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Thermostatic switch for electric fans?

sled_dog

sled_dog

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Anyone know where I could get a thermostatic switch for an electric fan setup? I was riding with a buddy in his Ranger yesterday and he has the nice Flex-A-Lite fan setup on his rig with a Thermostatic switch. Made me realize I need to go ahead and get one of these setups but I don't care in the least for spending the hundreds on a Flex-A-Lite setup. So either I will source a junkyard fan setup or buy them through work(Ford Dealer). But either way I want a thermostatic switch to control the fan relay. Anyone?
 
would prefer a coolant passage mounted one, but thats along the lines of what I'm looking for, thanks.
 
doh there is a whole section in the Summit "Cooling and Heating" section that has Thermal Fan Switches.
 
That one will never shut off once the engine gets up to operating temp.
I have the 185 off one from painless and with my 195 t-stat it never shuts off.
I'm going to get an adjustable one that I can set the on and off temps.
 
I know, I know, but I've never understood why an adjustable fan switch is worth anything.

Pick the temp you want the fan to turn on/off at, get that switch, get the right thermostat, and forget about it.

Apparently quite a bit of variety in OEM fan switches, Grand National I heard had the lowest of all GM stuff.
 
So far all I have found is a 185 off switch.
I suppose I could drop that 180 t-stat back in, but my engine seems to prefer the 195 t-stat.
Which is why I am leaning more towards an adjustable one.
 
local napa has been good to me about letting me browse through their echlin catalog, it lists on/off temps etc.

Check out the GN one, IIRC it was right around 195*.

Personally I think an on temp of about 15-20* over t-stat rated temp is just about right. Any less and it cycles too often, wasting the efficiency of an electric fan, and making unnecessary noise and hardship on the chargining system.
 
sled_dog said:
uhh it says it goes in "the fins of the radiator"
Click to expand...
Well, its wrong. See the little rubber piece on the right side of the picture, that goes in between the hose and the radiator and the probe wire slips inside of it. The reason I know is because I bought it and I am using it on my truck.
I didnt notice it said that it went throught the fins though.

flx-31147.jpg
 
gotcha, still much rather spend a few dollars more and get something that threads into a water passege...
 
Using the coolant temp is a good way to control fans as long as you make your turn-on temperature higher than your thermostat temperature. Using the temp of the radiator does make sense, though, since the fans don't do any good unless the radiator is hot. You just don't want to take the temp right by the water inlet, since that is hot whenever there is the smallest amount of coolant flowing from the thermostat. If you mount your temp sensor in the fins of the rad, the fans may cylce on and off rather quickly. Unless you are flowing a lot of coolant, like pulling a trailer through the desert, the radiator temp drops really fast when the fans kick in. This might actually maximize the efficiency of the fans.
 
Blue85 said:
Using the coolant temp is a good way to control fans as long as you make your turn-on temperature higher than your thermostat temperature. Using the temp of the radiator does make sense, though, since the fans don't do any good unless the radiator is hot. You just don't want to take the temp right by the water inlet, since that is hot whenever there is the smallest amount of coolant flowing from the thermostat. If you mount your temp sensor in the fins of the rad, the fans may cylce on and off rather quickly. Unless you are flowing a lot of coolant, like pulling a trailer through the desert, the radiator temp drops really fast when the fans kick in. This might actually maximize the efficiency of the fans.
Click to expand...

You make a good point. My radiator has a temp sensor built into it(Corvette single core aluminum radiator for the V8 S10 swap), wonder if that sensor would work. That would be ideal now that I think about what you just said.
 
Blue85 said:
Using the coolant temp is a good way to control fans as long as you make your turn-on temperature higher than your thermostat temperature. Using the temp of the radiator does make sense, though, since the fans don't do any good unless the radiator is hot. You just don't want to take the temp right by the water inlet, since that is hot whenever there is the smallest amount of coolant flowing from the thermostat. If you mount your temp sensor in the fins of the rad, the fans may cylce on and off rather quickly. Unless you are flowing a lot of coolant, like pulling a trailer through the desert, the radiator temp drops really fast when the fans kick in. This might actually maximize the efficiency of the fans.
Click to expand...
Mine has worked great, havent had a problem with it cycling on and off. Turns on when I need it to and turns off when it cools down. I think you guys are analyzing it a little to much. I used to have a sensor that went in the radiator fins and it worked pretty much the same way.
 
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