I just read the tech article on the fan and i realized that I do not want to go through all of that crap. All I want is to put on a switch so I can turn on my single fan when I want it to come on. Is that possible and which wires do I hook it up to? Where are these wires located? Thanks.

Eric
p.s. The car runs to 220* by the time I make it through the staging lanes to the starting line and I am losing time because of it.

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Teal 1991 Camaro R.S., T-Tops,
Leather, Re-worked 700r4 also w/kit,
MSD ignition, MSD 8.5 mm. superconductor wires,
MSD Coil, ADS superchip, Open element air cleaner,
K-n-N filter, Gutted cat, Flowmaster cat-back system,
Edelbrock TES headers, March 3piece billet underdrive pulleys
3.73 gears
http://www.geocities.com/gitarz2/camaro.html
I was shocked to see that companies sold a taillight
set for a rustang! Since when do they have taillights????

 

Its really easy to do. Run a wire from the fan switch (in the passenger side cylinder head) to a switch in your dash. Then connect the other side of the dash switch to ground.

While your at it, get a fan switch from a 87 GN. It comes on at 203° instead of 226°.

 

I have the same car you have...or at least the single fan.The wires are closer then you think.Goto your friendly Radio Shack and get a nice looking switch for your car.One that will not explod at 12+ volts.Then get some long heavy duty wires.Now,the wires you need to short are right next to your battery.Go to the fan and locate the two wires. Look at the one with the negative. cut the middle of it ,just until you see the wire.be careful and not cut the entire wire.connect the wire that you bought and connect it to the positive terminal of the battery.Watch the rotation of the fan..it must be counter-clock wise...if it is clockwise then you got the wrong wire.try the other wire connected to the positive terminal of the wire.then engineer the wires to your liking location.!sorry for the lack of discripton.

 

cool. That seems easy. Will the switch from the GN fit right into the place of the old one? That would be great. just a wire from the switch (i am going to splice one in) to a toggle somewhere in the car and the other terminal of the toggle to a ground huh? seems easy. Thanks

Eric

 

I'd try the GN temp control before you hack the dash/harnes for a switch. IMO. t may be all you need!!!???

 

If it's only for the sake of e.t.s at the track, then here's a neat trick I figured out myself.

Assuming that you have A/C, unplug the connector on the back of the compressor. Then when you turn on the A/C in the car, the compressor won't come on, but the ECM will still raise the rpms slightly (like 100), and the fan will stay on all the time. It'll help keep the engine cool, without putting a load on the engine. Plus you won't drip water all over the track and **** people off.

Then plug it in when you leave and have a cool ride home. BTW, wrap the plug with elec. tape after you disconnect it so it doesn't ground out.

AJ

 

Dude, that is a good idea. I never thought of that. I used to run the ac in the staging lanes to cool it off but it never worked because like you said it loads the motor and always ran HOTTER. I will try that idea. Thanks. I have not converted over to r134 yet anyway so the ac does not work anyway. I can change it over for $31. Just not had the time.

Eric

 

What is a GN? So the fan switch will kick on at 203? Does it hook right up? Let me know!

 

what is a gn.. its a buick grand national and yes it will come on at 203 and yes it will hook right up

 

If you really want to cool the engine down more than is possible with the engine running, then wire the fan to a switch that will allow the fan to stay on with the ignition switch in the off position. This will cool the coolant in the radiator the most. First allow the engine to come back down as low as it will go then shut the engine off and keep the fan running for five or so minutes then turn the fan off till you are ready to move in the staging area. I have my 86iroc wired this way and when I run at an autocross event it sometimes cools it down to much,makes it go into open loop untill temp comes back up. Just another suggestion. Don't for get to turn the fan off and leave your car for long, when you come back the fan might be the only thing that turns after running your battery down to low to start your car.

Steve

 

The way I do it, if you leave the ignition key on with the engine off, the fan will run that way too. That way you don't accidently leave the fan on unless you leave the keys in the car.

The fan runs all the time with the A/C on, no matter what the operating temp of the engine. The coolant could be only 100 deg. and the fan will kick on as soon as you flip the A/C on.

No flames intended, just a different approach on how to do it. But if you plan on leaving the car alone, do it Steve's way. That way at least you'll still have a car there, even if the battery is dead.

 

Not to be rude but Brent and Firbird you guys are wrong about that 87 GN fan switch unless you didnt say a person needs something else to make it work. I went out and bought an 87 GN fan switch out of a v-6(looked everywhere in town for the v-8) Yes you guys were right about it fitting but it didnt even come on. I waited till about 245 for it to come on and never did. For some reason my factory fan switch is coming on at 200-210 for some reason...it has only done it once...we will see if it comes on again tommaro at the degs.

 

sorry about that if it did not turn on at the specified temp that is just what i herd and i am sorry if it caused you problems i just got a fan switch from jegs # 533-4026 Fan Switch, On @ 176°F/Off @ 166°F

 

Did you ever consider the possibility that you got a bad switch?

Did you test the switch you bought with a meter?

Did it ever occur to you that there is something else wrong with your cooling fan circuit?

Plenty other folks are using the GN switch. Its plug and play. Hell, its part of the ZZ4 f-body conversion package.

 

All these ideas floating around is cool but the easiest way is the single wire switch to the relay.
The fan relay is on the drivers side firewall (in the engine bay). You need to figure out which wire to tap into. It's going to be one of the smaller wires (duh). To find which relay is for the fan, turn on the AC and touch one of the relays, you can feel which one is turning on and off. Find the small ground switch wire using a multimeter and tap into that, run wire to switch and other side of switch to the chassis ground. This way if you forget to turn on the fan the stock switch will be your fail safe but if you're in the lanes you can just flick the switch to override.
Since everybody is spitting out different ideas, I'll tell you mine.
I'm working on getting the EGR switch to turn on my fan. I don't have EGR and EGR has on/off temp paramiters in the eprom. If I can nutralize all the EGR effects (timing, fuel, etc.) then I can just wireup the EGR lead to a relay. This way I can have complete control of the on and off temp of the fan.
I do like the idea with the AC, since I program eproms I can set my ac/on idle speed to be the same as normal idle . I can also adjust the "park" idle speed by lowering the IAC steps from 160 to about 40.

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, Jon (350 TBI!)
91 Red My website

 

As you all know i took out my factory fan switch to put a cooler switch in and didnt work so i put my factory switch back in and now the fan stays on all the time. Should i trust it to work and run all the time or get a JET fan switch 200 on and 185 off? I would say the fan switch is screwed up but in a good way but since its screwed it might go out on me. Im thinking about just geting the Jet fan switch because that way i know it wont screw up on me unless i get a bad one. What do you guys think? Whats makin it do that? Im really debating on this one cause my temp stayed about 165 in the city and on the highway. Let me know!