Has anyone changed to an electric radiator fan?

Hendo · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:52 pm

It’s my first Jeep and the fuel consumption is rubbish low twenties from a 2.5 CRD.
There no fault codes and the MAP sensor is clean as a whistle?
Has anyone fitted a Kenlowe fan or similar? Does it improve mpg and the ponies under the bonnet by much?
I’ve always had Land Rovers and it’s not uncommon to swap to an electric fan to get in to the 30mpg range.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:23 pm

Mine has a 2 speed electric cooling fan with an engine driven fan with a viscous clutch. Strange.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:35 pm

Green Diesel Engineering is currently testing a CRD with the clutch-driven fan removed. I'm anxiously awaiting the results. An electric fan is the way to go...and since our CRDs do have one, it would be sweet if it were adequate to do the job alone.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:46 pm

LibertyCRD wrote:

Green Diesel Engineering is currently testing a CRD with the clutch-driven fan removed. I'm anxiously awaiting the results. An electric fan is the way to go...and since our CRDs do have one, it would be sweet if it were adequate to do the job alone.

Like I said earlier, I do have one...factory. Perhaps it is part of my towing package.

edit....MY Bad. I totally missread your post.

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:04 pm

As far as I know, all CRDs have the electric fan and the belt driven fan. In warm weather, the belt driven fan will be needed. I've looked into it in the past for other vehicles and the math just doesn't work for an engine with the output of the CRD.

CRD Joe · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:47 pm

It would be cool to throw in a Flex-a-lite electric fan and bugger out that power robbing belt jobber.

Hendo · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:19 pm

This is what we would normaly fit in the UK to Land Rover and Jap stuff.
It's simular to the Flex-a-lite electric fans that you get in the US.

http://www.kenlowe.co.uk/

NJCRD · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:48 pm

I posted this same question over the summer and have researched the matter since.
The misconception is that we do have an electric fan. We have an electric air conditionor condensor fan. It does very little to effect the overall cooling of our jeeps.
Since I'm between jobs the fun add ons have been put on hold but the plan is to get a dodge viper electric fan from mopar parts america. The wiring is pretty similiar and if a 500+hp $80,000 viper uses an electric fan only then it should easily cool our diesels.
I will be curious to see what green diesel finds. After all, there isn't a high end performance car built that uses a mechanical fan. Takes away power.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:58 pm

NJCRD wrote:

I posted this same question over the summer and have researched the matter since.
The misconception is that we do have an electric fan. We have an electric air conditionor condensor fan. It does very little to effect the overall cooling of our jeeps.
Since I'm between jobs the fun add ons have been put on hold but the plan is to get a dodge viper electric fan from mopar parts america. The wiring is pretty similiar and if a 500+hp $80,000 viper uses an electric fan only then it should easily cool our diesels.
I will be curious to see what green diesel finds. After all, there isn't a high end performance car built that uses a mechanical fan. Takes away power.

Call it what you like, but in the shop manual, it is listed as a 2 speed electric raditor cooling fan, and when it kicks on, I can see a reduction of temp on my temp guage if it were showing above the half way line. Vehicle not equiped with AC still have them. Various sensors allow it to turn on since it is controled by the PCM.

flman · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:21 pm

Hendo wrote:

This is what we would normaly fit in the UK to Land Rover and Jap stuff.
It's simular to the Flex-a-lite electric fans that you get in the US.

http://www.kenlowe.co.uk/

Jap stuff? :roll:

What do you call us Yanks over there? Yanks? LOL

Hey welcome to the Forum :JEEPIN:

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:31 pm

I wonder why a Jeep with only 160 HP would have an electric fan AND a clutch-driven fan?

On my Ram 1500, I took the clutch-driven fan off and replaced it with a Flex-A-Lite 180 e-fan. Even in 100 degree heat towing a trailer the temp. never got above 220 degrees (the truck ran at 215 with the clutch fan). I would think that an electric fan only should suffice just fine on the Jeep.

