Now this was not supposed to surprise me the older clutch fans on these are prone to unexpectedly blow up and take things out with them and I inteneded to switch it over to an electric setup. Well I have only owned the vehicle for 2 weeks and it totally blew up. It knocked the upper hose off the radiator, and busted the weird plastic box between the fan and the mass air flow sensor. This truck had no shroud so it wasn't so well contained. I don't know if it killed the radiator it was dark and cold and I have just let it sit so far. I will look more and post pics this weekend.

SHEESH. 2 weeks I have lost a knock sensor (3.0L) and the fan. If the head gasket goes next I should be good to go with thins vehicle for a long time after they are all fixed.

 

welcome to the club

 

Thats one of the main reasons I stayed far away from anything pre 96 and 3.slow. Love the 2nd gen runners and trucks looks and feel, but that danged engine is a crapshoot.

Your HG is gonna go next...

 

ya thats about right for a vehical with 10+ years on it, and 100+K miles on it.

we have all been there done that.... but then again there must be a reason we dont drive the new crap....

 

When mine exploded it actually put four holes in the hood from the shrapnel.
Sucks
JMach1

 

I have a 1995 4runner, Juat had the whole top end done. I sure do hope they looked into this fan thing. I hope this does not happend to me. Any idears of what I should look for in this happening?

 

I'm gonna install my taurus electric fan before that happens....I hope.

 

Trust me I was hoping to just that myself.

 

Well talking to my roomy tonight and a friend of his just had his fan bomb go off and it dented up his hood pretty bad. I am glad mine is ok.

I am going to do the electric fan conversion for sure now.

 

my .02:

the metal hoop bracket that is riveted to the plastic fan is made of brittle material.

There are 4 nuts holding the metal bracket (and thus the fan) to the hub.

Those nuts like to vibrate loose, providing slop room for the fan to wobble.

The wobble can cause failure of the metal hoop bracket.

This likely occurs at a moment of high engine speed (ie just before a shift point). The fan is spinning at high rpms when the bracket lets go. The bracket and the fan then sort of shatter and scatter.

To avoid this scenario, check your fan with the engine off. Roll it by hand at 45? increments, trying to wiggle it at each point. If it's got a wiggle, you should remove it and inspect the bracket for cracks.

When re-installing, load the 4 little hub bolts with threadlocker. If the nuts never back off from engine vibe, the fan will never get stressed and start failing.

If your fan seems perfectly smooth, remove the nuts and threadlock 'em anyway.

 

My solution is going to be the electric can. Update on the damages. I only had the truck less than 2 weeks so I am trying to catch up on some of these maintenance items as I can. There was no fan shroud so the explosion went out and didn't take out my radiator.

Here is the list:
-Coolant Resivoir hole in bottom
-Intake silencer crap destroyed (going ISR anyways just sooner now)
-Upper Radiator hose cut
-Battery has a nice hole in the side and the fluid drained out
-Power Steering connector by fan completely destroyed
-Hood reinforcement flattened against hood and slight dent in hood
-Washer pumps destroyed from battery acid run off (didn't know the battery did that until I looked closer)

Fixes are waiting for payday this weekend. SHEESH

 

sucks man, same thing happened to my girlfriends 1993 runner, replaced fan, shroud, air cleaner(next to air filter) all for less than 100 bucks, battery fluid everywhere. I didnt find out till a couple days later that one of the power steering fluid hoses had a small cut in it, its a real bummer trying to replace that hose, oh well everything works well now!

ps thanks for the earlier tip on the treadlocker! I checked the fan a few days after i replaced it and the nuts were already a bit loose!

 

This thread is from 07! Nice searching and diggin!

 

It definitely took me more than 4 posts to realize that I don't have to start a new thread for every little question I have

I wish all newbs were like 91yotasteve

 

This thread title literally made me lol.

 

Gonna add this to the list of MUST-DO's!

 

For those that don't want an electric fan, the 94-95 fans don't have the outer ring and are much less likely to grenade.

 

well I´m pretty much fu...d haha I thought that maybe that outer ring on my 93 fanclutch could prevent it from becoming a granade hahaha could you explain more about that being the problem??

 

Less rotating mass.

 

Mine blew up on me a few years ago, fortunately I had just installed an A/C kit and the new lower shroud absorbed the bulk of the damage. Electric fan + thermostat relay were much cheaper than a new blade/shroud.