[Guest]

Ok guys, I need electric fans along with a new radiator. Mine is crapping out and my fan shroud is gone. My radiator might actually be fine but it looks pretty nasty and the car gets a little warm on really hot days here in texas.

Anyway I know everyone was talking about the contour fan mod for our cars. Now who all has done it? How did they fit? Do they keep the car cool? Does anyone have them that lives in a hot climate area (like Texas, its 100++ degrees out here today). I'm thinking that with a PWR radiator and a set of fans I shouldn't be getting a little warm anymore....


Thanks,
Casey

P.S.- I've read some of the testimonials about electric fans not working. I really don't wanna hear it. I know some people who have been really successful in hot climates with electric fans and some who have not...


EDIT: I would love to hear install advice on these bad boys too. If I go this route I really wanna get the temp probe too and just wire it up with a relay.

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

The best cheap mod out there for 50.00 IMO! I did it and it works great. My mechanic wired it off the temp sender so that it goes on and off after the engine warms up. I bought a temperature probe however this is a better setup. It fits like a glove and both fans run in parallel. It is way better than the stock fan for sure. The engine warms up faster and I let it get 90% to the red line then turned the fan on to see how long it takes to cool down, and within 45 seconds it was cool again. If you run off of a key it will be too cool! You can also run lines to the ac so that when the ac comes on the fans come on as well!

BTW running off the key it was cooler than the stock fan.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Qwik, but I need a testimonial from someone in the south that sees some hot weather too...

-Casey

 

[Interex_87]

http://users3.ev1.net/~hmillerjr/DSM_Fans/

Can't really say if the fans really kept the car cool though since I had a BHG causing overheating. Many others have been successful with the DSM fans.

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

Driving in stop and go traffic in NYC is the ultimate buddy. It doesnt get any hotter than this anywhere. Have you ever been to NY on a hot day and tried driving. The heat is searing and bumper to bumper traffic can kill any cooling system not up to par period. I bet many cars that think they are ok will have a hard time beeing cool in the streets of Manhattan and the Long Island expressway and the Cross Bronx expressway in the summer in NEW YORK CITY. Also dont forget NY heat is humid. This even makes cooling more of a challenge!

 

[Guest]

Can anyone explain how to hook these up with a fail safe overide? I have the Contour fans and need to know exactly what to go buy and from where to run them on a 91 turbo with an overide so if the sensor, relay or whatever goes south the fans will be on automaticly by default. What do I buy and how do I set it up? Relays have me confused and how to set them up is even more confusing to me. Not an electrician.

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

Buy the hayden relay switch and it gives step by step set up for all wiring including switched manual override. Pepboys sels it I think its relay 5671 not sure though. Just ask for hayden relay switch. It cost 26.00. The set up is really easy. It only plugs into the relay one way and then you run one red to the battery and one to a keyed switch and then it has two wires for the fans positive and you make the ground wire wherever you see fit.

 

[Guest]

i had a 14" Perma cool electric fan on a stock toyota radiator. that's here in San Antonio, Texas. i installed it around late winter early spring. that means it was roughly low to mid 70's climate. it did fine. now once it started getting up in the upper 80's i noticed the temps rising..... nowhere near overheating though. but in the summer once it got up in the upper 90's low 100's it couldn't keep up. everytime i was at a stoplight, or sitting in traffic i was in trouble. the needle would start to shoot up touching the red at some points. i couldn't wait to start moving so i could get some kind of air flow through that radiator. i did not have a bhg either. it simply just couldn't keep up.

i can only speak for my personal experience. i had the 14" perma cool fan with stock radiator, and stock shroud. i also had an adjustable temp probe. after fooling around with different settings i just had it on the lowest setting possible. still didn't make a difference. i gave up on it and put my stocker back on. didn't have a problem ever since.

now electric fans may work really good with an upgraded radiator like the one you're about to purchase. so just try it. now is the time to do it since Aug. is the hottest month here in Texas. Let us know how it works. if it doesn't work then put the stocker back on. good luck.