The main difference is that the Flex-A-Lite was mounted between the radiator and engine and pulled some serious air through the raidator....whereas the stock Jeep e-fan is going to be trying to push air. I have heard that pushers are not as effective.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:13 pm

LibertyCRD wrote:

I wonder why a Jeep with only 160 HP would have an electric fan AND a clutch-driven fan?

On my Ram 1500, I took the clutch-driven fan off and replaced it with a Flex-A-Lite 180 e-fan. Even in 100 degree heat towing a trailer the temp. never got above 220 degrees (the truck ran at 215 with the clutch fan). I would think that an electric fan only should suffice just fine on the Jeep.

The main difference is that the Flex-A-Lite was mounted between the radiator and engine and pulled some serious air through the raidator....whereas the stock Jeep e-fan is going to be trying to push air. I have heard that pushers are not as effective.

IDK. Maybe 5000# tow rating???

MrMopar64 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:31 am

The problem is that the gas truck doesn't have the A/C Condenser, Charge Air Cooler, and Radiator all stacked in a line - the gas trucks have teh rad on one side of the grille opening and the AC condenser on the other.

At WOT in warm ambient when you're towing, the charge air cooler is rejecting a lot of heat into the air, hence why you need the airflow supported by the engine-driven clutch fan. The E-fan is really only good for A/C performance in stop and go traffic (it will have some effect on coolant temps, but not much in the grand scheme of things). If all you're doing is "grocery getting" and not doing any towing, ditching the clutch fan would be fine. If you're going to tow, I've yet to see an "aftermarket" fan that would keep up with it.

In a perfect world, the pusher fan and the engine fan would be both replaced by a Vistronic fan drive (electrically-controlled engine-driven fan). This would allow for the best of both world. The vistronic fan also has better energy properties in terms of its impact on fuel consumption since it can completely unlock if the controls are sent in such a manner.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:36 am

Yea, many times when I'm just trotting around town, the E fan never kicks on. Not so in my Mustang GT. That thing sounds like a turbine spooling up when it's on.

tonycrd · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:22 pm

Hendo,

Mate, you been had. Either it's not a 2005 model or they swapped the engine before you bought it.

The 2.5 series died in 2004. Only 2.8 from then on.

Anyway, be it a 2.5 or a 2.8, they do 10 to 11 Ltr /100km's. Fitting an electrical fan won't do anything IMO.

A KJ weighs 2000Kg....

Hendo · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:21 pm

Hi TonyCrd

It’s a 2.5 and orginal it was registered in September 2005 as with all manufactures there a cross over period. Late 2005 early 2006 is when we started to see the 2.8 crd in the UK, we must have had all the old stock sent over.

To flman

Yes mate you are Yank’s

dgeist · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:09 pm

MrMopar64 wrote:

In a perfect world, the pusher fan and the engine fan would be both replaced by a Vistronic fan drive (electrically-controlled engine-driven fan). This would allow for the best of both world. The vistronic fan also has better energy properties in terms of its impact on fuel consumption since it can completely unlock if the controls are sent in such a manner.

That's pretty neat: http://www.ets.borgwarner.com/PDFs/Visctronic-Auto-DirAct.pdf All we need is an ECU that can run it (or a reasonable faximilie therof...

dieseldoesit · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2011 5:29 pm

bringing up an old post, but has anyone figured this one out yet? Been ready the GDE forums about removing the clutch fan and seeing a nice increase in MPG. Would love to be able to make a modification and see some of the gains here.

mdalien · **Joined:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:22 pm **Posts:** 41

Just disconnect the electric fan in the front and connect the Visctronic to the feed.
My electric fried and I removed it. Still have problems getting the viscous to engage, and it is new

mdalien · **Joined:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:22 pm **Posts:** 41

Just disconnect the electric fan in the front and connect the Visctronic to the feed.
My electric fried and I removed it. Still have problems getting the viscous to engage, and it is new

Has anyone changed to an electric radiator fan?

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