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Hey 3VZE people I wanted to get some feed back on where every one is attaching their temp switch or probes for gauges and fans. I am not personally a fan of adjustable fan controllers so I plan on installing a simple on off coolant switch. I was considering one of the threaded drain ports in the head but and feed back is welcome.
Here is why I am asking.I have had this old fan laying around for a while. It's the solo cooling fan found on the Jeep Liberty 3.7L so it should do well to cool the 3.0. You can find them in the bone yards for about $35
The radiator measured out to be very close to the fan shroud.
Just a little trimming and it slips right on. Now you can mount the fan side ways or get fancy and mount it up right depending on how much trimming you need.
Keep the stock clutch fan setup. You wont see or gain anything by using an electric fan. I did the Taurus fan swap a few years ago when it was a big thing on this forum and all it did was make my wallet lighter.
Agreed. Just go buy two fan clutches at a junk yard and rebuild them. my 3vz 4Runner runs at 180-185 even in California summer heat. (I have a temperature sensor probe installed in the upper radiator hose coolant jacket).
Unfortanitly my rig has the Tow package and HD fan clutch that has already failed. And there are no yotas in the bone yards here to pull from.
If you really want to eliminate the fan and clutch. It's probably best to get a controller with a probe.
I'm running an electric fan and a simple controller from Napa auto parts. You can wire it in for your AC and it will shut off when you turn your key off. It came with the inline fuse and everything needed for pretty cheap. IV got about 5k miles on my set up and it works flawless. No power gain really but the truck never gets to hot! I have my fan and clutch still just in case it does fail...
The fan I chose was like yours. Frankin fan out of something not meant for it. I'm pretty sure I got mine off a kubota tractor....I can't remember but it moves A LOT of air. Good luck!
I simply prefer the coolant based switch since it has a simple on and off setting it makes it very reliable and leaves noting to adjust.
Not it to worried about it over heating as much as I am about it getting up to operating tempature. It's not uncommon to hit -20F and below especially when I go to work at 5am. My old CJ with a SBC swap didn't like to even warm up. I jade the same issue with my 02 Dakota 4.7HO swap until I swapped to a crown Vic electric fan.
Remember that the "coolant" temperature and the radiator temperature are two different things. That's why you have a thermostat.
When you want your truck to "warm up," the thermostat allows very little coolant into the radiator. And the radiator stays cold, no matter what the fan is doing. Only once the thermostat approaches operating temperature does warm coolant go to the radiator. Only once a lot of hot coolant is in the radiator does the fan clutch engage.
The reverse is true too; if you're driving down the road on a -20°F day the engine is at 190°F, but the radiator is below freezing. The thermostat only needs to little a tiny dribble go through the radiator to hold the coolant temperature constant.
So if you had an on/off switch for a radiator fan mounted on the block, it would turn on the fan as soon as the coolant approached operating temp, but the radiator was still too cold to touch. Instead, if you want to mess around with an electric fan, you need to measure the temperature of the radiator (actually, down-air-stream of the radiator).
Remember that the "coolant" temperature and the radiator temperature are two different things. That's why you have a thermostat. When you want your truck to "warm up," the thermostat allows very little coolant into the radiator. And the radiator stays cold, no matter what the fan is doing. Only once the thermostat approaches operating temperature does warm coolant go to the radiator. Only once a lot of hot coolant is in the radiator does the fan clutch engage. The reverse is true too; if you're driving down the road on a -20°F day the engine is at 190°F, but the radiator is below freezing. The thermostat only needs to little a tiny dribble go through the radiator to hold the coolant temperature constant. So if you had an on/off switch for a radiator fan mounted on the block, it would turn on the fan as soon as the coolant approached operating temp, but the radiator was still too cold to touch. Instead, if you want to mess around with an electric fan, you need to measure the temperature of the radiator (actually, down-air-stream of the radiator).
Very good point. And it kind of makes we wonder why the electric fan had such a big improvement on the dodge. The only thing I can think of is the clutch fan pulls some air constantly even before it engages. This may have had a certain cooling effect on the block and heads it's self especially if the clutch fan was partially or fully engaging before operating tempature. That could possibly explain why it would warm up faster with the electric fan vs the clutch fan on that particular rig. I used the factory ECU output for the back up/ac fan to trigger the fan in the dodge. Hemifever took care of the tuning and programmed it to kick on at 206F the T-stat was a 195 in that truck.
Jul 27, 2016 | 09:48 AM