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

The perma cool 14 in fan doesnt come close to the dual contour fans. Trust me Ive seen them. The dual fans are more than enought to keep the engine cool! The perma cool fan should have been 16" according to perma cool guide for the supra. These two fans arent even in the same league! I ran one fan and it keeps the temps down. Two fans in parallel kept the tempts cooler than the stock fan. No one is suggesting going to a perma cool 14" fan.
Yours didnt work and understandabley so. Here in New York its 85-90 degrees daily. However its very humid. Unlike 90 degree dry texas heat. With humidity at 70-80% on a 85-90 degree day Most cars with bad cooling systems fail, especially in stop and go traffic. My radiator is just an all metal radiator stock replacement.
Without a relay shut off and temp probe dual fans on this setup all the time will be over kill IMO.There is a whole thread about this if you would like to try it research the thread! Lots of forum guys bought this fan and this I know from talking to the guy who sold them. Once the word got out they went fast! If I were you Id research this first, But then again for 50.00 bucks and a direct fit you cant go wrong.

 

[Larry_A]

Someone please explain to me how humidity affects the cooling sys. I don't buy it. Humidity makes people sweat, not cars.

I've experienced 114°F Arizona in my Supra with the 14" PermaCool fan + OE aux efan on the same circuit. With AC on, this setup worked fine for me. This was before the 53mm cored Koyo rad went in.

One thing I've noticed about cooling sys threads- the results from people vary too much to generalize. I would recommend foregoing testimonials & just implement your targeted setup, then see how well it works, & go from there. Don't forget that help on this forum tends to be highly opinionated, which precludes clarity much of the time.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Larry,

I have to agree on much of what you said. 110 plus in texas sucks. And humidity isn't always a factor. Its definately not as humid here as it is in a costal city. I would honestly think that humidity would help a cars cooling, but I could be wrong. It would seem like the water in the air would help dissapate more heat then straight air.

Sorry QWIK, but in no way does NY traffic driving compare to Dallas, Texas traffic driving *although there is MORE actual traffic in NY*. NY is a fairly moderate climate. I remember a few years ago when there was a heat wave in NY (could've been somewhere else I can't remember) and all those people were dying from the fact that thier houses never had An A/C just a heater. Here in Texas everyone and everything MUST have an A/c. All restaurants, bars, blah everything. And when you go to a theme park where you are outside alot they have misters while you wait in line but its still hot as HELL. How many times does it go over 100 degrees in NY? In Texas it goes over 100 every day in the summer.

-Casey

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

Hello teacher Larry A. In the humid temps it not about sweating although it is comparable that humid air cools less when blown than hot dry air. I sell a lot of coolling units in refigeration and for sure humidity makes a difference and a viable impact on whether something will cool. When humidity is thrown in the mix its more of a challenge than dry air to cool something. I agree on the targeted set up and varying opinions teacher. I could be wrong and it would be interesting to see if humidity does impede cooling.
Just as larry said just do a test and my opinion of the contours fans bbeing stonger than perma cools fans stand! The decision is yours.

BTW are you really going to take down your great inspiring page.

 

[AllanL]

is a ford contour otherwise known as the ford focus? or compleatly different??? and is anyone selling some of these??

Allan

 

[Guest]

There was a guy selling contour fans on ebay and no a contour and a focus are two TOTALLY different cars. A contour looks like a Taurus.

-Casey

P.S.- Where's shawndude? Maybe he'll know if humidity effects cooling of an engine or efficiency of a radiator.

 

[Guest]

LOL, here I am, ready to blabber about something basically meaningless in the scope of things.
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A humid air, has higher heat capacity than dry air. Therefore it will cool your radiator more, than dry air.

However from my understanding, in this specific case of running that air through our radiators, it basically makes no difference (the change is very small).

As QWIKSTRIKE observes, it makes a large difference in air conditioning systems, since lots of the capacity is used up in condensing the water vapour, instead of cooling the air (cool air cannot hold as much moisture as hot air, hence it condenses using up energy of the AC unit). It's easier to air condition dry air, than moist one. This same principle does not apply to cooling off our radiators.

Obviously cooling of human beings, and effect of humidity is an entirely different matter entirely.

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A much bigger effect is altitude. Roughly you loose 3% capacity per 1000 feet of elevation. That is a significat chunk, especially since you usually happen to be driving UP big hills, during high altitude driving. Some car manufactures even offer "high altitude" cooling systems, just for this.

I'm at sea level, and can drive to around 4 - 7000 feet, in about 2-3 hours! It also happens to be usually stinking hot up there, during summer (well over 100F), so it makes a nice stress test for my car.
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But all in all, these are fairly small differences, and if ones cooling system is so inadequate that it makes you overheat, then something is broken, worn out, or missing to begin with.

Cheers.