So I'm planning on completly tearing my engine and tranny out of my car to clean them up real good, chrome the engine out and put a dress up kit on it while replacing all the gaskets and seals (Got a bad oil leak atm).

My question is, should I stick with the electric fan that's in there now, which is working fine, other than being constantly on as soon as the key turns over, drains A LOT of juice from the battery if the car isn't on, or switch to the flex fan attacked to the front of the engine that is only on when my engine is on.

I know I can get a flex fan for pretty damn cheap, so all I have to do is after we yank the engine out, slap it on and swap out the radiators. I'm just curious, because the electric fan kills me when say... car is off, but you want to listen to the radio while your girl is doing something, you're waiting forever and when you go to start the car the battery doesn't have enough juice to crank because the whole time you had the key on that damn fan was running. lol. Happened to me once already, never happened again.

Thoughts?

 

The electric fan should only be on when the ignition is in 'run' and the fan switch is above it's setpoint and/or AC on. Does your accessory position for the ignition switch work? One click back from 'off'? Should power the radio without allowing the fan to run. If the fan's been wired differently, I'd fix that back.

The electric fan will work fine and keeping it won't require finding another shroud. That's the way I'd go. I swapped my '85 to a stock style electric years ago, saw a mileage improvement and have been loving it since.

 

It is more efficient and cost effective if the electric is wired right. It also saves on wear on the water pump.

 

Well, the fan is set up now to switch on as soon as the car gets power, wether the engine is running or not. How do I change that?

 

I'm assuming you have the single fan setup? Sounds like somebody ghetto-wired your fan to be on all the time, very very common. Look on the driver side firewall for a series of relays. The one with a Big black wire, Big red wire, little black wire, and little green wire is the fan relay. The green wire goes to the fan switch screwed into the passenger side head between cylinders #6 and #8. I think the black one is for the AC pressure switch. Grounding out either of these wires will close the relay and activate the fan. See if that has been done.

If so, remove the ghetto ground and test the system by turning on your AC. It should close the relay and activate the fan. If you have the factory fan switch in the passenger side head it won't turn the fan on due to temperature until a very high temperature, GM engineered these cars to run very hot. If you have a problem with this you can buy an aftermarket fan switch that activates the fan at a much more reasonable temperature.

 

I just want the fan to be on when the engine is running. I want it to run like a flex fan would. I never have to worry about the engine getting too hot because the fan is constantly on when it's running. I DONT want it on when I just have the car on and not the engine running.

Also, last owner ripped out almost everything as far as the AC goes, so I'm lacking right now. I know nothing about AC and neither do any of my family or friends and I'm a little scared to find out exactly how much a shop would charge to put it back in lol.

 

You should be, lol.

So the fan runs with the key in ACC mode? (Turned toward you) Because that's what you should be using when you want to listen to the radio with the engine off. Key-ON the car expects the engine to be running most of the time so if you want a hot-wired fan like then then you will have to deal with it being on with key-ON.

Why do you think you need it running all the time? That is not necessary. Once you are going over 35-40 mph the fan becomes a restriction anyway.

 

No, my ignition doesn't do that. It turns over, away from me, and then once more the start the engine. I thought it was weird, but every third gen I've ever gotten into and drove did this so I didn't think much of it.

 

There is no easy way to get the fan running only when the engine is running.

The three easy options are you either run it the correct way, you run it how you have it now, or you set up a manual switch in the interior to turn it off and on.

 

Mine is set up to only run when the engine is running. When I am in ACC, the fan is off. When I crank it, the fan comes on and stays on till the engine is off. I'm not sure how it is wired, but it is super ghetto. I'll try and trace thee wiring. Actually, does anyone know of an analog way to cut the fan on the highway? I was thinking a switch to cut it off in 4th gear only. Thoughts?