I am having heating problems running my v6 electric fan on my 350 swap 87 camaro. Dont worry, this is not with driving it on the road but around my dads yard I'm having problems getting hot. I can buy two electric fans for $130 but I would rather for $40 buy a mechanical fan. Do a lot of the third gen owners out there still run mechanical fans and have no problems with getting too hot?

 

Since you are still running your v-6 fan set-up, is it safe to assume that you are still running the v-6 radiator also? If so, the radiator is probably more of the problem than the fan. There are advantages and disadvantages of both types of cooling fans. I currently have an 86 that came with a single electric fan. With everything else in good shape the single fan struggled to keep the car cool. I swapped to a dual fan set-up, wired it up on an aftermarket temp sensor, which controls a heavy duty relay, that turns on both fans together. The car runs a lot cooler, and will maintain 200 degrees or under even during strenous conditions. The down side of having two fans is the electrical load on the car. The two fans pull about 20 amps, add in the A/C fan at 25 amps, another 8 amps for the lights, and 15 more amps for misc stuff like the wipers, radio, ect., and guess what, your altenator is running at maximum capicity. My car runs well, but with everything on, and idling, the volt meter drops to 9 volts, because the altenator is not generating enough power to run everything. In the long run it will shorten the life of the altenator. The positive side of the electric fans are that they free-up, some horsepower, which is great if you are racing. As for the mechanical fan, I have owned three 1983 T/A's, all with mechanical fans. Two of the three had cooling issues at one time or another. The first one, I bought new in the fall of 1982. The car ran so hot, that it cracked a head, and warped the block. GM put a new engine in at 3500 miles, only to have the new one run hot also. After six months of debates with the factory and the dealer, I got a recall notice from Pontiac. Some of the early 83's got v-6 radiators by accident during assembily. GM put a new heavy duty three flu radiator in the car, and cured all of it's cooling problems. The second 83 T/A was drowned in a flood when it was a week old, so we don't know much about it. The third 83 T/A was bought new as the the 84's were arriving at the dealerships. I kept the car until 2003. Replaced the stock aluminum radiator with a three flu brass unit when the car was 18 years-old. The car ran at or under 195 degrees all of the time, even in 100 + summer heat with the A/C on. Hope this helps you to decide. Charles

 

I actually got a v8 radiator, sorry for forgetting to point that out. Once I got the radiator I used the old fan from my 2.8 which, will slowly allow my temperature to increase. I know that the electric fans are better, but with a v8 radiator will the mechanical fan keep it cool? Also, what about just running a single v8 electric fan? How would that run in comparison to a single mechanical fan for price, horsepower, and electrical use. I personally do not use A/C in my camaro, and I currently do not have a radio but will purchase one soon hopefully. I did not buy the high performance alternator either which sucks cause I just bought one two weeks ago....

Thanks

 

i personally like mechanical fan, works great, cant break or fail like electric, sounds cool, no wiring, never really have to worry about heat problems in alaska in summer it doesnt get nuclear

 

I live in Michigan, so I have fair summers. More humid than anything really. I just want to take the cheaper route, but not cheap to the point where I could cause problems, understand? So, I can spend half the money, and you say it works just as well if not better?

 

I just removed my plastic fly swatter fan and swapped to an electric. One from a '94 Taurus. I like the way it works, no fan drag on the highway (with the air dam doing its job), and only occasional cycling when around town. Better efficiency, and it doesn't ROAR when driving around like with the mech fan.
Check a recent thread about mech to electric fan, I posted in it. It's got all the info you need if you're thinking about going that route.

If your V6 stock electric fan lets the car overheat when driving around the yard, something isn't right.

 

My 86 came with a single electric fan. It was not sufficient to keep the car cool under any circumbstances. Even with a brand-new 3 flu brass radiator, new 195 t-stat, new hoses, correct anti-freeze mixture, air dam intact, not running the A/C, the car still would creep up until it was running around 240. Running at highway speeds kept the car cool, about 195, so it was obviously an air flow problem. The factory dual fan set-up helped a lot, keeping the car @ 195 most of the time, with occational times of strenous use seeing 205. Since I am trying to keep my car as stock, and in museum condition, I am not going to modify it any more than it is already, however if I were building a car like you are, I would use the best set-up for that application. Although the mechanical fan uses some horsepower, I prefer it because of it's simplicity. A stock fan with a fan clutch moves more cubic feet of air per minute than any stock electric set-up. Some of the aftermarket electric fans move more air then a mechanical fan, however as you know the prices can be staggering. Flex fans pull air well at slow RPM's but just flatten out and make a lot of noise at high RPM's which is where uou need your cooling the most. If I were building a non-stock street rod, the mechanical fan will probably do a very satisfactory job. The parts should be readily available and you will not have to modify your wiring. Charles

