroying the radiator beyond repair, it proceeded to shred all belts, dent the hood, trash the a/c condensor, and more than destroy the battery. i am not sure if that was the order, but that makes the most sence from the direction it was spinning.

that is just my rant trying to defend toyota, it sux when plastic breaks, but it could have been worse. usually there is method behind their madness, but not always. like why i have intermittant wipers, but no mist cycle? or why our tecel has mist, but no intermittant? why cant i have both?