SD electric fans in my OBS

[strokin'_tatsch]

Not quite finished yet, but should finish up tonight.

I know a bunch of y'all are probably electric fan haters, but please save all the bickering saying "this won't work for towing" and such.

This has been a surprisingly easy mod to get done. I picked up the fans and radiator really cheap, so I couldn't not give it a shot. Overall it has been quite a bit easier than doing an IC in an OBS. Once I get it finished up, I intend to do a write up on it, so stay tuned. :blitzed:

SD Flex-a-lite fans and SD radiator:

 

[Tom S]

I know Steve was interested in this

 

[strokin'_tatsch]

The SD radiator and Flex-a-lite fan swap is DONE!!! Overall I'm very happy with them so far. The engine seems a bit snappier than before and it warms up a little quicker, but the real test will be when summer hits again b/c during the summer my stock fan/clutch used to annoy the heck out of me.

It cools pretty good. During this project, I also swapped out the early model water pump for a later model pump with the 195* t-stat to get away from the 203* b/c I'm tired of seeing my oil temps venture up around 220*+ when I'm running the truck hard. In the winter it's not a problem, I usually never see more than 212* or so oil temp in this weather. Now with the e-fans, SD radiator, and 195* t-stat, I ran it as hard as I could without a trailer tonight and oil temp never got over 198*.

I never hook up to any really heavy loads. The most I ever pull may be 12k at most, but I will be pulling my F-150 again soon, so we'll see how it does with that, but like I said before... The real test will be loaded in the summer and I'm confident that it will do just fine. I will get my pictures sorted out of the swap and do a write up in a few weeks. I didn't get as many pictures as I hoped, but I will do my best to make it easy for others who may want to do this swap.

 

[DZL JIM]

I went with the 203° stat from Diesel Site only becasue I could not find a quality stat that would last. Parts store stats only lasted a few weeks at most.
I see my oil temps at 215° in the winter just cruising.
Makes me want to try a 195° again, just to see what oil temps will do, I did not ahve a gauge when I had the stock stat.
Where did you get your T-stat?

 

[strokin'_tatsch]

I went with the 203° stat from Diesel Site only becasue I could not find a quality stat that would last. Parts store stats only lasted a few weeks at most.
I see my oil temps at 215° in the winter just cruising.
Makes me want to try a 195° again, just to see what oil temps will do, I did not ahve a gauge when I had the stock stat.
Where did you get your T-stat?

Right now I just have a Napa t-stat in it, but I don't expect it to last.. Then again I didn't expect my last t-stat from O'reilly's to last 5 years with no issues either. I would've gotten one from Ford if I wanted the longevity, but I'm only running it for the winter to get a closer comparison of the radiator and fans to what I used to have before I put my 180* t-stat in from Joey. Just to see if the larger radiator and e-fans make any cooling difference.

So far, it seems like it cools a little better than before. Cruising down the road at 65mph today for about 45 minutes, 40* outside, oil temp stayed at 198-199* and water stayed right around 204-205*.

Cruising at 85mph(2600-2700 RPM) oil got up to 202* and water got to 209*. The fans should start running at 100% speed at 208* water temp and I'm pretty sure I saw that on the gauges. When it got to 208*, oil temp kept coming up very slowly, while water stayed at 208*. It did bump up to 209* for a minute or so on good hill, but it came back to 208* on the other side. Once I backed off to 65mph again, it did drop the temps back down quicker than it did before.