 

I have seen that there are others here on the forums that have the same(or near same) views of mechanical clutch fan setups. I myself have the stock HD mechanical clutch fan system on my 83z and could have not asked for anything better for this car. Yes I understand I am losing HP with this setup, but the fact of loosing HP is nowhere near as reoccurring in my mind as the confidence that my car NEVER overheats. The car never gets above 195, even in the horrid heat we are having right now in the southern midwest (above 100 degrees all week long) As I read this forum section over and over again, I can bet you 5-6 threads out of 15 are the car is overheating, the fan is not comming on, and the problem seems to lie somewhere in the electric fan set-up. Even when you have an instance where the vehicle has a perfectly functioning dual fan setup, there are still even people saying the car still is getting hot. Don't get me wrong, there are vehicles out there that don't run hot at all and have electric fans, so I am not electric fan hating. I just think that the overall design behind an electric fan setup in our third-gens was set up very poorly. As stated, the piece of mind knowing my car won't overheat far overwheighs the fact I lost 20 HP. So my vote goes to buying an upper and lower fan shroud and purchasing a clutch fan setup.


Cheers!!!

 

My car runs in the 240* range, with the electric fan installed, compared to the 180* with the mech fan. *HOWEVER*, that's due to the fact I used a factory fan switch, which kicks in at a high temp. As soon as the fan turns on, the temp plummets quickly. Once the low temp switch gets here, i'll be back at normal temps.

I do agree though, a mech fan is so simple and cheap. I always fear popping a fuse, or burning out my relay/solenoid and having no fan at all.... It's pretty hard to screw up a mechanical fan, short of sticking your hand in there while it's running..... Come to think of it, the fan would probably still be fine, but you'd be rather unhappy...

 

Are you refuring to me running ok with a mechanical fan? Because that is currently what i am leaning towards. Also, when you said the v6 electric fan overheating....do you mean that because of it theres a problem with my car or is that a normal thing?

 

Yea, I don't think you should be able to overheat with an electric fan properly set up. There might be something wrong there.
Stop and go traffic it's nearly impossible to beat an electric fan setup, with a mech setup.
A mech fan is fine, but it won't solve pre-existing problems. Ie plugged rad, etc.

 

This isnt even stop and go traffic. This is driving it around the yards for 10 minutes and it rising to around 235*

 

Sonix is correct, sounds like you have other problems that need to be addressed. 86ws6 also has some good suggestions.

 

Is it possible to route both an electric and mechanical setup?

 

You could use a mechanical puller and an electric pusher, but why would you need to?

 

Just a thought after I get the mechanical fan on. If I'm still having problems with overheating i was wondering if I could route both, and if it was a decent idea.

 

If you can't keep it cool with a mechanical fan then airflow isn't your problem and adding an electric fan won't fix anything.

 

Should I buy a spacer for the mechanical fan to allow it to pull more hot air and put it closer to the radiator?



ALSO! I forgot to mention there is only water in my car, no coolant yet. Does that make a big difference?

 

No, the factory clutch will locate the fan blades perfectly in the factory shroud.

Don't run the engine with only water. It will have a much lower boiling point than a proper coolant mixture, and it will corrode the block.

 

I have a flex-a-lite which does not have the fan clutch. And I plan on draining the block soon and putting 50/50 in it

 

If you've got a direct-drive fan, then you'd want to use a spacer to locate it properly in the shroud.

A clutch fan would be better than a direct drive flex fan.

 

If you try to run both electric and mechanical fans, the total Cubic Feet Per Minute will be limited by the fan with the smaller output, acting to restrict the available air flow to the larger fan. I have owned a couple of trucks that had both types, however the electric fan was small, usually occuping one corner of the radiator, and set-up as an auxillary unit. If you are thinking about a mechanical set-up, use a stock shroud, stock fan, with a brand new fan clutch, one that operates from centrifical force as well as from tempature, that way the fan will coast under hard acceleration or when the tempature is low. Good Luck! Charles