my 88's 22re has been over heating after long drives and i'm looking to give it some upgrades. are the flex a lite fans worth getting? are they enough better then stock to be worth it or should i just look into something else. they seem like a cheap upgrade that might be worth while.

 

If overheating is your only reason for wanting a new fan ,you might be best to find why its overheating.
Are you towing a lot of load on these long drives?
or is it just because of the climate in you area.?
Maybe your cooling system needs a overhaul ie,t/stat or flush or fan clutch.
I cant see why else a stock system cant keep things cool otherwise.I mean it is design to handle it.

 

Yup, you're treating the symptom, not the cause. Plus, the mechanical fan will probably put out more air than an electrical one.

 

The stock belt-driven fan will usually always outperform an equivalent sized electric. If you're overheating, you may want to check out the fan clutch among other things. Sounds like it may not be locking up as required. Now, if you're talking just replacing the mechanical fan with another mechanical fan (and getting rid of the clutch altogether) you may well cure your overheating problem but add another; non-clutched fans tend to eat up a bit of hp and fuel economy and may even cause the engine to run too cool.

 

I can assure you an electric fan will *not* cure overheating, BTDT. Find out what is causing the overheating and fix it. When does it overheat? What are the conditions, fast, slow, stopped, hot or cold weather, high engine load, etc.?

 

I ran a flex a lite fan for several years. Truck never ran as cool and I didn't notice any improvement in the V6 performance. I went back to the stock fan and was happy.

 

They also tend to eat radiators during water crossings.




Go clutch fan or install a kill swith on the electric ones for water crossings. Also, if installin' electric fans, not only do you need to wire it up to the stat, it needs to be wired up to the AC so it comes on when the AC comes on. If not, pressure goes way high on the high side of the a/c compressor and it will burn one up in a hurry. Not enough heat transfer in the condensor without a fan runnin' when the AC is on.